I don't have a kid.
I don't have a kid.
Well seeing as how the longest race she has run is the mile. And her training hasn’t been much more than that. And she’s not really asking to do the 5k. The fun run is for kids 8 and under but she’s one of the five oldest in the class that is 9. And I don’t want her to hate running by age 9.5…. So definitely not kidding.
2 and no younger
Not while in high school or before, especially if they are running track or CC. If they WEREN'T HS athletes and at age 16 or so they came to me wanting to run a marathon because they were soliciting donations to help a classmate who had cancer or something like that, then I likely would have said OK.
If a kid is serious about running in high school, then there is no room in reasonable training to run a marathon.
Best to do it after high school or after college if a college athlete.
AFAIAC, any age they can be responsibly left alone or in a crowd - which is usually 13.
The question is more not what age I'd let a kid run a marathon - but what age a marathon would let a kid run it - often, 18, but some permit 16-17 with parental permission.
To "just finish" including relaxing and walking 10 with other people doing the same thing. To race it? How many people can really "race" a marathon? Not in my family genealogy ever.
I got my OTQ and raced in the trials at 21 during my senior year of college. I had a serious falling out with the college XC coach because of this and was not allowed to compete collegiately during that year. Although marathoning is something I really love and I did well and probably made the right decision for my strengths, now that I am a bit removed from college and have suffered A LOT of training injuries and am in yet another marathon build up (which has also been beset with injuries) I do kind of wish I had focused on XC/ track while I had the chance. There is plenty of time to race the marathon but unless you are one of a select few, the time for running XC/ track is short.
Not sure how posters here have a say in what sports their kids play after 18 yoa. I would neither want to, nor try to dictate but would certainly advise from there on.
Ernest wrote:
The question is more not what age I'd let a kid run a marathon - but what age a marathon would let a kid run it - often, 18, but some permit 16-17 with parental permission.
This is what I thought - I am not sure many (national or local) marathons would let someone of 16 run, unless they got special dispensation e.g. they were known members of the club organising, or specifically approached the RD and asked etc. Or lied about age (which I know some have done).
To answer OP: Some can realistically be fine (esp male) in early teens if they have trained. When talking about your own kid/s, obviously you want in practice to be more careful than the bare minimum theoretically doable.
So, in practice for my own kid/s, I would say about 16/17 if they were healthy, training/racing at least 1500m/XC in school (or another demanding sport), and had done at least one 10-miler or half-marathon - to understand the road-running environment from a runners' POV (use of water stations, nutrition, navigating crowds of runners/pacing, start/finish layout). You can get the latter from 5ks or 10ks, which are great but more at stake in the longer stuff.
I'd be happy with 16 if they were prepared as above, and of course were mature enough to be ok if, for example, they'd a massive bonk at mile 18 and were running solo - but that maturity is not dependent on age per se
Young kids are resilient. I'd strongly suspect that, although not recommended, even a reasonably physically fit younger children could easily handle a off-one marathon at an easy pace. A five year old just completed the entire Appalachian Trail in 209 days with his parents.
However, I suspect it'd be a problem if the kid was subjected to an intense training program and entered multiple marathons.
you had me at meat tornado wrote:
Young kids are resilient. I'd strongly suspect that, although not recommended, even a reasonably physically fit younger children could easily handle a off-one marathon at an easy pace. A five year old just completed the entire Appalachian Trail in 209 days with his parents.
However, I suspect it'd be a problem if the kid was subjected to an intense training program and entered multiple marathons.
a guy posted that a couple messages back. Hobby jogging a bunch of 9 min miles is no big deal. Training and racing it is a borderline idea at best.
At least 18. Wouldn't recommend it until 24-26 range or later. I started doing marathons when I was slow & in college. Would probably be faster now if I had spent some dedicated time from 1500-10k range before moving to the half.
18
25 and even that is pushing it. Marathons are not good for a person.
olymaratrialstop100 wrote:
I got my OTQ and raced in the trials at 21 during my senior year of college. I had a serious falling out with the college XC coach because of this and was not allowed to compete collegiately during that year. Although marathoning is something I really love and I did well and probably made the right decision for my strengths, now that I am a bit removed from college and have suffered A LOT of training injuries and am in yet another marathon build up (which has also been beset with injuries) I do kind of wish I had focused on XC/ track while I had the chance. There is plenty of time to race the marathon but unless you are one of a select few, the time for running XC/ track is short.
This is the correct answer. Wait until you have finished your high school or college competition. Competition at that age passes by pretty quickly. Marathons and road racing will always be there.
Although having said this, there were two guys on my college XC/track team that ran a marathon a few weeks after National. Both got their OTQ at this event.
16