8 yr old - 1 mile time

Not really indicative of muc of anything that he is a pretty good runner for his age right now. My daughter ran ~7:05-7:10 at that age and had great success early in middle school. She is now in high school and enjoys running for her team but is far from a star. Too many things go into any sort of projection for it to be accurate in any way.

My 9 year old son just ran a 6:12 mile in his track meet yesterday and came in 3rd.

He ran a 6:29 at his last meet last year at age 8 and was smoked by a couple of other kids that were in the 6:05 range. I live in Cali.

Your son could be great but there are a ton of kids naturally faster.

I ran a 6:28 as an 8 yr. old, it was a race called the Seaside beach mile, Seaside Oregon circa 1971. The race was on the sand and I ran it barefoot, I still remember just about collapsing at the finish.

I trained for about two months to get ready. The cool thing I discovered was that I could clean and jerk 60 lbs. free weight (I probably weighed about 70-75).

I was definitely not a running talent, just applied myself.

I did a 7:10 on cinder during gym class with basketball shoes and was the chubby kid who was quick with no training. Growing up I was about 2-3 years behind in developement (growth and hormones) as the other kids so I didnt improve like they did. I would say it is indicative of a great physio system but maybe not running. Found my sport in Triathlon esp on the bike. Try lots of sports.

Too young to tell and too young to start formal training

Wow, those are some fast times... so if your son is running in track meets, does he train with a team or at a school? Also, it's hard to imagine there are kids running 6:05 without at least some kind of formal training.....

I ran 6:03 when I was 8 (3rd grade track). (CYO - competed against 4th graders that year). My "training" was that I generally ran to and from school and just about everywhere I went.

Went on to run 9:21 (3200) and 4:25 (1600) in HS and 14:30 5k, 30:40 10k in college.

My sons are in their 30s now. I checked and the younger one ran 6:21 for the mile at 8. In high school he was about a 9:45 3200, and in college he went about 3:56 for the 1500. Decent but nothing special.

He is on the Thousand Oaks Flyers track team (last year he ran on another team). Anyone in the area can join. They are a pretty serious and practice 4 days a week plus the meet. I only let him go 2X a week because there is no point in having him grow up hating running. Track is only 3 months a year. He plays soccer in the fall and basketball in the winter/spring.

He only runs during track season but did break 1 hour at a hilly 10k at age 8. Like I said though, there are a lot faster kids out there but most of them will burn out because their parents push them too hard because they have zero lives of their own. It is sad.

loled pretty good

Your son has talent, but how he'll develop is based on a number of things that are hard to predict. Some kids look like stars-in-the-making in middle school, but then turn out to be fairly average high school runners. Some kids suck in middle school, and then kick ass in high school and college.

My sophomore year of high school I had very average, unremarkable speed and only scored a point or two the entire year in outdoor track. By my senior year I was MVP, all-state, held-multiple school records and was recruited to a DI university. My point being, success is hard to predict at a young age. At 8 years old, just let your son have fun, support him, and see what happens.

The hell is with these times. I ran 8:30 when I was 10...

I take my 4 year old for 'runs'. We end up running at his speed for about a block and then looking at frogs for 10 minutes. We then running whatever direction that he wants to go. Basically he is learning that going outside and running around is fun. I would not want a kid that age through age 8 doing anything but having fun when running like that.

i'd give it time. after seeing children go through the program, its realy hard to determine a future champion at age 8.

lots of people thought jordan hassay wasnt gonna make it at the big level just because how good she was when she was young.

that's nothing. When my daughter was not yet two, she would run the whole mile to the park, of course fartlek style, alongside the jogging stroller most days and she continued that until she was almost three and a half, when she began school. I always had the stroller whenever she tired and wanted a push and for the nap but she just loved to run. She's nearly four now and since she started a three day a week school where she is sedentary for a lot of the day, particularly in bad weather, she hasn't wanted to run much at all, though she loved running several kids fun runs this year. I conclude from all this (the general shape produced simply by an active kid's lifestyle prior to school and the shape lost by being in school) that if we want to compete with the Kenyans and we aren't going to have our kids run to school, we need to home school our kids. Schools don't want kids, even at this age, running around their classrooms, squelching their natural energy so as to promote 'discipline.'

waitwut wrote:

The hell is with these times. I ran 8:30 when I was 10...

No kidding. Ran 29:15 10 in college and don't think I ever ran faster than a 7:30 mile until I was in jr. high.

I think over half of these times are fake. I didn't break 7 until junior high, and I'd consider myself an average runner. To think that it is normal to be under 7 minutes as an 8 year old is absurd.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Too young to tell and too young to start formal training

This ^ is the right answer.

Now go home and forget about your son's running for at least 4 years.

Justhavehimrun4fun wrote:

My 9 year old son just ran a 6:12 mile in his track meet yesterday and came in 3rd.

He ran a 6:29 at his last meet last year at age 8 and was smoked by a couple of other kids that were in the 6:05 range. I live in Cali.

Your son could be great but there are a ton of kids naturally faster.

A ton? I really doubt that. Do you know what the hundredth percentile means? It means he is in the company of very few his age.