My 11 year-old son wants to run a half-marathon: Good idea or not?

I did it and turned out just fine.

Sorry, but he'll be fine. Kids today already have signs of heart disease, many are obese, etc. and get winded walking to the refrigerator.

So, why is everyone so concerned with running causing a problem? My dad, and all of his friends all claim to have a bad knee, shoulder, etc. from playing football - so what's the problem?

Does anyone know anyone with a "serious and long lasting injury" from running a half marathon at a young age? How many of you know fat kids who likely have plugged arteries from eating too many f'ing hot pockets, how many of you know kids with diabetes?

I would have encouraged him to build up to it. Does the junior high have a track program? I knew a kid who was running half marathons at that age, and he was burned out by high school.

What's the rush? Start with 5Ks. It can pay to wait. Look at Ritz -- wasn't his first 10k in college, around 27:30?

Fastnbulbous wrote:

What's the rush? Start with 5Ks. It can pay to wait. Look at Ritz -- wasn't his first 10k in college, around 27:30?

BIG difference man, that may have been Ritz's first RACE of 10k but he had probably done plenty of 20 milers and other runs much longer in training. The way I take it is that this kid just wants to do it, not be in a race mentality. He can go out and pace himself correctly and end up fine.

I am going to take your internal dialog for a moment...

I think you know the answer... you are going to support him doing it. Just from the supportive parent aspect, you sort of have to let him do it, right? His idea, his path in life.

You know he can do it and if he bogs down hard at mile 10, he will live. No biggie. However, you know the outcome (he will do fine) and you know the risks aren't great otherwise you wouldn't have considered it.

You can have your internal dialog back now. Hope I helped and good luck to your son!!

The half marathon isn't a horribly long distance for someone who can already run 6 miles. I say that as long as he takes it easy, why not? I've seen pre-teens run the Double Dipsea (which is 13.7 miles and an absolute mother) and they survived.

All depends on the runner. I ran a 1/2 marathon at age 12, I'm still at it and am 43. You never know, you might have a world beater on your hands.

I ran 15 miles around big bear lake at age 8 and so should you.

There are a bunch of idiots on the boards these days. As I recall didn't Ryan Hall, currently America's best distance runner, run 15 miles around the same age. Many Kenyan kids run 8 miles to school and back every day barefoot. It doesn't seem to be hurting them too much.

Slow dad wrote:

And I'm gonna have a shitload of kids and have them running around all over the place!

Haha good response.

As long as your not pressuring the kid to go do it or train hard, why would that be a problem? If a kid wants to run...let em.

I'd worry about long term burn out. My daughter was running 5k,5m,10k races and winning overall at age 11. At 15 she was all-south at FL South. Today, at 16, she won't run a step-hates it.

There's no guarantee she'd be running now if she didn't run as a kid. She probably wouldn't be.

I say let them run now if they want to. If they fall out of love with it, so what? You gave them a very good aerobic foundation and kept them from playing XBox every day of their lives and getting fat.

Kids fall out of love with different sports all the time. I loved baseball. Lived for it. I didn't have a dad so no one pushed me. It was just what I loved to do.

When I was 14, I just didn't like it any more. I had a coach beg me to play. I just didn't want to. I won't even play softball today. It has nothing to do with burnout. I just didn't like playing it any more.

You\'ve had some good replies and some really dumb ones. And so it goes on Letsrun.

I\'d hold off for another couple of years. 10k on the roads might be about far enough for a runner at your son\'s age. Maybe something in the 15k to 10 mile range on trails. A half on the roads is a long for a still developing runner whose bones and joints are still growing.

My at 10 and 12 kids xc skied 25k this year but there\'s no pounding. They\'ll do up to 10k on the roads and the older one is thinking of a 9 mile leg on a trail run. The younger, who will be 11 by then, is also thinking about it but we're not sure yet.

Youngsters are actually pretty efficient aerobic runners, and they're not a lot of evidence for or against higher mileage/races while they're still young and developing, but I think it's common sense to hold back a little until they've gone through most of their growth phase.

Not sure if you're still checking these message boards, but I'll offer my advice in case you are.

Running a half-marathon at this age isn't going to do any damage. Serious half-marathon training might (burnout being the most likely injury), but the race itself won't.

I'd recommend you tell him that of course he can run a half-marathon, but first he has to run a 10K race. See how he handles that. If all goes well, have him try a 15K or a 10-miler if there are any in your area. If not, go ahead and let him jump to the half-marathon from the 10K. Making him take it a step at a time and earn it will help him develop good habits for running & life in general.

Just don't let him get too serious about training yet. Stick with the training he does for soccer, and add maybe one long weekly run of up to an hour, nothing more. That should be fine.

When I was 12 years old I told my age-group coach that I wanted to run a marathon.....3 days later I ran 26 miles running off of 800m workouts. This was in 1975.

Some kids have goals.... and that will translate into a successful adult….

Let the boy go for it. It's not as if he is doing high mileage training. He'll run it in about, what, 1:50 or so?

If it doesn't kill him it will make him stronger, and I think that the chance that it will kill him is about 0.00000001%

It's only 13.1 miles. I'd say no to a marathon but a HM is within his capabilities. He'll get a finishing medal, maybe even an age class medal, and he'll think it's like winning the Olympics. Why deny that?

Get him in there and then report back here on his results. Best of luck to him.

That would be great for him, just as long as you're sure he can handle those 13.1 miles, because if he doesn't finish it could be a serious blow to his confidence. If he's ready to go, then I think you should let him, but make sure he has a good pair of running shoes and that he's not training TOO hard--he ought to go for the distance, but not excessive speed.

I don't think it could do any damage, really. I mean, there are so many worse things than running that kids get into!

I don't have a problem with it. I was very annoyed when they stopped the Indian kid from running, which was about as arbitrary as you can get. If kids can play basketball for hours at a time they can certainly jog for as long.

Most half marathons have age restrictions - and I think most are about 12 years old. I ran a half last weekend and there was a kid that looked about that age and he did just fine!! As long as it's his goal and his idea, what's the harm??