college kid wrote:
TrackCoach wrote:http://www.omaha.com/article/20120918/LIVEWELL02/709189953/1685#boy-13-who-finished-10th-in-corporate-cup-has-olympic-dreamsI am not sure if it is the record becasue some other 13 yo have run close to that; the Torres and McDougals come to mind. If this is the same kid I saw run at the USATF JO, he is extremely talented. He won the 3k in what converts to about a 9:10 2-mile and never looked stressed doing it. If this is the same kid, he has a sister that looks really good as well. He did not look overly mature; however I would say he was an inch or 2 taller than the average 13 yo and him and his sister looked like they had some training under their belts.
If a 9:34 3k converts to a 9:10 2-mile, then yes. BTW, a 9:10 2-mile by a 13 year-old that isn't even 5' tall would be more impressive than Bekele breaking 26 minutes in the 10k.
The kid I am thinking of was probably 14, he could have been a pre high school 14 turning 15 yo. Also, he was well over 5 feet and ran in the low 8:40s. This is from memory, which isn't always perfect.
Most of the young phenoms who continued to improve where good at the 800/mile and moved up in distance as they got older. In high school, the longest distance on the track is generally the 2-mile and 5k in cross country. In general, being able to run a fast mile at 13 is a better predictor of natural talent. Running times in long distances at a young age to an extent just means that kid is getting in more volume. I don't have a problem with young kids running long distance, but I don't agree with training for long distance when in high school you are basically going to be a middle distance runner.
Btw, this is not a negative post because a 13 yo running a 33:50 10k is impressive, but I would be more impressed if he ran 4:30 mile for example.