Bad. 5k is plenty long at that age, maybe 10k for a very select crowd.
As a coach, I generally think the age group wonders don't do well as they get older but I'm not sure that's not more psychological than physical.
The issue now is this kid is used to being in the paper and getting a lot of attention for running. You see the same thing with a lot of 4:13 types in HS. They get to college, run 4:06 and no one cares. Then are they motivated?
Running a marathon? I wouldn't recommend it but would say it's ok if the boy really, really, raelly was the one pushing for it. I'd let him do it adn then say, "Ok not for another 15 years."
Looks like he ran 4:20.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/BT/20090525/SPORTS/905250323/0/WW2
shades of wesley paul
yeah, The buddah of Dean K has been found. All hail little buddah.
Bad, pointless and damaging to the Child. The article was well written and the Father has the correct point of view, up until the point he allows his kid to run a marathon.
Rojo, children don't have a correct perception of what is right or wrong and what may do them harm in the future. I don't care if my kid begs and pleads to do a marathon - it's not going to happen.
This reeks of a parent with undisclosed motives. I see absolutely no benefit in allowing a 9 year old to run a marathon. Even as a kid, coming through at 4 hours and 20 min, does not exactly make him a wunderkind. His father says he doesn't want to concentrate on anything too early, yet the article says the kid "regularly runs cross-country and road races between 3K and 10K in distance."
No matter what the father says, no kid consciously comes up with that type of racing plan. My experience is that 99% of the time, a parent is in the kid's ear, 24-7, planting the seed, until it magically becomes the kid's brilliant idea, then they play it off like he or she came up with it.
I coach youth runners and see this all the time. We attempt to develop kids over years. Then these type of parents say they are not pushing their kids into road racing, yet somehow the kids are signed up for 10k's 3 times a month at ages 7-10. What are the kids doing, mailing in their lunch money and forging parental signatures? The parents honestly talk longingly about age group records, but then the kids come out and run average 800m and 1500 times at the track meets, and sit by themselves because their parents need them to be focussed. The kids, when you talk to them amongst their peers in practice, never show the same enthusiasm for these weekend jaunts that their parents project onto them.
I don't get what these parents are trying to prove. As a coach, you can't reason with them, they just talk in circles about not burning the kids out, but somehow plop down $25 for the kid to race another 10k the next weekend.
I think they are these helicopter parents, wanting to control the kids "fun," almost brainwashing the kid into believing it is all just a great time, waking up at 6 am on a Saturday to race every weekend, until they run like crap, then they get an earful. The parents train the kids on their own for those races, then bring them to our practices, and I ask what they've done this week, and am just dumbfounded that these little kids have no recovery built into training, nevermind their lives in general. I see it play out every week.
Just let the kids run appropriate distances for their age groups with their friends. The parents can run their own races. You don't have to micromanage their lives. Sign the kid up for a youth team, bring the him or her to practice to interact, joke around, train with other kids, and just be a kid.
Who knows if this is really a bad thing. I don't think enough kids have run marathons in the past for anyone to know.
I like this paragraph:
“We weren’t totally sold on this marathon thing, but (Bill and Julie) both have been bugging me to try it,” Ed said. “I don’t think it’s a matter of finishing. It’s a matter of whether we’re feeling good. We’re just going to take it easy and have fun. Enjoy the scenery. We’re not looking for any particular time.”
This feeling good thing is a great barometer as typically chiuldren have a better alarm system than adults of when things are going on too long.
Canadian Bruce Deacon ran a couple of marathons when he was 12 and 13 or 11 and 12...something like that. He ran in the Olympics twice, Worlds at least once and ran a couple of 2:13s. He last year ran 2:20 as a master a couple of times, one in boston....but he is just one guy...
The minimum age to run a marathon over here is 18!
terps wrote:
No matter what the father says, no kid consciously comes up with that type of racing plan. My experience is that 99% of the time, a parent is in the kid's ear, 24-7, planting the seed, until it magically becomes the kid's brilliant idea, then they play it off like he or she came up with it.
I'm 26 now. When I was 8 I loved distance running. My parents never ran. My dad signed me up for baseball which I didn't like because it was too slow and boring for me at the time. I asked them to sign me up for local 5k since I ran well at races at school on play day. I ran and had a blast. I ran like a 22:00 or something close for that first 5k. Since my town offered road races every week or two. I'd go to one race and see the table with flyers for all the races coming up. I'd pick one flyer up for each race and try and convince my parents to let me do them. I did a lot of them: 1 miles, 5ks, and 10ks. I won my age group every time. It was the most fun thing I did at the time. I never burned out either. I got to junior high and domintated my areas schools. I got to high school and qualified for state, I was no super stud but I loved it. I walked on a D1 team in college and ran there all four years. My biggest accomplishment was scoring a few points at conference. But I loved every season and every race. I still run a few road races a year that have prize money and sometimes I win and sometimes I don't. Anyway, my point is that there are some kids who do just love to run at a young age and it's not going to kill them and their parents aren't always pushing them to do it. I know this because I'm one of them.
if the kid is Tarahumaran it's perfectly normal
Another smart daddy. I bet he'll have his son at Vermont next year to not have his son out done by this 8 year old.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090312/SPORTS/903120371
Rojo,
An interesting statistic to find is hte retention rates of athletes in any given sport from HS to college. Then College to Pros. I have a hunch that running has a high retention rate.
Another Daddy wrote:
Another smart daddy. I bet he'll have his son at Vermont next year to not have his son out done by this 8 year old.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090312/SPORTS/903120371
Woah..."The youngster began running competitively in May 2007 and has completed nearly 100 5K races and about a dozen 10K races, according to his father, Spencer Beaver, who will also run Sunday's race."
So approximatley 112 races in the span of, up until the time of that article, about 22 months, or around 96 weeks...
There is a bit of a difference between 5km and the marathon!
http://www.kidsrunning.com/news/krnewsmarathonstatement.html
I doubt you will bother to read the whole lot, but in summary; his dad is a nutter!
I wonder if Kenyan children are running further than 5k and 10k. Thoughts?
Dean Koontz wrote:
Bad, pointless and damaging to the Child. The article was well written and the Father has the correct point of view, up until the point he allows his kid to run a marathon.
Rojo, children don't have a correct perception of what is right or wrong and what may do them harm in the future. I don't care if my kid begs and pleads to do a marathon - it's not going to happen.
I feel the same way about college runners. They run all those races for four years and when they get out of college, they stop. The only ones that continue are usually the best ones. Either they are burned out or they really didn't like running in the first place, they just needed it to get through school or did it to belong to a group. There are plenty of runners in the area I live that were great in college, but never run any races. Why? I ran in college for only a year and a half and I haven't stopped running since I was thirteen. I don't have much talent, but I love running and I really love races. I just don't understand why college runners give up. Maybe their parents should get them to stop before college unless they really, really, really like it.
African kids run 16 miles a day for school. Running 26 miles one time isn't going to hurt this kid, if anything it will be good for him. Take a look around and quit pissing your pants.
My son (now 11) has been running 5K's with me since he was 7. He does no structured training - just running as part of play as all kids should. I have a rule for races: 1 K per year of age. On his 10th birthday we did a local 10K. I'll amend the rule a bit when he turns 13 and let him run a 15K with me (a local favorite). A marathon is a little nuts at any age, but especially at 9.
According to your logic, he shouldn't run a marathon until hes 42.
I don't think the kid should move up to the marathon if hes gonna be that slow. He shouldn't just be aiming to "finish" but to RACE.