How young is too young for a marathon?

#1.Yes

#2.Wait

#3.Look at Hall; Wanjiru

#4. Maturity is a huge benefit. Don't bake your career in pursuit of something now that will come easier at 27-33.

All that said, this has to be your personal decision.

Do be aware that a hard raced marathon carries with it considerable baggage and risk of injury.

"if there's grass on the field play ball"

Depends if you were fast at that 10k you talked about. If you arent fast then go ahead and move up but I would race the 1/2 marathon for 2 years then move up.

how about women who have made the leap early? Seems like you don't hear about many. Getting faster in the 10K/half might be best, especially if you have lingering doubts about jumping up.

But, that being said, someone like Desi Davila ran her first at 23 and has improved in every marathon since...

Under 10

questionableeee wrote:

But, that being said, someone like Desi Davila ran her first at 23 and has improved in every marathon since...

That is because she is running under the Hansons. They seem to have a better handle of the marathon than many of the elite coaches.

Tom Fleming started running 'em in college, and you knwo what happened to him - 2 NYCM wins, 2 or 3 Boston 2nds - you're not too young.

It obviously matters on the person and what the goals are.

If the goal is to ultimately break two hours for the marathon because perhaps the child's parents were quite successful, my opinion is that too young is probably 23 years old.

If the concern is physical danger to the kid, such as stunting his or her growth or damaging his or her heart, I think five or six years old is too young. Really. I ran several marathons at age eight and my brother ran several at age six. We both continued running marathons past ten years old. I think I had run 25 marathons by age 12. My brother then took up soccer and forgot about running. I have not stopped running and I'm now 45.

I grew just fine, as did my brother, but at the time a few people whispered that our growth might be stunted. Remember, back in the early to mid-70's there were tons of kids (yes, kids) running marathons. Kevin Strain from Alaska, Tom Ansberry (yes of 28 min 10K PR ran 2:43 at age 13 at Mission Bay Marathon in about 1975), Mary Etta Boitano, Reggie Heywood of Arizona (2:57 at age 10), Dutch Workman, Daven Chun and the "Hunky Bunch" out of Hawaii.

At Palos Verdes Marathon in 1976, there must have been 30 kids under 12 who finished. One 12 year named Mike Marckx ran 2:49 and later ran 14:30 for 5K as an adult.

My brother and I are both healthy in every respect. My 400 meter speed may have been a little slower in high school and college than had I not run such long distances (even a 50 mile race at age 10), but I don't know.

I don't want to sound like some Gallowalker, but the important thing in my mind in considering if your child should run a marathon is consideration of what mental benefits of it - goal setting, discipline, learning to suffer, being competitive, tenacity - and how running simply as a sport is great. The physical concerns are probably way overblown.

If the concern is mental issues, I think the key is just never pushing them. My parents never pushed me at all. I never burned out. I never had a coach until high school, although I read almost every page of Runner's World back then, as well as every book on running I could get my hands on. I read Lydiard, but I didn't understand him like I do now.

If my ten year old, nine year old or seven year old kids wanted to run a marathon, I would very gently encourage them, but it would have to be their own initiative to do so.

Of the kids I ran marathons with and trained with in the mid-70's, two went on to Stanford, another to Harvard, another to Pomona College. Another became a professional triathlete. I think running long distances lends itself to becoming an over-achiever of sorts, which can be good.

Haha.... "Too young" to run a marathon? What exactly are you so afraid of; that running a marathon will suck the legspeed out of you, or that it will somehow wreck you for years if you do it too soon? Well, that hasn't been the case with any of the best American runners, and CERTAINLY not the case with the best Kenyans and Ethiopians who start in their teens, and who are better than the Americans for what it's worth.

Personally I think if you aren't fully grown (18ish for most guys) you're a little too young but I know people who did run marathons younger than that and did fine for themselves in college.