SMART NEWS

This Six-Year-Old Ran a Half Marathon in Under Three Hours

Keelan Glass finished her recent half marathon in 2:47:30

Contributor

October 23, 2013

In a few weeks, runners will gather in New York City for the ING New York City Marathon, the country’s largest. In about 15 years, those runners probably have some competition from this girl, a six-year-old who just ran a half marathon in under three hours.

(Not Keelan Glass) Image: RVWith Tito

Keelan Glass finished her recent half marathon in 2:47:30. Both her parents are runners and would train with her in a stroller. But Keelan eventually wanted to run herself. According to Keelan’s mom, they simply took the race little by little. She told KTXS:

“We got to mile six and I said ‘How do you feel?’ and she said ‘Great. Let’s run to eight.’ And I said ok. We ran to eight and when we got there, I said ‘How are you feeling?’ and she said ‘Great, we can go to mile 10.’ So we just kept going at her pace and on her time schedule.”

Keelan Glass isn’t the first child to run this far. Runner’s World says there are two other child runners that she’s contending with:

Matthew Feibush ran the Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon in 3:02:32 in May when he was 5, and at this month’s Dayton River Corridor Classic, 6-year-old Rosey Dunham finished her race in 2:35:23, 12 minutes faster than Glass.

But it’s certainly not common. If Keelan keeps it up, she’ll be leading the pack sooner than later—probably neck-and-neck with Rosey Dunham.