Most runners are never going to accomplish anything at a high level.(Going pro,olympics) However if they start training to run ultras at a young age, they can get into pro ultra running, which is an easier field to break into than the marathon at a high level.
Anyways, I think it would be a good idea for some youngsters to focus on ultra running.
Some youngsters should focus on the half marathon instead of the 5k.
Now, I'm not an ultra-runner and I'm not sure what you mean by youngsters (high school? college? mid-20s? but I do know that many high school athletes burn out running 5,000m and many college athletes burn out running 8-10k so I can only imagine that the strain involved in running even a mild ultra like a 50k would be brutal for young runners.
This kid seems to be on the right path:
http://www.clifbar.com/blog/detail/ultra_for_a_cure/
Running for the love of running and raising a few bucks for charity on the side.
You can get married in the UK before you can run a half. Before you can run a 10M even.
Beyond daft!
gbgurt wrote:
mild ultra
lol
Pantman wrote:
You can get married in the UK before you can run a half. Before you can run a 10M even.
Beyond daft!
In Massachusetts a female may get married at 12. Not sure of the age limits on the Boston marathon. As far as I can tell 18 is the minimum age; if so one could be married with several kids before being able to run Boston.
Good job Ian. You got 6 replies so far. Most are serious so at least 4/10.
Thank you. But I give this more of like 1.5/10.
In Massachusetts a female may get married at 12. Not sure of the age limits on the Boston marathon. As far as I can tell 18 is the minimum age; if so one could be married with several kids before being able to run Boston.
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However that is just the age limit for the five majors. I had a friend back in 8th Grade who ran a marathon and in some of the Southern California Marathons i've seen people as young as 9 running them.
DDHScoach wrote:
Most runners are never going to accomplish anything at a high level.(Going pro,olympics) However if they start training to run ultras at a young age, they can get into pro ultra running, which is an easier field to break into than the marathon at a high level.
Anyways, I think it would be a good idea for some youngsters to focus on ultra running.
No way. Not very many ultra runners make a decent living at it, and all of the ones I've known who were any good at all were OBSESSED with running. You can't just BECOME obsessed. I trained as an ultra marathon runner for 2 years, and it was fun for a while, and this was before I had kids, but weeks and weeks of 100, 120, 140+ MPW gets old eventually. I think runners are drawn to ultramarathons. I don't think steering large amounts of runners in that direction would do any good at all. What if they ALL became ultra runners? Well, then it would likely be even harder to become a pro runner. The NUMBERS of runners who can make a living from running...traditional distances or ultra distances...isn't going to go up dramatically. Runners should run, and pick a distance they enjoy. If they can make a living doing it then fine. If not, then either do it for fun or find another distance they think they can do well in.