13 Year Girl Runs a 29:37 8K

The question I have is WHY run this much? She doesn't run 65 mpw just to stay healthy; she can be healthy on 0 mpw. She doesn't run 65 mpw to be competitive in age-group competition if she doesn't run any regional or national level youth track or xc. Her dad's vision is to build the ultimate fighting machine for what I don't know...high school championships?...d1 collegiate scholarship...the Olympic games. Whatever the goal it's not immediate so Alana has been asked to spend her childhood building unprecedented milage for some future purpose. What level of success would justify this build up?

September 2011 wrote:

The question I have is WHY run this much? She doesn't run 65 mpw just to stay healthy; she can be healthy on 0 mpw. She doesn't run 65 mpw to be competitive in age-group competition if she doesn't run any regional or national level youth track or xc. Her dad's vision is to build the ultimate fighting machine for what I don't know...high school championships?...d1 collegiate scholarship...the Olympic games. Whatever the goal it's not immediate so Alana has been asked to spend her childhood building unprecedented milage for some future purpose. What level of success would justify this build up?

Maybe she just likes running. I ran about 50 a week when I was that age, just for the hell of it.

September 2011 wrote:

...Her dad's vision is to build the ultimate fighting machine for what I don't know...high school championships...

I do not see this at all in Alana's and Mark's case. Alana loves running, and is extremely self-motivated. Her father is not pushing her like some other cases I've seen in my 17 years in this business. She's also incredibly bright, and really loves the science of training. You've got talk to her to believe how much she knows about conditioning the human body already.

At the same time, she's still a regular 13 year-old, who loves pepperoni pizza, singing in her choir, and reading age-appropriate fiction. I even did a training run with her (well part of training run because she was killing me) so we could chat freely. This girl is not under any undo duress.

I share all of your concerns about what happens to a young body when it's worked much harder than normal. Her lack of injuries is remarkable, however, and you have to take that into account in your analysis. I'm very supportive of the Hadleys and only wish them the best. They truly take it one step at a time.

-David Monti, Professional Athletes Consultant

New York Road Runners

P.S. I absolutely promise not to pursuede her to run the ING NYC Marathon any time soon ;=)

September 2011 wrote:

The question I have is WHY run this much? She doesn't run 65 mpw just to stay healthy; she can be healthy on 0 mpw. She doesn't run 65 mpw to be competitive in age-group competition if she doesn't run any regional or national level youth track or xc. Her dad's vision is to build the ultimate fighting machine for what I don't know...high school championships?...d1 collegiate scholarship...the Olympic games. Whatever the goal it's not immediate so Alana has been asked to spend her childhood building unprecedented milage for some future purpose. What level of success would justify this build up?

Go back and read MPR's (Mark's) posts. There is no stated goal for her down the road necessarily. I don't think he's asked anything other than "do you want to be a runner?". Read the Running Times article and if there is video of her NY 10k interview, watch it. She enjoys running and her dad is doing everything he can to facilitate her success. They may have aspirations of footlocker championships or olympic medals but what kid doesn't? I wanted to be a Tour de France rider when I was 8. My dad got me a bike and told me I had a lot of work to do. He didn't have the knowledge to point me in the right direction and I lost focus after a year. Mark does have the knowledge. As a parent, he's doing what every other parent does to help their child be successful. Whether it's swimming (which is much crazier), soccer, piano, choir, violin, or whatever, parents have a job to help their children find a passion and pursue it. It just happens that he's a great coach and can help her more than other parents, like my dad.

All runners are "underweight" by non-running standards.

Shalane Flanagan is 5'5" and 110-115 lbs which would make her like, 15-20 lbs underweight?

Tirunesh Dibaba is 5"6" and 95-105 lbs which makes he like 20-30 lbs underweight?

One of them is the World record holder, the other is the fastest American female at 10,000m. Don't ever try and bring up weight unless you're discussing it intelligently.

September 2011 wrote:

Her dad's vision is to build the ultimate fighting machine for what I don't know...high school championships?...d1 collegiate scholarship...the Olympic games. Whatever the goal it's not immediate so Alana has been asked to spend her childhood building unprecedented milage for some future purpose. What level of success would justify this build up?

Maybe, just maybe, it is not her Dad's vision, but HER vision. Kids want to grow up to be awesome - whatever they think awesome to be. Firefighters, policemen, astronauts, heroes and, if they love sport, olympic champions. She has the situation to be able to legitimately pursue that - is that bad?

Is she likely to be a gold medallist one day? Statistically, probably not, but what parent would say to their kids' dreams, "Forget it! You have no chance!"? Surely a good parent would encourage their kid to pursue their dreams in a safe way, just as MPR is doing. The journey, the trying, is a great thing in and of itself.

And David Monti's endorsement of the family speaks volumes. Way, way more than any anonymous message board poster who got injured / burnt out as a kid in very different circumstances.

And even if she is successful, she'll have to deal with threads like this on Lets Run - is this a part of her training?

Why don't you re-read my post so you can understand it before you criticize it?

Yes, I think I can talk about weight "intelligently."

I was responding to an early post suggesting that her weight was not healthy. I was pointing out that her weight, while low, is not necessarily unhealthy - is that of a prepubescent girl who runs a lot.

Read please. Thanks

Do we know when her next race is?

After reading all these posts, I just want to ask, "What is all the fuss?"

I don't find anything so amazing about her times. That is considering she is running 65 miles per week. Having had a son run distance years ago, I believe there are hundreds if not thousands that could run her times given this training.

It is good she enjoys it, but what will Dad say one day if she walks in and says "It's not fun any more?"

The other point is assuming I she truly loves the sport, and continues, where can she go from here? She already runs the distance of the elite high school girls, so at this mileage is very unlikely to improve further. Increasing it further will very quickly move her to the levels of elite college aged women and run the risk of injury. If you don't increase the mileage, others will catch up and then how interested will she be when she is no longer the center of attention?

I hope the best for her, but think she will quickly plateau due to the already high mileage and ultimately lose interest.

scottdye wrote:

I hope the best for her, but think she will quickly plateau due to the already high mileage and ultimately lose interest.

Or...she will use her mega base to whoop up on NCAA athletes. It doesn't have to be black or white here. How about she moves on from running and becomes a world class physiologist, singer, etc.?

The best thing about running, aside from being a great developer of grit, is that it provides the brain with all the blood flow it needs to go on and do great things. So who cares if she doesn't become a World beater?

There is great benefit to just getting out there and moving. And at 65 mpw she's moving more than your average slacker. Sure there are risks associated with such a schedule but certainly in this case the rewards outweigh the risks.

Here’s to her using her talents for good.

so your saying its not a legit time? Not aided by down not impeded by up - yet not a legit deal? - Whats the course record?

Guys here we go again. This only popped up on a search I did because my daughter just ran exact same time for 8k 29:37. Oh and she is 12 and it was on a hill course in Moruya fun run. This is not to detract from the other girl everything is fine. 14 mile not so good. No older than age up to 10=10k then 2k per year after that till 16 for a boy 18 for a girl. There is no point anyway dad just some friendly advise as I have been through all this before guys. remember Josh and Monna half marathon and all his quick times. You all said he would flop well now 18, 4:04 mile won so many titles and all the way up to half marathons and going strong.

scottdye wrote:

After reading all these posts, I just want to ask, "What is all the fuss?"

I hope the best for her, but think she will quickly plateau due to the already high mileage and ultimately lose interest.

She appears to be no longer running competitively but is enjoying college and life. She looked to be enjoying her running and training when younger and had a lot of success.

Her case is different to how it is with a lot of young runners in that her father was her coach and they had a long term plan of increasing mileage year by year with the goal of eventually becoming a successful marathon runner. To my knowledge she didn't compete for her school or enjoy the team aspects of running. Most other young runners follow typical high school coaching programs and only race distances of 5k to 8k when in their mid to later teenage years.

We all know of the superstar 12/13 year old who flashed brilliance and then at 20 was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully these athletes have something more than their running in life. Interesting post but the last few bits are of interest. Hopefully the young girl who ran well in Moroya continues with the sport as in the big scheme of LTAD what does it matter what she does at 13?