For seven miles on Saturday, Ben Dick ran next to his father. Then he ran away from him.
The 11-year-old finished the IU Health 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in 1:20:14, a time most adult runners spend years chasing. His father said it landed about three minutes off the reported world best for boys his age, which he put at 1:23:23. The 500 Festival’s race-day recap credits Ben as the youngest male to complete a half-marathon at that pace, noting the mark is unofficial.
His dad found out the hard way.
“We went through 7 and he, he just dropped me,” he told WTHR Channel 13 at the finish. “It was amazing.” Asked how that felt, he laughed. “There’s no getting dropped by your 11-year-old.”
Ben crossed the line in a red Park Tudor singlet, lime-green gloves and red racing shoes. His own description of the result was less dramatic. “I think it was like 1:2020 or something,” he said. He plans to remind his father about it. “I knew the day would come.”
The Dicks went in thinking the time was possible. Ben had run the local Polar Bear race at under six-minute mile pace, and his father said they’d checked the age-group mark beforehand. “He’s the one who did it, not me,” he said. Ben also beat him at last year’s Mini.
Saturday’s race marked the 50th running of the event, with around 30,000 registered participants from 23 countries and all 50 states, per the 500 Festival. The course starts and finishes downtown and runs a lap inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where plenty of runners stop at the Yard of Bricks to kiss them.
James Quattlebaum of Greenville, S.C., won the men’s race in 1:02:27. Rebecca Schmitt of Edgewood, N.M., took the women’s race in 1:10:10 and set a new course record. Matt Bohner of Wabash, Ind., won the Athletes with Disabilities division in 1:54:45. At the Delta Dental 500 Festival 5K, Drew Hunter (13:27.61) and Karissa Schweizer (14:59) won the USATF 5 km championships.
Ben’s age-group mark won’t appear in any official record book. World Athletics doesn’t ratify times for runners his age, and best-ever lists for kids are tracked informally. That hasn’t stopped the debate. The top reply on Marathon Handbook’s Instagram post about the run argued an 11-year-old shouldn’t be racing a half at all because his bones aren’t fully developed. Pediatric sports medicine guidance generally avoids a hard age cutoff and instead points to gradual mileage, recovery and individual readiness.
For context, Ben’s 1:20:14 averages just over six minutes per mile, well under the sub-1:30 target most adult runners chase. The current men’s half-marathon world record is 57:20, set by Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon this March.
Ben was asked how the day felt. “It feels great.”
