would you allow your grade schooler to run 5ks "for fun"?

Good time to teach about expenses and opportunity cost.

That's Great! Thanks for posting!

I dont know, man. I mean, I wouldnt want a hobby jogger for a son, reflects really bad on you, too.

"Haha, look guys, there he goes, that's the dad of that little 27min. hobby 5ker"

I let my kids do that and they ended up being very good high school runners and pretty good college runners, and even got a little bit of scholarship $$. What was I thinking when I told them in grade school that running can be fun and if you like to race we can do that?

My 5 year old daughter likes to go "run" with me when I finish a training run. She often goes 1-1.5 miles without any difficulty. I know people talk about "conversational pace" but a 5 year old will literally never stop talking so I know it is not too tough a pace for her. I assume she could run 5k without too much training and I would be ok with that if she wanted to do it. Going 10k or more would probably not be a good idea at such a young age.

I let my grade school aged boys run 5Ks (and for that matter play just about any other sport that catches their interest) "for fun". I think it's fine.

I do teach them that putting forth their best effort, sportsmanship, respect for officials, etc. are also important things to exhibit in any sort of competition. But I don't worry about whether or not they have any desire to "train".

Sometimes they ask if they can run a couple of miles with me to get ready for a race or something. Other times they want to go play football in the backyard with the other kids...that's fine with me too.

I make sure my 8 year old is running consistent 20 mile weeks with a track workout and tempo before I let him race. If they can go to travel soccer practice 4 times a week, they can train for this sport before they compete

It depends on if they have any running talent. If they have talent, then no because it will ruin them. If you're sure there is no running career in their future, then go ahead and let them run.

Absolutely let the kids race without training. What grade school kid wants to train? And if they do, I'll bet considerable coinage that that desire won't last past HS. My two kids (12&15) always loved to race but for sports they played soccer and lacrosse. Now, the 15 year old is a full-time runner and doing quite well. The 12 year old won't run if her life depends on it. Both were treated the exact same way but they had different interests. Let sports be fun in grade school, if they're workers, let them find that on their own.

absolutely. Some top hs runners start around age 5 or 6 when mommy and/or daddy are running and are hs varsity level by middle school