6-Year-Old Sets Half Marathon Record, Raises Thousands of Dollars for Pro-Life Group

Keelan Glass has done something at age 6 that many adults can't say they've ever done or will ever do -- she ran a half marathon in less than three hours.

Keelan Glass after running a half marathon to raise money for a local pregnancy resource center. (Image source: Razoo)

Th 13.1-mile run, which the Texas girl did for pro-life causes, made her the youngest to ever do so. And she aspires for more.

According to The Dallas Morning News, the 3-foot, 5-inch, 35-pound girl wants to run 26.2 miles -- a full marathon -- by the time she's 10.

Glass completed her 2:46:31 run at The Showdown Half in Dallas on October 12.

How she manages to go the distance?

"'Cause God makes me keep on running," KTXS-TV reported the 6-year-old saying before her run had taken place.

Her mother, Tracey, a triathlete herself, was there every step of the way:

KTXS has more on how the half went down:

“We lined up next to the pacers for the two-and-a-half hour mark and one of the pacers said, ‘How many of you here are running your first half marathon?’ and Keelan raised her hand and he said ‘You're running?’ and she said ‘yeah.’ And he said 'The whole thing?' and she said, 'Uh-huh.'”

So how does a six-year-old go about running a marathon? One mile at a time.

“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,” Tracy said.

Keelan stopped to take photos at mile markers along the route.

The Association of Road Racing Statisticians now lists Keelan as the youngest to complete a half marathon.

Tracy said her daughter doesn't seem to realize what it means that she holds a world record for youngest person to complete a half marathon. What Keelan is focused on instead is the money she raised for the local pregnancy resource center.

According to KTXS, she raised $2,855 for Pregnancy Resources of Abilene as of October 17.

While the race itself did not have an age restriction, some have questioned whether Keelan was too young to run such a distance.

“There’s a lot of potential for bad things and not a lot of potential for exceptionally good things to happen,” pediatrician William Moore told the Morning News.

Tracy said before Keelan started training for the run, she and her husband consulted physicians.

As for the girl wanting to run a full marathon in just four years, Tracy is a bit more skeptical.

“Just because she could, I’m not sure that’s a good reason to,” Tracy told the Morning News. “Mom would have to do a lot more research before that happens.”

(H/T: Bleacher Report)

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