JACKSON — After becoming the second American 5-year-old to run 13.1 miles in Trenton's Half-Marathon earlier this month, Anthony Russo broke another record last weekend during a 5K race in Bridgewater, his mother Olivia Russo said today.

Anthony ran the Dr. Jim McLean Scholarship 5K in 26:43:09, breaking the previous 5K record set in 2009 by then 5-year-old Rheinhardt Harrison, of Virginia. Rheinhardt’s time was 27:19:05.

“It’s just amazing to me that he can do this,” said Olivia Russo, a teacher at Dunn Middle School in Trenton. “My husband is extremely proud of him. It almost brings him to tears every time he talks about it, but it doesn’t really phase Anthony. He just thinks it’s cool.”

Anthony ran the Trenton Half-Marathon in 2:22:25, dethroning 6-year-old Keelan Glass of Texas who set the record in October after completing a half-marathon in 2:47:30, Olivia said. The time made Anthony the youngest sub-2:30 half marathoner in U.S. history.

Anthony was running three miles with his family earlier this month and they realized he was already finishing at record pace for a 5K (3.1 miles).

“When we saw that he was running under the record, we asked him if he wanted to do a 5K,” Olivia said. “He said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’”

The Russos chose to participate in the Dr. Jim McLean Scholarship 5k because it benefited a great cause, Olivia said. In January 2008, 33-year-old McLean of Morris County died in a snowboarding accident in Breckenridge, Colo., prompting his brother to create a scholarship fund in his honor, according to the organization’s website. The scholarship will be granted to a graduating senior athlete at Jefferson Township High School, where McLean graduated fifth in class in 1993.

“When we saw that, we thought that was a nice benefit race,” Olivia Russo said. “It was a pretty small race with not a lot of people.”

The Russos discovered their son’s talent when he was 4 years old, after he told them he didn’t want to play baseball. A former personal trainer, Olivia Russo said she wanted her son to remain active, so her husband suggested they go for a run around the block — a loop about a mile long, she said.

“I don’t think I can do it without him. I’m the one struggling to keep up with him,” Olivia Russo said. “It comes natural to him whereas for me, it’s more like work.”

Still, she’s proceeding with caution, she said. Anthony has been regularly seeing sports medicine doctors and pediatricians since he started training for the Trenton Half-Marathon about three months ago. She said she will continue consulting with them in the future about increasing the length of his runs.

To the “naysayers” who may criticize the Russos’ decision to allow their son to run such long distances at a young age, Olivia said Anthony’s the one pushing her to do it.

“I wouldn’t be pushing him to do something he doesn’t want to do,” she said. “No one would think it’s crazy if he was playing football or baseball, but because it’s running, they think it’s taboo. Anytime you do something out of the ordinary, people are going to say something about it.”

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