I have watched this play out for the last year. This is not a case of her casually running sub 20. This pre pubescent girl has been training for this. Long term development should be the goal. Race organizers should set an age requirement of 14+ to protect the child from over zealous parents and coaches.
Nah, i wouldn't ban kids from running races. For every kid with parents pushing kids to train for racing, there are dozens out there just jogging with their parents and friends having a good time and seeing that running could be something they do their whole life.
For the 5K distance, I don't think there should be age restrictions, but I don't think one-off performances like this should be so publicized.
The Canadian Carrie Garritson. Hopefully dad is less crazy than Mike.
Garritson was from Orange County, CA USA
News From: Monday, October 8, 2001 Mt. Rushmore Marathon Human Interest Story Mt. Rushmore Marathon: 11-year-old takes 15th (Rapid City Journal) 11 year old Nigel Sharp finished his 6th marathon at this Sunday's Mt. Rushmore race. He was 9 when he ran his first 26.2 miles.
Nigel Sharp from Regina, Canada ran a bunch of marathons in 2000-2001--I remember passing him in a Calgary 10k in 2001 thinking that there was a 1k start at the same time since he was like 4 feet tall! too bad since he ran decent times -37 minute 10k and 3:05? for a marathon, but he had one of those crazy dads that burned him out; I always think what if he did other sports and waited until 13 or 14 to race 10ks let alone marathons; Of course the media gave him attention, as opposed to the smart thing which would be not allowing him to race long distances...
Yes, I agree. In Ontario, kids who are ten race 2km cross country and that's also the furthest they can run on the track. However, there are usually no age requirements at twilight meets, road races, and trail races. No one wants to stop a kid from running a fun run and most road races offer a 1km option for that reason. We want to achieve long term development of the athlete. If you check out Sawyer's public Instagram account, run by her Dad, you will see the endless training she has done for years.
If I was near her at the finish line I would be afraid to do a sprint finish. I would look awkward and dumb battling a little girl, even if I beat her. If I didn't try to beat her I would still look awkward being behind her. I think the best thing would be to just DNF a few hundred metres from the finish to avoid being in the same photo as her. At the moment I'm lucky to run more than once a week so I'm afraid her finish time would be a really great race effort for me in my current shape. I wouldn't want to be in that race unless I was back to normal fitness
The same girl broke the 11 year old age group world record on the weekend. I do worry about kids getting so much press at this age, there has to be undue pressure even in the best of environments.
The same girl broke the 11 year old age group world record on the weekend. I do worry about kids getting so much press at this age, there has to be undue pressure even in the best of environments.
In addition to road races, she's currently competing for club AND school teams per the article. I've seen kids like this before, and it didn't end well.
The Canadian Carrie Garritson. Hopefully dad is less crazy than Mike.
Garritson was from Orange County, CA USA
He was saying it's the Canadian version of Carrie Garritson, not that Garritson was from Canada. But I agree. We don't want another runner dad in the picture like her dad.
I'd say it's incredibly embarrassing how unathletic those 1400 people are who she beat. Good for the kid--but I'm also one who wouldn't necessarily recommend competitive distance running to prepubescent girls.
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