My brother ran 5:44 in his schools mile. He was in the 7 and under group and finished 6th. He went on to run d3, 4:08 1500.
My brother ran 5:44 in his schools mile. He was in the 7 and under group and finished 6th. He went on to run d3, 4:08 1500.
Well my 13-year old ran sub-5 hours in a trail 50K last fall, and used to hold 3 single-age half marathon world records...he still holds a couple 15K world marks. So there!
Hi,
I'm Darren Odell. I ran that 5:33 in 1978. I was born 8/2/69. I ran for the Roseville Gazelles under the coaching of Gil Duran in Roseville, CA. My email is
if you want to contact me.
my name is whaaa? wrote:
Justhavehimrun4fun wrote:My 9 year old son just ran a 6:12 mile in his track meet yesterday and came in 3rd.
He ran a 6:29 at his last meet last year at age 8 and was smoked by a couple of other kids that were in the 6:05 range. I live in Cali.
Your son could be great but there are a ton of kids naturally faster.
A ton? I really doubt that. Do you know what the hundredth percentile means? It means he is in the company of very few his age.
You'd be surprised. 6:anything is good for an 8 year old but it's not exactly the tippy top. My high school coaches son ran 5:45 for the mile, 19:21 for the 5k and 40:30 for the 10k when he was 8, and now he's gone 5:30 at 9, but hasn't gone for it in another 5k or 10k. I know this reeks of a troll post but this kid is the real deal. He runs like 3-4 days a week and sometimes does some light 400s or 800s. Funny little guy, very personable for a 9 year old. And he's running faster than I did when I was 12.
Mine ran a 6 minute at that age and is now ten and can run around a 5:18 on his good days and he still gets drilled pretty good at nationals. I remember those days though and wondering if he was the next greatest runner. Nope he wasn't. There are some fast, fast, kids around USA. Trust me, I learned the hard way.
Just ease up and let him do it on his own with a loosely structured workout and see how it goes. Running fast once means nothing, see if he is willing to but in some "fun" work and then continues to perform.
Oh he is absolutely right, there are a TON. Go to AAU and USATF results from nationals and see for yourself. My other son is 12 and is a middle distance runner. Well today, he ran a 56 400m and we were like oh my god, maybe you could start actually competing at nationals in the 400m in addition to being highly competitive in the half and mile (or 1500), so we looked. He looked at the group he will be competing in and said, ok then, I guess I will stick with the 800m and 1500./1600m dad. These animals run 54's at 12!
So your big claim to fame was a 5:33 as a nine year old? Mine runs a 5:18 as a ten year old and he isn't a superstar and I sure hope that it is not his biggest claim to fame one day. I am not sure why you want him to contact you? Did you want to coach his son or something?
To the op, be careful because some people love to sell a dream to misinformed parents and try and make money off of them by letting them think their son is the next greatest thing. If I am judging him harshly and he is not concerned with coaching your kid for money, I would contact him just to see what he has to say, just be careful because I have three kids and I have been around youth track for quite some time and I see this happen way too often.
My son is 8, just ran the mile in a track event (Shen Track Club). He's mostly an all the time soccer player but wanted to try some track. He ran the mile in 6:22. I think a lot of young athletes could excel at one thing or another but of course at some point it requires that they love what they do, and are willing to work at and push themselves out of that love/desire.
I know a kid who ran a 4.49 1500 when he was still 9 (just). Equates to about a 5.10 mile. He was a machine, and not a lot of speed.
He's now 16 and still good, but too big to be a real force at 1500 or longer, and lacking the speed to do well at 800.
All this means is that the 8yo in question is good, maybe very good for his age, but that's it. He might be developing earlier, which you won't know till 12-15 anyway.
Some tips:
- if he does any formal running training, make sure one session is with a quality sprint coach to teach hi proper sprint and running mechanics
- make sure he does other team sports like soccer;
- never ever run on road. I'd steer clear of a track too. Trails and parks are the best. Find a running squad which he could do once a week, nothing wrong with that. They exist where I live, and are run by people who also train elites and have the right intentions
nope wrote:
Oh he is absolutely right, there are a TON. Go to AAU and USATF results from nationals and see for yourself. My other son is 12 and is a middle distance runner. Well today, he ran a 56 400m and we were like oh my god, maybe you could start actually competing at nationals in the 400m in addition to being highly competitive in the half and mile (or 1500), so we looked. He looked at the group he will be competing in and said, ok then, I guess I will stick with the 800m and 1500./1600m dad. These animals run 54's at 12!
Yeah but 400 is very much a strength event. look at any high level boys race from 11-15, and the ones with hair under their arms at 11 win that age group, and the ones shaving at 13-14 win that age group. It doesn't really even out till about 16-17. My kid ran 65 at 9 coming 3rd at state for his age, then improved 2 or 3 seconds basically every year. He's now 16 and around 47-48, and has improved 2-3 seconds in the last 12 months again. There's just no way of knowing even now if he's reached the end of the leaps and just has smaller incremental improvements in him, or still has some leaps in time left. If he still has another 2-3 second improvement in him in the next 12 months you'll know about him in a year.
Some kids go through puberty really fast and improve say 5-6 seconds in a year, some go through puberty more steadily. His best younger times from memory were 13.85 FAT for 100 when 9 and 28.1 hand time at same meet, 2.22 800 at 10, 2.01 800 at 14, so the 800 improvement was about double the 400 improvement (5 seconds a year). He stopped running 800s at 14.
That's another thing. You don't really know right now what their best event will end up being.
My son just ran a mile (not a 1600m) in 5:57 four days after his 9th birthday. He also has run 20:45 for 5k but I think he is now close to sub 20 on a flat course.
Manbearpig1 wrote:
My son just ran a mile (not a 1600m) in 5:57 four days after his 9th birthday. He also has run 20:45 for 5k but I think he is now close to sub 20 on a flat course.
I'm not so sure on longer distances. Kids can still have good aerobic capacity.
I do know a kid pretty well who ran 2.27 for 800 when he was 9 years 9 months. Your kid's got 9 months to get to that! It won state - running up an age group, pretty darn impressive. That kid is now 17 and still good, but nowhere near the freak he was when young. ironically the other kid from his region who used to always come second to him is the dominant middle distance runner in our state in that age group. About 1.51 at age 17. Actually a different kid dominates the 1500-3km-5km at that age.
By the way I am from a different country.
I ran 5:50 at 6, 5:45 at 7, 5:15 at 8. I had a decent gallop at 18 while at Oxford, running a mile just under 4 minutes in 1954. They said I was a phenom, but I don't know. It seems to me that running is a child's pursuit. I was happy to continue my studies and become renowned for my other work. The moment your child feels running is work, you will forever regret it.
Regards,
Roger
Seems like I am a few years late to this post.
If I had a pre teen kid, I would discourage running great times and achievements. I have witnessed way too many occurrences of the kids being wiped out before high school started. I grew up in an era where kids were running very fast, me being one of them. It turns out that none of the others transition to high school or after.
Minus Greg Whitley, None of the phenoms emerged post age group running the comedy nominator is heavy training that is not sustainable along with being burnt out as time goes forward.
None of the phenoms emerged post age group running the comedy nominator is heavy training that is not sustainable along with being burnt out as time goes forward.
I was pretty good with 11 year old times of 4:35 9:37 and 35:11 for 1500, 3000 and 10,000m. I was not the best in the country I can list the names of John Soto, Robbie Barrios, Mike Wall and Tony Perez, etc. I was convinced they would all win gold medals in the Olympics. None of them scratch the surface of high school running I have an elite level or at all.
If you have kids out there, be a parent and pull the rains on whatever they’re doing if you would like to see them mature into a successful person.
Yes it’s a good time, don’t run him on high mileage or anything silly like that kid who ran low 5 miles when he was 6-7, got down to mid 4 by age 11 then burnt out hard ...
What you wanna do is just take him out for hobby jogs a few times a week but only if he wants to ... at age 8 you should be sprinting around, jumping around, testing your limits, etc - basically just being an active competitive kid but in a fun way is the best way to build love for exercise as well as speed, coordination and skill ... the kid has gotta ENJOY it though .. nobody ever got truly great at something they weren’t passionate about.
Good luck to the lil tyke :) faster than 95% of fully grown adults is nothing to sneeze at. He could get under 6 quite easily eventually just by going on on a few runs at 8 min pace, not that time really matters atm but 6 min mile is something a lot of fully developed adults and runners struggle to do, took me a few years at 30 mpw to break 6 so I would say you kid has talent.
This did not seem like a very nice post. Darren Odell seems like ehe just got kicked in the balls.
Since this thread is revived no reason why not at least get update from OP?
Plot Twists:
The Young brothers (Nico, Lex). Both started running at 6. Lex holds several youth club records. No burnout in sight yet.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (
https://www.outsideonline.com/2347611/jakob-ingebrigtsen-norway-track-and-field
) :
“I’ve been a professional runner since I was eight, nine, ten years old.”
“Jakob has been training at a serious level since he was age nine, which isn’t any different than someone like Michael Phelps"
I am not seeing any burnout in any of these guys. I'd say Jakob's dad puts ton of pressure on all his kids from a young age, including the daughter. Maybe the problem is US kids are weak?? Maybe kids burned because of coaches running them to the ground with 400m repeats?
Well when my son was eight he ran 534 Mile. He also runs for a private club which gives him the ability to practice all the time.
My grandson just ran a 2.5 cross-country race against three ymca clubs in Raleigh NC. He is 8 years old. His time was 15 minutes 16.93 seconds. That's just under 6.07 per mile.