What do you think about a 9 year old running a marathon? (Page 2)

Well, I'm just glad he wasn't nine months pregnant!

As a Mom of 5 I could not disagree with this statement more. Children grow up WAY too fast in general.

Here in Houston we have a set of sisters age 9 and 11 that race every Saturday and Sunday. They do the kids races Saturday and the adult races Sunday.  They both did an Oly last month, I know them because my 9 year old daughter does kids races (Kiwanis series with a 1/4 mile run). Both girls were bawling on the bike and on the run. Their Dad chases after them screaming "encouragement" they don't smile, they don't get excited about awards. Honestly, it is sad to watch.

My girls are in a Girls on the Run program and I am their coach. They will do a 5K next month but are not expected to run the whole thing. They will likely jog 2 miles with breaks in between and both will have an escort with them the entire race.

The timing of this one is interesting as I'm about half way through Born to Run.  I wonder how much the young Tarahumara Indian kids run downn in Mexico.  Must be at least 50 mpw I would say.  So are the adult Tarahumaran's injured?  Granted they don't run with the same running shoes we do so I suppose that's a whole other topic.

I'm sure some would argue that if a 9 year old shouldn't run maybe he shouldn't play football for similar reasons.

Maybe, maybe not. But I kind of resemble that remark. 10:30 would be "all out" for many of us in a marathon, not to say anything about a half.

But I wish my 10 year old were more interested in running. I'm not going to push it, but if he wanted to run more, I sure wouldn't be against it. Like many have said, it beats almost anything else he could do with an hour or two every other day or so.

Karibu - 2011-10-17 3:51 PM

 

I am 47 now and have no regrets.

Very cool!

Putting it mildly.

I dunno. My oldest daughter ran a few 5K's at 7 years of age & my 10 year old's first 5k was at 8. Neither of them had blistering times. These were basically runs that we did as a family meaning to walk most of them. I have fond memories of my mom and dad taking me running with them at the same age.

If one of my kids at 9 decided they wanted to run a marathon, I'd do a novice training program with them and watch their progress. I cannot imagine either of my older children finishing the program out. The youngest one is quite energetic, stubborn, and competitive though. She's also my little wing-woman and always wants to do what I'm doing. She's 5 and insists on doing some of my workouts with me, so she might have the spirit for it.

Gotcha.  Thanks for the clarification.  Similarly, I suppose, it was interesting to me to learn that Shalane Flanagan's 2010 NYC Marathon was her first marathon.  She came it second.  GO HEELS!

I'm a volunteer cross country coach at our local elementary and middle schools. For the last two years, they've let kids as young as kindergarten compete It's .5 miles for the little guys, 1 mile for the kids 2nd grade and up. Middle school kids are doing 2 miles.

The kids are great and really have fun at the races. The parents? Well... you know where this is going.

I've had to be a rabbit for many, many races. Marathons I can run(slowly)... but getting chased down by 40 or 50  11 year olds that can tear up a mile absolutely destroys me. I've had more than one parent scream at me that  "I'm slowing down their kid". Some just getting right up in my grill screaming at me. It's all I can do to hold back.  And can you guess what most of those parents look like?  How I have yet to tell ONE of them to get their fat lazy a$$ out there is beyond me.

Sorry... about the rant.

The kids do fine in those races. My son is 13 and he'll be running his first 1/2 marathon October 30th. We plan on taking it easy and just enjoying the experience. He and his twin sister have been running 5K's since they were 8 or so. I've never pushed them, and never will. He still runs cross country... running is really not her thing anymore. Of course a 1/2 marathon at 13 is no where near the same as a full at 9.

Both my kids are very health and enjoy a very active lifestyle. My next door neighbour's daughter is also 13 (same as my kids) and just crossed 180 lbs.  But every time they see my son heading out the door with me at  Oh-dark-thirty" they tell us how crazy we are.  To me, juvenile diabetes is even more crazy.

Even if is has been proven otherwise?

Which part?

This part.

Well, their bodies are still developing.  I would venture a guess (with absolutely zero support) that running 26.2 miles puts a lot of stress on any body.  Probably enough for a parent to decide that it's not appropriate for their child.  What do the studies say about the amount of stress put on any body running 26.2 miles?

I'm not saying it is not stressful.  I completely agree that it is.  But to couch it that it might be detrimental to their development, which this poster clearly is not saying and I definitely read into it, has been debunked.  Therefore, I'm bowing out.

I don't know where it has been proven otherwise.  I just had this planted in the back of my mind from a runnning cliniscI went to years ago and it stuck with me.  But a quick Google and I did find this...

??http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=13367

I think 9 might be too young for a full but like others have said it all depends on the kid.  In this day and age of short attention span kids it is kind of cool to see a kid concentrate for 4.5 hours on one thing.  

With the 5k talk, I think some people are forgetting that a high school CC race is 5k. For middle school the standards vary but around here it is 1 to 1.5 miles.  I did not do high school CC as I was racing mountain bikes at the time but I remember my school's team preseason training volumes being in the 20 miles per week range and then still being in the 12 miles per week range with meets during the season.  The team regularly went to and won at state competition and several runners went on the race in college.  I am friends with many of the state runners still and almost all of them still run and compete at something now in their early 30's with few problems (I think about the same rate as the population of distance runners as a whole).  

Further I have noticed many are very successful in academic and professional pursuits as well.  Sports in general teaches kids that in order to succeed one must work hard and really concentrate.  However, with running, unlike in many team sports, there is no belief (on behalf of the parent or child) that a kid can grow up and make a good living doing it professionally.  So you get the drive and concentration from kids sports with none of the fantasy of doing it professionally some day. End off topic rant

yes, there are plenty of studies to support and counter both sides of this topic.  Personally, as a parent and a distance runner for the last 25+ years my opinion is that a marathon is not something I would want my developing children participating in.  Obviously there are many parents out there that feel otherwise...evident whenever we read a headline "Jack & Jill finish marathon...Mom and Dad Proud".    

Heck... It wasn't that long ago that women couldn't compete in marathons because they were deemed too frail.

Thanks Grete, for putting that stereotype to rest.

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Dave