Setting a new world record for the Guinness Book of World Records isn't easy.

It was all for a good cause. The event was planned to raise funds for Cassie Cox, who is starting chemotherapy for the third time in four years for an inoperable brain tumor.

Besides, you wouldn't think it would be that hard to find 2,000 people who wanted to get wet when the temperatures are in the 90s. But on Saturday, when the last squirt gun had squirted, event organizers figured only about 1,400 turned out.

I did my part, taking my wife and four grandkids, three of whom were old enough to count. (You had to be six or older)

We had planned ahead by buying new squirt guns with a lot of water storage and enough power to hit a target at a fair distance.

Here are some of the things we learned:

1. It takes organization to set a record. The Guinness people are very picky, and demand an accurate count of those who participate in an event. Everyone who wanted to join in the squirt gun fight had to register and then obtain a wristband.

Even people who had registered on-line had to get a wristband, all of which took time. The actual fight didn't start until almost 45 minutes after the announced start time.

2. It's tough to manage 1,400 people with water pistols. I'm not saying the crowd was unruly, but I was soaked long before the fight ever started.

In order to set the record, we were divided into two teams, separated by a three-meter "no man's land." While we waited in the sun, many people got itchy trigger fingers. Many of them aimed their pistols at the back of my head.

3. Some folks love to soak people with gray hair. Kids just love to squirt grandpas. I had running battles going with four or five kids who would sneak up behind me, squirt me, and then retreat into the crowd.

It was OK, because I could usually find the kids and douse them, as well as the person they were hiding behind. That only seemed to encourage them to come back for more.

I get the same response at playgrounds when I'm chasing the grandkids around the big toy. More than once a kid I've never seen before calls me Grandpa, and tries to join in the fun.

4. Firehoses pack a lot of punch. Event organizers were wise in setting up several inflatable swimming pools to serve as refilling stations. But once the fight was on, anyone who needed to refill a gun had to brave the fire hose to do so. Firefighters were set up on the perimeter of the battlefield, dowsing anyone who came near.

This seemed counterproductive. We had to fight for five minutes to attempt a world record, and that meant everyone had to refill two or three times. I got a lot wetter filling up than I ever did on the front lines -- and I spent all the time I could in the front lines.

And not everyone in the fight wanted to get drenched in the cold water. The fire hose dampened my wife's spirit, and sent my 4-year-old granddaughter, Alyson, to the rear where she could wrap up in a towel and recover from the dowsing. Her older brothers and a cousin didn't seem to mind at all.

And when we returned the dripping grandkids to their parents, Alyson was full of fun stories about the water pistol fight and her part in it. But the fire hose seemed excessive.

5. If at first you don't succeed... We didn't break the record, but we still had a blast. With the lessons learned from this year's water gun fight, I think the Saratoga Splash organizers ought to go for the record again next year, and the year after, if necessary.

We were so close to making history. A few more water pistoleros, and the record could be ours.