A San Diego duo broke the Guinness world record for running the fastest marathon pushing a wheelchair last weekend.

Sean McQuaid, 33, who operates a downtown San Diego flooring store with his father, propelled Riley Pathman, 24, across the finish line in Pathman’s adaptive wheelchair in two hours, 35 minutes and 26 seconds. McQuaid was pushing a weight of about 130 pounds.

Shoot the confetti. Or, better yet, pour the Guinness!

The annual Duluth, Minn., race is called Grandma’s Marathon, but the pace for the 26.2-mile course was anything but slow. The San Diegans soundly beat the previous record of 2 hours, 49 minutes and 26 seconds set last October by Julien Pinsonneault and Me Hour Lim in Quebec, Canada.

“I’m happy. I’m proud. I’m over the moon,” says McQuaid, who gathered with the group at the Dubliner Irish pub in Duluth after the race. That way, they could properly celebrate with a pint of Guinness — for the record.

Celebrating their victory with Guinness at Shakespeare Pub are Sean McQuaid, far left, with James and Riley Pathman, in blue.

(Courtesy of James Pathman)

“I love running in Minnesota,” announced his wheelchair partner at the end of the race.

Despite being born with cerebral palsy, Riley is no marathon novice. He and his racing wheelchair have participated in 30 full marathons, 150 half-marathons, 100 triathlons and numerous other races, says his dad, James Pathman, of Pacific Beach.

They have been running together since Riley was 4 when they became involved with the local Challenged Athletes Foundation.

Since then, they’ve raced the New York, Chicago and L.A. marathons three times each. Last April, they completed the London Marathon.

James had to take a running break due to knee surgery a few months ago, but McQuaid, who spent much of his childhood in Ireland, picked up the slack. They had met during an Encinitas half-marathon in 2017.

McQuaid heard Disney music playing (Riley likes racing to “Lion King” music) and jogged over to say hello. (“We’ll talk to a tree, you know, us Irish,” he jokes). “They had a lot of life about them,” he recalls.

The runners struck up a conversation and a friendship, met at other races and began running together.

McQuaid has been an athlete all his life but only recently took up distance running in earnest. He has completed 12 marathons. Eleven of those have been since October 2020, and seven have been pushing someone in a wheelchair.

The Pathmans and McQuaid are members of Team Hoyt, a national adaptive running support group started by Dick Hoyt and his son Rick, a quadriplegic, in Boston in 1977.

Rick had begged his dad to join a five-mile race to help raise money for a paralyzed high school lacrosse player, so Dick, not then a runner, pushed his son the full distance.

Later that night, Rick typed, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.” That was the genesis of Team Hoyt, according to the group’s website. It since has expanded to include a San Diego chapter.

Tania Zamora, president of Team Hoyt San Diego, said several members traveled to Minnesota to cheer the two participants on. On Monday evening, they hoisted mugs of Guinness in celebration at San Diego’s Shakespeare Pub. “We are extremely proud of Riley and Sean,” she says.

The duo trained for the record-breaking attempt for about a year, James says. He enlisted expert marathon coach Andrew Kastor, husband of Olympic marathoner Deena Kastor, to put together a training program. Riley’s custom pushchair, designed by Adaptive Star,has no gears but does have a safety brake to slow downhill runs.

The men trained six days a week, doing multiple long runs and speed work on a track. Sean did strength conditioning.

“For Riley, every race always was a big adventure,” says his dad, noting that his son’s collection of medals hangs above his bed. His many race bibs either went into bib display holders or were cobbled together into giant mosaics.

James Pathman and son, Riley, wear their Grandma’s Marathon T-shirts and medals at the airport on their way home from Duluth.

(Courtesy of James Pathman)

The Pathmans belong to many running and fitness groups, including the November Project, SixRun9, Milestone Running and Morning Glory, where Riley joins in the stretching and race exercises.

He also is the unofficial cheerleader. McQuaid credits Riley’s unbridled enthusiasm for giving him the extra push forward.

“It’s normal to focus on how sore and tired you are,” McQuaid says. “But with Riley’s music playing, his joy, his saying ‘hi’ to everyone and grabbing my hand and ‘dancing’ with me, all that negative stuff in your head isn’t in there any more.”

The greatest challenge was pushing uphill, notes McQuaid, thankful that the highest elevation on Grandma’s course was only about 500 feet. “But downhill also can be difficult,” he adds. “You have to be really careful or you can hurt your quads.”

McQuaid says breaking the Guinness world record “means the world to me, but it’s not about being world record holders. That is secondary to what the mission is. We did this to promote inclusion.”

It opens other people’s minds to what they can achieve through hard work and discipline.

He adds, with a chuckle, that drinking Guinness was an added incentive.

“People with disabilities live in a very small world. This is an adventure in which they can get involved that opens up their world,” McQuaid says. It gets them out in the sun, running, feeling good, experiencing the stimulation and competitive spirit, and it boosts their self-worth, he explains.

He and Riley’s dad want to inspire the younger generation to embrace inclusiveness in local schools. “We’d like it to be the normal thing, not abnormal.”

Riley, who attends a disabilities program for adults at MiraCosta College in North County, has a twin brother, Shane, who also has cerebral palsy and recently graduated from the University of Arizona.

Shane stopped running for a while but is getting back into the sport. His dad, whose knee is healing, and McQuaid will continue running races together — each pushing a wheelchair.