Six-year-old Jaden Merrick ran 22:26 at Saturday's Park to Park 5K in Waterloo, Iowa, more than 90 seconds faster than the single-age world record of 24:07 he set on August 2.

Merrick's time from Saturday will be recognized as the new age-6 world best pending course verification and filing of necessary paperwork.

According to his father, Brent Merrick, Jaden started running when he was 3 years old.

“He loves it and he was never pushed to run,” Merrick told Runner's World Newswire. “Ever since he knew what a stop watch was he wanted to be timed running around the house, and then wanted to enter races at age 4.”

Park to Park was Jaden’s eighth 5K. Brent Merrick said Jaden runs between 10 to 20 miles a week and rides his bicycle 20 to 40 miles. Jaden does some of his mileage with a local running group as well as the junior high and high school track teams, his father said.

Jaden turns 7 on October 16. The recognized age-7 world best is 22:20, by Jason Parks of Maryland.

Hannah McGoldrick Hannah is the Senior Social Media Editor for Runner's World.

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