CARMEL — A Carmel boy has his feet on the ground and his eyes on his goals.
He is on track to break the Guinness World Record as the youngest person to complete a 100-mile trail race.
Race day is next month.
Stephanie Abbott
Run 100 miles in under 30 hours by the time you're 13.
That's what Gabriel Abbott needs to break the record.
“I want to set goals and achieve them,” said Abbott, an eighth-grader at Clay Middle School.
“We started investigating: Could someone that young have done it? And the youngest we found were these two kids who did it at 13 years old,” his father said.
After school and cross country, Abbott is training for a big race and walking about 13 miles a day.
Stephanie Abbott
“His greatest strength is that he truly believes in the idea that you can achieve anything if you work hard enough,” his father said.
Abbott started by running back-to-back 10Ks and 5Ks, then a half marathon and then 42 miles in 12 hours straight.
Stephanie Abbott
He says it's not just about the distance – it's mostly about overcoming the mental hurdles.
“It tells your brain, 'Hey, I can do this. Let's see if I can do more,'” Abbott says.
His biggest inspiration is his father, who started running ultramarathons just a few years ago.
“I learned there were people who ran 100 miles and I thought there was no way anyone could run that far. It would be like time travel. It was a Back to the Future kind of distance,” his father said.
Now, his son is attempting that feat.
“He's strong. He's tough. He's ready.”
Stephanie Abbott
The race is called “Run Woodstock.”
It starts on September 6th in Gregory, Michigan.
WRTV asked him if he was planning a big trip to Disney World to celebrate his victory if he breaks the record.
He said he would probably just sleep for a long time.
