Hamilton man wins Buffalo Marathon while pushing his 2-year-old son, asleep in his stroller

When Lucas McAneney's wife bought him a stroller for his infant son Sutton, he was hoping it would help his little one fall asleep.

Two years later, McAneney was crossing the finish line of the Buffalo Marathon before anyone else — while pushing a sleepy Sutton in that very same stroller.

"It's the year a two-year-old won the marathon, sleeping," joked the 35-year-old who lives in Hamilton, Ont. .

McAneney said he's been running competitively for most of his life but took a break when Sutton was born.

Then in early 2019, McAneney said he picked up running again and he took his son with him in a stroller. He said his wife eventually bought a proper running stroller as an early Father's Day gift. Soon after, the pandemic hit.

"Ninety per cent of my runs since the pandemic started have been with him. He's been my training partner throughout the whole thing," McAneney told CBC Hamilton.

McAneney became so confident running with Sutton, he attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the fastest time running a marathon while pushing a stroller, a record held by Canadian Calum Neff.

Greg Weber, the marathon's executive director, said he was confident McAneney could break the record and made an exception to the rules to allow McAneney to run with the stroller.

Weber said running with a stroller would undoubtedly put McAneney at a disadvantage even if the stroller moved well but said McAneney was "motoring," running at a pace of three minutes and 38 seconds per kilometre.

McAneney said, during the run, Sutton would point out all the police cars and ambulances they passed.

"He's never spoken more during a run than he did at the Buffalo Marathon and I've never talked more in a marathon … it was two and a half hours of fun," he