My 11 year-old son wants to run a half-marathon: Good idea or not?

bad!

good!

dont just say bad. say y its bad. id say let him do it. he did ask to do it. only young once. if he enjoys it y tell him no right?

that's a good goal. keep him on the right path. no doping like lance armstrong does.

A half marathon isn't goin to screw him up. Don't listen to this pussy ass slow ass c***.

It's my first time here but I can spot a moron right away.

"He most likely would not be able to run even half way."

Um, as I just said, he ran 6 miles yesterday. That's just about half-way to the ***half-marathon*** he wants to run.

"Most 11 year olds don't even run 26 miles per week."

Definitely not. Most 11 year olds sit around in front of the tv - watching or playing games. I guess that's what you think he should do.

And I'm gonna have a shitload of kids and have them running around all over the place!

Boy, did you open yourself up for abuse with that question on this board. I once asked about my daughter training to do her 1/4 mile run at school and got accused of child abuse.

Most of the responses are going to come from the majority of kids who post here. You may want to try over at RW on the masters board where you'll get good, solid advice from parents.

I don't see anything wrong with it as long as he's watched closely to see how he's doing. You know, just common sense stuff. If he's wiped out at the end of the run or the next day, sore, things like that. Make sure he's not running a lot of hills.

Running 6 now at that age is awesome. I wish I could get mine to do more than go around the block.

In the UK, you have to be at least 17 to race a half marathon. 9 year-olds are limited to 3K.

I guess they impose those restrictions for a good reason.

However, in the spirit of Letsrun, I suppose we are all just p*ssies

Your last name isn't "Hall" by any chance, is it?

Acutally apparently you are all a bunch of f***ing pansies in the UK. 17 to race a f***ing half-marathon? WOW talk about a bunch of little tea sipping biscuit eating fairies. Seriously a half-marathon isn't that hard on you, grow a sack and do one. And seriously soooooo many pre-17 year olds do half-marathon just fine. I was never about running that much and I used to do half-marathons countless times in high school.

Here's a pic of a 10 and 7 year olds who completed one.

http://www.kidsrunning.com/ask/krask0609halfmarathon.html

Just give him some epo and he should be fine.

Do it. Run it with him at a controlled pace. When he ran 9:00 pace for 6 miles, we he going all out? Run like 9:30 pace with him in the race and walk a little if he feels bad. I'm not sure an 11 year old could handle a run like that alone, mentally that is. Maybe he could though, I dunno.

Troll rating: 5/10.

I give you points for picking a sensitive topic almost guaranteed to start a fight.

Was not trolling. Guess one should not post questions that might elicit strong responses?

Thanks, Another Dad. I'll look for advice there.

RGB, the 6-miles were not hard for him and he says he could have gone faster. He had set out for 3 miles as he's supposed to do for soccer but decided to keep going.

I tend to think this would be a good experience. I am in no way pushing him to do it and he's not in it for any sort of recognition. He just likes it. Isn't that what it's all about?

Oh, and my last name is not Hall.

meant to reply to alex, not rgb.

Another Dad wrote:

Boy, did you open yourself up for abuse with that question on this board. I once asked about my daughter training to do her 1/4 mile run at school and got accused of child abuse.

Most of the responses are going to come from the majority of kids who post here. You may want to try over at RW on the masters board where you'll get good, solid advice from parents.

I don't see anything wrong with it as long as he's watched closely to see how he's doing. You know, just common sense stuff. If he's wiped out at the end of the run or the next day, sore, things like that. Make sure he's not running a lot of hills.

Running 6 now at that age is awesome. I wish I could get mine to do more than go around the block.

I agree w/ this post. Yeah, there are quite a few posts you just kind of "blip" past b/c they're about the poster letting off steam rather than really taking your comments seriously. So RW is probably a better resource for getting helpful responses.

IMHO, seems to me, you can't apply one-size-fits-all theories of child development to kids--some develop faster at sports ... and piano playing and math skills, etc. etc. than do others.

As said, probably won't hurt him if he's already fit/active and running six miles now. And if he's the one who initiated the idea, not someone pushing him to do it, it seems more likely he's ready for it (not a guarantee of course, but just an observation).

He should also know that this isn't a "do or die" thing--that you're with him whether he decides to run the race or not, so that he can feel confident in keeping you in the loop about how his training is going. (Sometimes kids will be afraid to disappoint their parents or could think that they need to prove something so might minimize pain or injury.) Also, he shouldn't worry too much about pace for this race, just finishing. He has plenty of time to get the speed part down.

With a reasonable amount of caution, it seems as if he should be good for it.

even slower dad wrote:

In the UK, you have to be at least 17 to race a half marathon. 9 year-olds are limited to 3K.

I guess they impose those restrictions for a good reason.

However, in the spirit of Letsrun, I suppose we are all just p*ssies

Yeah, the UK sure is tearing it up in distance running on the world stage!