As a person who ran a marathon at age 7 (3:50:55), I can see the argument for both allowing it and not. In my case, it was not a stunt, there was no social media or attention (it was 1975), it was just me wanting to run after seeing Frank Shorter's 1972 Olympic win. It was fun for me because I was in shape and prepared for it after running with my dad (he called it 'Dad and lad time') for the better part of 3 years to that point. In fact, those years running with my dad has set up a lifetime of a love of running.
However, from what I gathered from the previous posts, this kid was unprepared and had an 8.5 hour sufferfest. That is not right and I object to subjecting him to that. There is nothing like a traumatic event like that to kill the love of the sport. And if this was just a stunt by the parents to get attention, shame on them!
I'm not saying the marathon was a hoax, but it was clearly a stunt to use their 6 year old to garner media attention and it will probably work, although not necessarily in the way that they hoped.
The family has merch and books and music to sell! How are they supposed to do that sitting at home with no media attention?
Their merch store actually sells "Safety Second" T-Shirts.
I would have thought this would be something LRC could unite on but here we are. A 6 year old shouldn't be running a marathon. If you want to go all free speech or whatever, that's your prerogative. A parent should have the right to choose (ok & so should a woman when it comes to abortion)!! Okay, & they should choose no marathon for their six year old. Every time. Most marathons I've done have age requirements. It sounds like the race waived theirs because the family produces content. This all seemed very avoidable.
I remember doing similar things with my parents. I also remember summer play when, between the various outdoor games, pickup soccer games, going for a snack in the neighboring shopping area, etc, I would clock 20-30miles per day.
Leaving aside the issue of whether or not a six year old should run the marathon, some of us are kind of pissed off about the race director comping the fees for this publicity-hungry family, and allowing them to start in a corral with the faster runners when they should have started in the very back. Plus the father admitted to banditting the race in previous years. Those of us who try to play by the rules would really like an explanation and apology, and not the statement the race put out about how they carefully evaluate individual requests, blah, blah, blah.
6 year olds will turn on the tears at the drop of a hat. The fact that the kid cried doesn't mean he was abused. I got my 6 year old to go on hikes that were 6-7 miles. If he was interested in the terrain (lots of rocks to climb on), he was good to go for the entire route. If it got boring, he would whine, pretend that he was tired and feign some sort of injury (only to perk up and run around at the campsite after the hike was over).
A marathon is just too extreme for a six year old. I would not say that it was child abuse, but it was dumb parenting. Too many parents these days want their kids to be a national level talent at whatever their kids are interested in and just ruin their kids' childhood.
I'm not saying the marathon was a hoax, but it was clearly a stunt to use their 6 year old to garner media attention and it will probably work, although not necessarily in the way that they hoped.
I just watched their Wife Swap episode the other day
I would have thought this would be something LRC could unite on but here we are. A 6 year old shouldn't be running a marathon. If you want to go all free speech or whatever, that's your prerogative. A parent should have the right to choose (ok & so should a woman when it comes to abortion)!! Okay, & they should choose no marathon for their six year old. Every time. Most marathons I've done have age requirements. It sounds like the race waived theirs because the family produces content. This all seemed very avoidable.
Aren't you the one that goes into all the trans threads supporting the parents that put their pre-adolescent children on permanently damaging "transition care" steroids and surgery? And yet you have a problem with parents letting their active kids run a marathon?
Leaving aside the issue of whether or not a six year old should run the marathon, some of us are kind of pissed off about the race director comping the fees for this publicity-hungry family, and allowing them to start in a corral with the faster runners when they should have started in the very back. Plus the father admitted to banditting the race in previous years. Those of us who try to play by the rules would really like an explanation and apology, and not the statement the race put out about how they carefully evaluate individual requests, blah, blah, blah.
You must be one of those too woke and slow 6+ hour "runners that don't actually run" to think anyone owes you anything let alone an apology. Who do you think you are?
In no way is traveling around, hiking, enjoying a city or going to Disneyland or anywhere else the same as going in an organized race and being forced to finish it by your parents. There are both physical and mental challenges that are completely different.
1) Yes, a 6 year old running a marathon is ridiculous.
2) The Flying Pig Marathon should not have allowed it.
3) I don't care that they took more than 8 hours to finish. RIDICULOUS to have a 6 year old do that. How is the official cut off not faster than 8 hours?
4) I won't go so far as to call this child abuse, but it is for sure bad parenting, and the parents are clearly idiots.
What are the parents hoping to accomplish by subjecting their kid to this experience?
I don't know if there are any definitive medical or scientific studies on the effects of type of stress on minors (how many kids have done something like this), but many doctors recommend against it. As a parent, why would you even risk it?