Cleveland dad pushes 1-year-old in stroller to unofficial mile world record

Sometimes, for the sake of history, you have to ignore bedtime.

That’s what Stephen Biebelhausen decided when he and his daughter, Blake, entered the stroller category of Saturday’s Guardian Mile, a Cleveland race over the Hope Memorial Bridge. The race started at 7:45 p.m., a full 45 minutes past the time Blake usually goes off to dreamland.

Four minutes, 17.707 seconds later, Biebelhausen, 30, and Blake, 1, unofficially broke the stroller-mile Guinness World Record of 4:26.29 set by Silas Frantz in California in 2025.

“I was just mostly surprised at my baby, who made it past her bedtime and wasn’t screaming and crying,” said Biebelhausen, who draped his finisher’s medal around Blake’s neck after crossing the tape. “We were just happy that there was no meltdown city.”

Quite the opposite. As the older Biebelhausen crossed the finish line, feet pounding, Blake sat strapped into her stroller, legs kicking as if the record depended on it.

“I did not think I was going to get anywhere near that fast, so I was definitely shocked,” said Biebelhausen, an emergency room doctor at the Cleveland Clinic and former runner at Miami University in Ohio.

His Division I years long behind him, Biebelhausen signed up for the stroller mile to support a friend running in the elite competition. While he has run marathons since college and often takes his daughter on casual jogs through his neighborhood, he and Blake only did one workout at speed before the Guardian Mile.

Biebelhausen’s original goal was to break the course record, which was 4:44. With two hands on the stroller, Biebelhausen wasn’t able to check his pace until he was halfway over the bridge, where he realized he was ahead of the record. The course was all downhill from there.

“You kind of want to be somewhat dead at the halfway mark,” Biebelhausen said. “So I knew where to be, and then I got to the halfway mark (and) I was like, ‘Oh, man, this is going to be a good day.’”

Biebelhausen’s wife is also a runner. As new parents, they started jogging with Blake in the stroller to give each other coveted alone time.

“We both understand that it’s a good stress relief after a long day, and it helps that one of us can now take a baby out and give the other one an hour break if need be,” said Biebelhausen, who lives with his family in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton.

Blake, all 18 pounds of her, loves it.

“She’ll squeal when we get in the car and put the stroller in, and then she knows our favorite running spots, and then she’ll squeal when we get there and I’m unloading the stroller,” Biebelhausen said. “Usually the leg kicks are just reserved for if we’re going down a hill, or when we first start, she’s really excited. But I think she just loved everyone cheering for her and going fast.”

To run safely, doctors don’t recommend jogging with babies until they can hold their head up on their own, usually when they are at least 6 months old. Biebelhausen said he probably would not have felt comfortable running that type of pace with a stroller if it weren’t straight, on a road without obstacles. 

“If there was a turn, you would have seen me slow down quite a bit,” he said.

Experts also recommend using a stroller specifically for running. Biebelhausen said his is a hand-me-down, but he noted that he would be open to a sponsorship opportunity if a stroller brand came calling.

“I truly was not intending for this,” Biebelhausen said.

After the race, the family stayed at the course for a half hour to watch the elite men before heading straight home.

There was little time to bask in the glory. It was time for bed.