Running News Daily

Aidan Puffer continues to break world records. It started at age 11 and this week the 14-year-old clocked a 14:47 5000m, another world record for his age

Aidan Puffer is a 14-year-old high school freshman at Manchester.  When he crossed the finish line at the Bob Michalski 5000m Championship at the Connecticut Distance Festival on Thursday he had a relaxed demeanor. Placing third behind Xavier junior Robbie Cozean and Hall senior Trey Cormier, Puffer remained calm and stoic after his finish.

For those watching the bushy-haired 14-year-old, it appeared to be just another finisher.   

Except it wasn’t. Puffer had just broken a world record.

With his time of 14:47.66, Puffer broke Hans Segerfelt’s mark of 15:10.2, set in 1975, to claim the world’s fastest time in the 5K by a 14-year-old.

“The 14-year-old world record is like, 15:10,” Puffer said. “The freshman national record was like 14:59. The New Balance nationals standard for the 5K championship race is like 14:50. So I was just focused on hitting all of those, mostly just to get 14:50.”

Mission accomplished for Puffer, who trailed Cozean and Cormier for the entirety of the 5,000-meter race. Cozean (14:40.40) and Cormier (14:42.90) exchanged leads for much of the race, while Puffer trailed patiently, checking his watch and adjusting his pace when needed to assure he’d meet his goal.

“At the beginning I kind of got a little nervous,” Puffer said. “At the beginning I heard 68s and stuff [for 400m] and I was like ‘Oh man, we need to slow down a little bit.’ I mean, it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. I felt really good throughout the whole race.”

Puffer, trains about 40 miles per week and works with his own running coach, has previously set world records in the 5K for the 12- and 13-year-old age groups. 

“I’ve never worked with an athlete with as much natural ability as Aidan Puffer,” Manchester coach Mike Bendzinski said.

It all started a few years ago when Aidan’s father, Kyle Puffer decided to do a "Couch to 5K" training program to run a 5K road race.

His son Aidan was 10. He wanted to do it, too.

"I remember calling the pediatrician and asking, 'Is this safe for him to do?'" Aidan's mother, Martha, said. 

"We knew some other parents who were runners and he beat them and they were like, 'Wow,'" Kyle said. "We said, 'Do you want to do another one?' We found other 5Ks and he ran them and he just kept getting faster. He didn't run other than just racing."

That sounds like a typical kid interested in running. But Aidan wasn't a typical kid. At age 11, he set his first world record, the 11-year-old 5,000-meter record on the track. Then he broke the 12-year-old boys 5K record on the road. When he was 13, he broke another one, the 5K road world record for 13-year-olds.

Then at the BAA 5K, two days before the Boston Marathon, he found himself being called up to the podium where Hagos Gebrhiwet, the Olympic 5,000-meter bronze medalist from Ethiopia, had just accepted the silver loving cup trophy for winning the race.

Puffer had once again broken a world record by finishing the 3.1-mile race in 15:47.  A world record for 13-year-olds and now 14:47 5000m on the track, a world record for age 14.