Tierney Wolfgram....2:40?!???!!

Guys it's simple. Don't run marathons in high School. 99% of the time it's going to result in injury, burnout, burning fast twitch muscles etc.

Sure there are exceptions, but wait until your body is fully mature before putting it through that much strain.

Where is the harm in waiting?

on a sad side note, just looked her up and it appears she suffered a significant personal tragedy recently. Maybe that contributed to her pause in running.

Mary Decker ran a 3:08 marathon when she was 12 years old plus several other races the same week. It might not have been in October though.

The world record was 3:01 at the time.

Good to know. Proves my point though. Mary Decker was ravaged with injuries, one after another all during her teens and early twenties.

Read my last sentence in previous post: ... how does it make runners better to race a Marathon as a teenager?

Run exclusively for a school. Don't run any race they don't sanction. You did this yourself and may have noticed that following this plan has a much greater than 99% failure. Look at anybody of significance in the world of running. You can count on your hands the number that followed your demands, which is the same advice given by posters on every page of this thread.

If one only considers the very best, as in likely world record breakers and gold medalists, you can count them on one hand - and they specialize in the 1500 on down. You can't count those from 5k up on your hands and feet combined..... because there aren't any. That's right. Obeying you, 600 man, most of the posters here, every American coach, and most American parents, assures lack of success at distance running. (No, Grant Fisher will never threaten a world record.)

600 man listed some successful mid distance runners as if their lack of marathoning is proof that marathoning equals failure. If you're best events are shorter than 5k, it very well could be a waste of time. But he himself is a mid distance runner according the the handle. It goes without saying that he didn't run anything long in high school. Certainly not in October.

Let's go over this again. You oppose it because it is not what you did. If we took the same approach, I'd be demanding that every 14 year old run a marathon. Yet I'm not. Neither is Tierney Wolfgram. Neither is Alana Hadley. Neither is Brad Hudson. We allow you to run the 100 and not even the 200 if that's your thing. That's fine according every young marathoner.

However, young marathoning is NOT OK according to most of you. Your intolerance does not benefit Tierney or anyone else. Not even yourselves.

Run exclusively for your school? No one has done that since the advent of Foot Locker, New Balance Nationals and Nike Nationals. None which are sanctioned by their schools.

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