What do you think about a 9 year old running a marathon? (Page 3)

It is much better to put a bunch of plastic on an immature skeleton and have the kids attempt to behead each other.  Youth Football!

It was worth saying twice!!!  LOL

Just for clarification (obv not to you Shane)

This is the definition of a scientific review.

It looks AT the body of evidence on a particular topic, evaluates the studies and conclusions themselves, and if it can, comes to overarching comments or conclusions.

It is not one study or in that sense one article.

x2 billion

x3 trillion

This does scare me much more than having kids run. Yet our society (at least here in Kansas) finds this perfectly acceptable. I think my 10 (almost 11 year old) is one of the only boys in his 5th grade class who isn't in football. And I hear about it from him almost daily. :-)

Gotta love those parents that have attended the Marinovich school of parenting.  There always seems to be one in the crowd.

As a parent I think to far.  I also think kids are growing up too fast these days.  Mine is 10 and she has ran on the treadmill almost everyday for the past 2 years.  It started with me there to supervise for a few minutes at a time.  She currently does 1.65 miles a day after school.  She loves doing it so much that even when she is sick she wants to.  As a parent I do not allow my sick child to get on a treadmill, my call, not the kid's.

All that being said her first trail race is November 13th, a 2 mile run though some horse trails with one water crossing.  It's a few miles from the house with chicken soup at the finish line, should be fun.

Come live outside the US for a little while and you will change your mind.  I regularly see 6yo caring for infants ALONE because mom is out in the field trying to salvage the crop from flood and dad is working as a laborer in a town hours away.  Tom's post was dead on.

My youngest is 10 already, so I've waited too long to get him into endurance sports.  The competition is way ahead now.  Darn!

As long as it's something the kid wanted to do, and not something the parent pushed the kid to do, I don't see any problem with it.

Agreeing to disagree. Just because some children in the world have to live in deplorable conditions where they are robbed of their childhood does not mean kids in the US do not grow up too fast.

I don't know....my 24 year old sister is still on my parents' healthcare plan because she is in graduate school.  You can stay listed as a child as long as you are in school, up to the age of 26-27.  In many ways that seems just plain weird to me.  I think in ways like that our children are children for much, much too long. 

I have 4 kids, too, and while something just doesn't feel quite right about letting my children run a marathon in their younger years (much like weight lifting, IMO), I'm not going to judge parents who feel otherwise.  I encourage my kids to be as active, and I'm sure that with them seeing what I'm doing on a daily basis, they might be more inclined to run (and bike and swim) at an earlier age than most.   

My daughter Mattie ran her first 5K at 5 with her mom, also mom's first 5K. Since then she trains for and runs 1 mile fun runs and has ran a second 5K with me. She like to run and enjoys being able to share something with dad. I don't push her and when she wants to stop we stop.  I would like her to be able to compete in kids tri's but she doesn't want to so she doesn't. I don't pre-register her for any of the races in the area, if she feels like racing on race day she does, it's not like the t-shirt would fit her anyway.

As long as the race was the kids choice, I think it is great. If the parents were pushing him, maybe they should get off the couch and live their own lives instead of living through their children.

What pisses me off most thought is he was faster than I am and I train more and have more experience.

Several comments among the last 4 pages mention that the parents are forcing this kid to run. Maybe the kid just loves to run and chooses to do it himself.  My 9 year old recently joined the "Let Me Run" program at his school and several of the kids I spoke with are there because they really enjoy running.

While we all might not love to run, I don't think it's fair to insinuate that just because certain kids run long distance it's because their parent are forcing them.

Oh, I see what you're saying.  I still disagree.    I think it is possible that kids in the US might be exposed to "stuff" too early but I would say their level of responsibility and maturity is quite behind their peers elsewhere, and especially in developing nations.  Obviously I'm not in favor of child labor but I think there is a happy medium.

Curious here, given the diversity of this country, is it possible that there are large crowds of both and that you both are correct?  It is very hard to take a sample that truly represents the US.

This is an interesting topic for me. I competed in a 5 mile race when I was 9. This was my own choice. I had watched the race the year previously and had decided to do it. I had the proper training, thanks to my dad who had a running backround, and had done at least one five mile training run before the race. I was far from fast. I trained at a 15 minute mile pace and ended up doing the race at 11 minute miles. I thought it was tons of fun, especially hearing people cheer for me and beating my dad by racing into the finish at Camp Randall.

When I was 11, I did the race again but had trained for 8 minute miles. People were checking to make sure I was in the right wave. Unfortunately, I had an awful race and barely beat my last time. The next year I quit track when I developed patella femoral syndrome due to a glute/quad strength imbalance and an overstride when I ran. Now I wish I had gone to a physical therapist sooner and continued to run track because I had practically no base (other than some 5Ks which I didn't really train for). I had to start from scratch when I started triathlons (I did my first adult sprint when I was 13).

I think 9 is too young to run a marathon (I'm surprised he even had the commitment to run that far and train for it) but I definitely don't think 9 is too young to start running and training. This may seem contradictory because I wrote that I had developed an injury but the thing was, I thought long strides were good. The track coach always said sprinters had fast, short strides and long distance runners had longer strides. I raced the 400, 800, and mile race in track and tried to make my strides long. I have not gotten an injury since.

I think if 9 year olds choose to run, it's important to moniter any injuries and make sure they get the right training before racing. On another note, I don't think it gave me a head start though either. But maybe it's just because I'm not a natural runner. It's my weakest of the 3 tri sports.

I am thrown by the "if the kid wants to" comments.  Maybe it's just me, but I am still a parent and letting a child at age 9 decide to what to do.....well no.  I give my 10 year old some input, but mine is the final voice....sometimes wife's. 

Really think about this, what if something happened to a 9 year old running a race that long.  How could any parent live with themselves.  Somethings are way more important than running a marathon.

Joe

Funny.....

how so many people "know" whats best for somebody else´s child.

And as for the American vs. International Child Development - hmmmm - ever looked at the Obesity Charts of the worlds children - or the "quality" of child nutrition in the US, school lunches sponsored by McDonald comes to mind ...

If my child wants to run, Id be the last person to stop him/her ..... 

I am pretty sure each and everyone meant vs pushing the kid to train for the marathon when the kid really didn't want to.  Surely you don't think that would be acceptable?  Even if your the one making the decisions, not the kid.

I don't think the 9 year old should run a marathon cause I do not want to be beat by a 9 year old.  Other then that I don't really care.  I am happy to see a fit active kid these days...