What’s the youngest you’d let your kid run a marathon?

25 if male. 28 if female.

25 years old.

Doesn’t make sense to me until you’re 23. Work on your 1500/3k speed in your high school years, 5k/10k in college years, and then rally I’d say get used to 10k-half marathon for a couple more years, then around 24 do the first marathon. This is all if your goal is to be as fast as possible. If a high school kid doesn’t ever want to run fast then go ahead and run a marathon, they’ll be fine

What kind of God complex leads people to think that they should be completely in charge of someone's life just because the individual is their biological offspring? How about backing off and letting this person live their own life?

I'd probably let HS freshman (maybe sophomore) do it if they had the ability and desire to. I wouldn't let them specifically train for it and/or race it though. If they wanted to train/race it I'd wait until they were 18 or 20.

It's a rare 10 year old that wants to do the training to run 26.2 instead of rotting their brain looking at a screen. But for my kids who are 12 and 15, they're in cross country, so they're doing 5K's, roughly. If they wanted to train for and run a 10K with me, off season, I'd be okay with it. After that, if all went well and they wanted to progress to a half while in high school, I think I'd be okay with it if their motivation and training seemed appropriate. Only then, if their heart was really into it, would I want them doing 26.2.

But this is not something I have to worry about because when my kids have a block of free time where they could run, they seem much happier lounging around their rooms, doing nothing.

off season wrote:

Assuming they have the talent and the desire, what’s the youngest you’d let you kid run a marathon?

I swear I saw a kid who couldn’t have been 10 cruising along in probably a sub 3:20 pace over the weekend. He looked smooth at the halfway point, but still.

Thoughts?

Well, what marathon was it? We can look in the results and finds out how old he was and how fast he ran.

I was 16 for my first. It was the day after cross country and the day before indoor track ended. My coach was not pleased!

I ran my first marathon at age 12 in 3:25:20 back in November 1981. My brother had run one the year before at age 16 and, after watching him run, I told my mom I wanted to run with him the following year. It didn't have any negative effects on me that I'm aware of and I enjoyed it, although the last 10k was pretty tough. My longest run 3 weeks before it was 14 miles and I figured if I could run at least half the distance in training, then I could complete the full marathon distance. Twelve years later at age 24, I did my 2nd marathon (2:27:50), then ended up with a PR of 2:24:31 at age 29.

Back in 1981, running marathons wasn't frowned upon for kids like it is these days. I don't have kids, but if I did, I would have them wait until age 18 to run a marathon, but ultimately it would be their decision.

I'm assuming this was MO Cowbell because my husband said he saw a 10 year old running the marathon as well.

My oldest is 9 and we are debating on whether or no to let her run her schools 5k this weekend or do the Fun Run.

20-21...next question.

24 because they could be done with their college running by then

emmmoore wrote:

I was 16 for my first. It was the day after cross country and the day before indoor track ended. My coach was not pleased!

I was 15 and trained for it. It was the most important race for me that year. Didn't have a coach: no one to be pissed about it. Parents totally on board. My dad even drove my whole posse to the event.

Another level wrote:

24 because they could be done with their college running by then

This is, of course the standard answer. It's what all but maybe 3 posters are thinking. Thing is, I don't coach high school nor college track and it wouldn't bother me in the least if every kid ran road races and didn't join your teams. I didn't subject myself to the whims of school-employed track coaches and am surprised all of you do/did.

Do you own thing. Run the 100 if you're into it. The marathon if that's you deal. Who cares if these coaches (I realize that's many of you on the Board) are out of a job? If I had been somehow forced to run for a school team, and especially if forced to run mid-D events, I would have quit running altogether. That's the downside to demanding you kids either run for the school or not at all. I was decent at long distances then - won my age group fairly regularly - and am OK at it well into middle age - likely to win my division in a few weeks.

Demanding kids fit into the school plan is perhaps acceptable if the 1500 is their best event. If they're (like me and many of us) only competitive at 10k and up, you're doing them a disservice. The demands most of you make (you must run for a high school team prior to 18 then a college team until 23) would have cost me a rewarding lifetime passion. As it turns out, I was allowed to run the events I was good at and still do. Whatever complaints I may have about my late parents notwithstanding, I am certainly grateful for that allowance.

Although I don't necessarily agree 100% with this guy's conclusion (I'd be more permissive about it) he is deadly accurate about the '70s and '80s scene. I did one on 1979 and the same race again in '80. It was considered OK according to parents and peers. 17-and under or 18-and under was a deep division. I went under 3 that first one, and faster yet the next, but was so far back that I didn't medal in my age group at either of those. I did in some races, especially 10ks, but not that one.

This particular marathon was a significant regional race that I can guarantee you hadn't heard of unless you were from that part of that State. So I'm not talking something that brings out the talent from the whole continent, much less Kenya. This was not Boston: just a prominent local marathon. And you had to be in the 2:40s to even think about top-3 Boys. 2:50s medalled for Girls, although at 2:54 I was behind the winner of that division as well. 34 flat won Boys at a random 10k. If it was a bigger, well-known regional race, 33 was off the podium. I don't mean overall - that would be sub 30 obscure race and sub 29 bigger. I meant my age group.

This may seem shocking now, but a ton of kids were doing it. We had 4 just from one class at my school ride with my dad. We saw so many our age that we didn't meet them. It was not a novelty to have teenagers at a road race. They must not have run for their school teams. I mean, I don't really know. I didn't know them nor go to their schools, but I know where they were on a Saturday during track season, so they must not have. What's changed? Maybe some of you can explain.....

17, cause at 18 I could not stop them.

Luv2Run wrote:

17, cause at 18 I could not stop them.

PS: this is my kid, but I can see where there would be rare cases a parent might let a younger kid do it. I just don't see a lot of benefits to it.

I am so happy for you. I was asked the question of when MY kids should run a marathon not just any kids. My kids don’t suck at running so they run in college. So because of that they can’t just run whatever they want because they have a team and scholarships to uphold and a coach to answer to.

YeahNo wrote:

My oldest is 9 and we are debating on whether or no to let her run her schools 5k this weekend or do the Fun Run.

You're joking, right?