On a cool Thursday morning in Toronto, Brendan Neely, firefighter, father of two, and lifelong runner, strapped his 17-month-old son Jack into a jogging stroller and lined up on a track in Downsview Park. Minutes later, he’d run his way into the record books.
Neely clocked a blistering 2 minutes and 51 seconds for 1 kilometer, breaking the Guinness World Record for fastest 1K run while pushing a stroller by a staggering 28 seconds. The previous record, 3:19, had stood since 2022, set by the U.K.’s Jamie Hesford.
It all started last year with a simple thought that struck Neely during a family run: Is this a record people go after?
A bit of Googling confirmed it was — and that it was beatable. “I just thought, ‘Maybe there’s some sort of record or something,’” he told CTV News Toronto. So in August 2024, he reached out to Baby Jogger with the idea of chasing it down.
The stroller brand loved the pitch and jumped on board as a sponsor.
Neely’s background in trail running and obstacle course racing gave him a solid foundation, but he knew this wasn’t just a matter of fitness — stroller running comes with a whole new set of challenges.
Over the next six months, he trained using both the Baby Jogger Summit X3, the model he’d use for the record attempt, and the City Prix, a hybrid stroller-bike trailer he used to squeeze in extra cross-training. During workouts, one or both sons would often ride along — especially his older boy, who quickly became “his biggest training partner.”
Come record day, conditions were overcast but ideal. Friends and family gathered around the track, and a Guinness official was on hand to make sure every rule was followed to the letter.
The stroller couldn’t be modified in any way, Neely had to remain in constant contact with it, and he couldn’t lean on it for leverage.
Most importantly, Jack had to be safely secured in the seat and very much alive. (No joke: that’s part of Guinness’s official criteria.)
Jack, for his part, had a blast. “He was kicking his legs, just having a great time,” Neely said. “That was smoother than I ever thought.”
The run was done at The Hangar sports complex in North York, and Neely made it look easy — though the effort behind it was anything but.
Balancing marathon-style training with firefighting shifts and parenting duties required some serious time management. But the time with his kids made it worth it. “It’s really so much more than the record,” he said. “Just the amount of hours I put in with these guys is truly what means the most to me.”
Baby Jogger’s senior marketing manager, Adham Elshennawy, said Neely “embodies our values — keeping the adventure going together.” And while stroller records might seem like a quirky niche, they’re increasingly gaining recognition in the endurance world.
American ultrarunner Calum Neff, for instance, holds stroller records for the half marathon and full marathon, and races that welcome parent runners — like the Chariots of Fire 5K — are growing in popularity.
Running with a stroller isn’t just physically harder — it’s biomechanically different. Your stride shortens, your arms are locked into position, and you have to constantly monitor for terrain, stroller tracking, and your tiny passenger’s mood. “It changes everything,” Neff told Runner’s World in a 2021 feature. “Your posture, your breathing — and your mindset.”
Neely, who’s heading to Saudi Arabia next for a race, already has ideas for what’s next. He’s thinking about another stroller record, this time with both sons on board. If successful, it would take the family affair to another level — and raise the bar even higher for what it means to combine parenting with performance.
