9-year-old jogs marathon

These two kids both run in my area. their respective fathers ore over the top. the one boy who ran the marathon is on a training program in which the dad takes him to local races monday, tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. Friday is a hill or track workout and sunday is a long run. Many saturdays the travel to races. the local races are all from 2.4 miles up to 5 milers. The other boy is on a similar schedule going to most of the local races. the fathers definitely put pressure on the kids. i thought the training schedule was brutal enough but to have a 9 year old running a marathon has pushed me over the top. i just really feel bad for the kids. the 9 year old was back into his training schedule. he just raced a rugged 5k on the trails on wednesday.

Medical staff would flag Bill’s bib number before the race, to better respond if something goes wrong, Alosa said. Staff refrain from using names and ages over the radio, she said.

Is this saying that they would not be able to tell which one is the 9yr old boy without having that bib number?

In response to the comments about "Still Running:" relax! I am now 43. I ran my first marathon at age 8. No pushing at all from my parents whatsoever. I ran three that year, five or six marathons the next year, and probably five or six the next year, too. Back then, it was not a big deal. Lots of kids did it. I ran 3:15 at age 9, broke 3 hours at age 11, ran 2:46 at age 16 (OK, not world class), competed all four years in HS, all four years in collge, post-collegiately and I still run every day. I just ran my 35th PV Marathon. I did not burn out. I have run 800 meter races at all comers meets, 1500's, 5K's, 50K's and even a 50 mile race (see the 10/11/76 Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd). Some people just like the sport and love to pin on a number, hear the gun and compete. It is healthy. Relax folks. Here, in SoCal, there are lots of folks like Ron Kurrle, Don Ocana and Gary Tuttle who still race often, even though they are far from their 1975 era PR's. They just enjoy the sport. And yes, I have several kids - they do not run yet in races. If they want to, fine. If not, that is OK, too. Let the kids run a marathon. It won't kill them - maybe they'll discover a sport they like, so that is good.

Pissing my pants? Interesting. I think the other article gets to my point about parental obsessions. It's all about age group records for long distance races, which is not something a 7 or 9 year old contemplates, unless someone else is feeding them the information incessantly. I witness it every day. From the outside, it looks innocent. Cute little runner passing adults. Volunteer for a youth track club, and you'll see how it plays out. I seriously doubt that any doctor, physical therapist, or any coach at any level, would advise the parent to promote these racing distances, if the parent was willing to seek consultation. As for the Kenyans, which were destined to be interjected into the conversation, it's one thing to run freely from here to there, and everywhere, and it's another for a parent to register a kid for road race after road race, to compete week after week with the "age group record" hanging over his or her head. We all know that.

Kevin Strain from Alaska used to run a ton of races as a youth. I believe he ran a marathon at age 4 or 5. He held every running record imaginable. Mary Etta Boitano from the San Francisco area (Pamakids was her club) was another age group marathoner - I think she ran 3:03 at age 11 in a women's only marathon. Daven Chun of the Hunky Bunch in Hawaii was another age group ace, as was Reggie Heywood (age 10 - 2:57 marathon) and Tom Ansberry, who ran 2:43 at age 13. Tom went on to break 29 for 10,000. But what about the others? Anyone know what these folks are up to now?

I find it funny that you think parents force kids into running Marathons. I loved marathon running when I was a kid. I burned my dad out trying to run. In fact, I screamed and yelled when I had to run the half marathon instead of the marathon. And just going to say here, but as a young kid I despised people like you. People like you ruin the fun that is in running. You might say that parents force kids into running, and it would seem like it, but it's just not true. Running is a great sport and it's a lot of fun. Putting blantless age limits on Marathons is pointless and achieves nothing. It ruins just going out and giving it your all and just enjoying nature. Why would you want kids to run 5ks and 10ks? There all power and the people in them generally are always just racing times. I would have much, much, much prefered to to run a half marathon or marathon.

But I do agree that parents forcing kids into running a marathon is not ok. But it happens less than you think. Adults enjoy marathon running, so why can't kids? Answer me that. Why can't kids?

And yeah, 4:20 is a pretty good marathon time for someone that age but not amazing. But seriously, let kids do what they want. Let them run marathons. 5ks and 10ks are kind of fun runs, but there just not long runs. In my opinion, it's perfectly ok to do marathons at that age. As long as the parents aren't forcing them in to it(which, like I said, happens less than you think) it's A OK.

At the age you should be racing in youth track meets, running on an xc team, something like that. Just doing road races, especilly marathons would be for the losers that cant, or dont compete vs their contemporaries. It's actually EASIER to do a marathon or 1/2 marathon than to line up and race someone your age in a 5k.

It's a load of bs that this could do anything negative to him, physically. Any negative effects would be easily remedied by maybe 2 or 3 weeks off from running, anyway.

I was a sub 20-21 minute 5k runner(Age 11-12 when a lot of this was happening). And I lived in the South.... In West TN...Who could I possibly compete with? I did race 4-5 milers, 10ks(sub-45 minute 10k), and 5ks. Any competition I did beat. The simple fact of the matter was I had NO competition under the age of 14. 5ks and 4 milers were ok, and I enjoyed them, but honestly I didn't see it the way you were seeing it. I wasn't scared to run against people in my age group. It's just that I was naturally much, much better at the long distances. I had a high V02 max and I was kind of naturally blood doped. The whole family(besides my mother, a 2:30 halver) was pretty naturally good at running.

It's the way I was raised. Besides, I bec a good XC in HS and did RR and was very very good at it. So it worked out.

I ran a marathon at age 14, back in the 1980's.

No-one pushed me to do it. My sister just entered me in it for a laugh, and I decided to do it.

It was fun. It didn't burn me out. Ran it nice and easy. Liked it so much, I came back the following year.

After that, concentrated on 800/1500. Then found my niche as a 10k runner.

9 is pretty young. And I'm not sure about the whole pushy-parent thing. But one thing I do know is that kids these days get wrapped in way too much cotton wool.

Reggie Heywood is a religious leader in my church congregation called a ' bishop's . Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. He mentioned he does walk for hours in the morning. Not sure if he is still racing. He resides in Mesa, AZ