Dad breaks marathon records pushing quintuplets

Each week as we celebrate our Monday Motivation record holders, we look to highlight some of the most inspiring individuals who have taken their journey far beyond the record.  

In an emotional and heartwarming story, this week we’re putting the spotlight on endurance runner Chad Kempel, a multiple Guinness World Records title holder who has conquered marathons with the help of his adorable quintuplets.  

Chad takes the definition of “super dad” to another level.  

Chad and his wife Amy have been on quite the adventure as they looked to grow their family years ago, and although they have suffered significant loss and miscarriages, they now have a total of seven children who are all below the age of six.  

For many parents, raising this many young children would be overwhelming – but for Chad and Amy, it’s been nothing short of exciting. It motivates him to be the best he could be every single day.  

Several may wonder how the Garden City, Idaho resident found time to be able to train for two endurance Guinness World Records while raising seven children, but the truth is Chad combined his love for running and his kids into one.  

“We're unique in that we went from two children to seven overnight. I'm still in awe! What else makes us unique is that we do not limit ourselves because we have seven children who are five and under. We do everything with these children that we would have done with only a couple children. For example, me running marathons pushing a stroller...mine is just a little heavier.”  

Chad has loved running since the activity was introduced to him in high school as part of his wrestling practice, and since then he built up his stamina to participate in many races that have tested his limits. 

Part of these included training for the Boston Marathon, running 50.1 miles in 12 hours, and also running 100 miles nonstop in a span of 31.5 hours.  

The year Chad took on the 100-mile run was quite emotional for him. He and his wife had unfortunately lost his twin boys from premature birth, and this race was his way of channeling his negative energy into something productive and meaningful.  

Although he experienced some of the worst pain in his life during these experiences, the dad of seven believes that each race prepared him for pushing a quintuplet stroller, which added substantial resistance weight to his normal pace.  

Years later on one spontaneous evening, Chad became struck with inspiration to couple his love for running and love for his family after ready an article about two other pram marathon record holders.  

Chad swiftly began training to break the record for fastest marathon pushing a quintuple pram (male) and all of the adversities that would come with it.  

One of the most difficult components was pushing the quintuplet stroller up even the smallest of hills, as it was very heavy and hard to maneuver.  

The first two attempts, Chad had done all of the work but fell short of reaching the minimum requirement each time, sometimes by a mere four minutes.  

Despite the disappointment, the one thing that kept him going was reminding himself of why he wanted to attempt this record in the first place.  

“I wanted to put myself through a challenge to honor all that she had put herself through to bless us with the family we have today. So, I wanted to do what I have always done during life's trials, I wanted to do a run for 27.3 miles to honor the 27 weeks and 3 days she carried the quintuplets during the pregnancy.”  

After obtaining his first record with a final time of 04:42:49, that propelled Chad to do his next record attempt: fastest 10 km pushing a quintuple pram (male). 

This time he was well equipped to deal with the challenges that would come with a shorter race, even though he had to make time for more training.  

Chad broke his second record title with the quints in a final time of 01:04:52 – and couldn’t have been happier to share another special moment with his family or meet his wife and two eldest daughters at the finish line.  

Despite the amount of physical work it can take to run races and raise several young children, he mentions there is one thing that motivates him above all.