Hawaii Measure to Outlaw Minors from entering "Long Distance Races"

That's how you get bandits.

There are at least three awful things about this right now:

1) Is there a reason for this proposed bill? Has there been a rash of kids participating in long distance running events in Hawaii and suffering long-term damage? If not, this seems like a solution looking for a problem.

2) Also, the authors seem to have a lack of understanding of distance running (the thing they’re potentially regulating). They refer to an opinion by the International Marathon Medical Directors Association that specifically refers to limiting “competitive participation in a full marathon” to adults, before then going on to refer to youth competition in both the state’s major full marathon (Honolulu) and half marathon (Hapalua), seeming to imply that they don’t draw a distinction between the two distances (despite one being literally exactly twice as long as the other and the IMMDA opinion quoted only applying to the full marathon distance). (Also, a thing to note about the Honolulu Marathon is that it has no time cut-off, and many if not most of its participants, regardless of age, can hardly be considered competitive.)

3) Lastly and beyond that, in the version of the proposed legislation that appears at the link above, a long distance running event is defined as a running event “greater than or equal to [blank] miles.” They know letting kids run far is bad for them—they’re sure enough of it to propose legislating restrictions on it—yet they don’t even yet know how they want to define far.

Even someone who often shocks people with how okay I am with what others consider to be onerous regulations, reporting requirements, ordinances, and laws . . . I think this is dumb as hell.

They can stop them from "racing" long distances but they can't stop them from running long distances. Besides, if a kid wants to race a marathon, they just have to go to a real American state like California, or Oregon.

Hawaii is the most backward and uncultured state in our great country. If not for their strategic military position, we would have absolutely no use for them.

I didn't know Hawaii had a big mining industry, but it makes sense when you consider how respiratory health can be affected.

won't do much good..... wrote:

They can stop them from "racing" long distances but they can't stop them from running long distances. Besides, if a kid wants to race a marathon, they just have to go to a real American state like California, or Oregon.

Kids running marathons is as asinine as it gets.... That kind of mileage at that age is detrimental to their growth and their long term health. I would give parents that let them do a serious slap on the wrist and i am not joking.

People sober up....

You'd be hard-pressed to find disagreement, but this isn't the point.

What to they say is a “long distance running event”? Just marathon? Or all the way down to 5k?

100m wrote:

You'd be hard-pressed to find disagreement, but this isn't the point.

Actually, that is the point.

Long distance running (half marathon and up) for kids under say 10(?) is detrimental for their health.

Government doesn't want to harm young athletes.

Therefore, government doesn't allow it.

Seems to follow....

Back in after I actually clicked the link....

I'd be shocked if they determine the 'long distance' to be anything under a marathon...

17 year olds should be able to run marathons... not 12 year olds.

17 year olds should probably NOT run ultras though...

Interested to see where this goes..

Macdaddy wrote:

100m wrote:

You'd be hard-pressed to find disagreement, but this isn't the point.

Actually, that is the point.

Long distance running (half marathon and up) for kids under say 10(?) is detrimental for their health.

Government doesn't want to harm young athletes.

Therefore, government doesn't allow it.

Seems to follow....

Unfortunately it isn't the point. This is an issue of individual liberties - namely the prerogative of parents to make decisions on their kids' behalf. For each kid, there will be a different threshold distance above which racing may not be as healthy. However, the health effects of racing long distances are not all-or-none, nor do they affect each child equally (if at all). This is not the same as ingesting alcohol or tobacco, which are direct toxins and carcinogens at any dose. Since Hawaii appears to meddle in parenting and health, perhaps they'd care to re-examine puberty blockers? Of course, that they will not do. They do not care about health, and they certainly do not care for liberty.

Macdaddy wrote:

100m wrote:

You'd be hard-pressed to find disagreement, but this isn't the point.

Actually, that is the point.

Long distance running (half marathon and up) for kids under say 10(?) is detrimental for their health.

Government doesn't want to harm young athletes.

Therefore, government doesn't allow it.

Seems to follow....

Yeah, that's really not the government's job.

That's because they are trying to replace their greatest icon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I

So marathons are asinine but running 60-70 miles a week for high school is not? Most marathon training programs are 18-50 miles a week....

The question whether children should be running marathons is entirely different from the question whether government should be outlawing it. It's extremely rare for kids to run marathons anyway, and a lot of races prohibit it. The kids who do are already self-selected running nuts. And while racing a marathon flat out may not be good for them (actually, racing a marathon isn't good for anyone), it's pretty unlikely that a couple of races are going to do any lasting harm. The training they do for the marathon, on the other hand, is probably very good for them. On balance, I'm sure they're way better off than their sedentary peers.

Would I let my own kids run a marathon? Probably not. But the government shouldn't be legislating best parenting practices. It should be stepping only when it's clearly necessary to prevent a demonstrable harm. If you want to talk about something that no children should be doing, it's obviously football.

We all hate the 8 year olds who line up in the first 3 rows of a road race and then get trampled and block the real runners.

This is a great idea. They should stick to the kids half mile. I’m not sure why anyone is complaining about this.

tornadorunner wrote:

So marathons are asinine but running 60-70 miles a week for high school is not? Most marathon training programs are 18-50 miles a week....

What type of marathon training is that? One that will be followed by a personsal police escort

This is a great idea wrote:

We all hate the 8 year olds who line up in the first 3 rows of a road race and then get trampled and block the real runners.

This is a great idea. They should stick to the kids half mile. I’m not sure why anyone is complaining about this.

First off, you let them go in front of you, so that's your fault. If it matters so much to you nobody's stopping you from moving up.

Second, why can't you trust people, even children, with the freedom to decide what they should do with their lives. Why should some legislators who barely know anything about running, or anything else for that matter, decide how we can live? Our freedom is corroded more every day. Even though this is a small issue and doesn't affect us, we must hold the line and not pointlessly give up more freedom to incompetent bureaucrats, so that we do not devolve into a totalitarian society.

The next proposal outlaw women from running long distance races because science says their uterus will fall out. At least that is what science said 50 years ago.