What can you expect in the future from an 11-year old who ran a 38:30 10km?

ex-runner wrote:

You can expect a lifetime of parental and coach pressure to achieve his 'potential' followed ultimately by disappointment, over training and quitting the sport.

This sounds about right.

Over my lifetime of running I have seen so many kid running stars announced. And I don't think it ever happened as far as I can remember.

38:30 is a great result for a 11 year old. But he/she still has to go through puberty and grow to an adult. A lot can and will happen.

The worst what can happen is when parents try to force the talent.

Burnout?

feet steps wrote:

ex-runner wrote:

You can expect a lifetime of parental and coach pressure to achieve his 'potential' followed ultimately by disappointment, over training and quitting the sport.

No reason this kid would follow in your footsteps.

I'm no séance, it's simply that the OPs post says it all in itself. The fact that you would ask a running forum what to expect from an eleven year old says it all. You should expect nothing. Let the kid play any sport he fancies with his friends. Don't make him train. Don't expect anything from him. Even if he runs no faster for the next 4 years. He is 11!

I'd have no expectations at all at this point.

But that is a very good time for an 11-year-old, and something to be proud of, so enjoy the achievement.

Depends on how much mileage they're already putting in.

Whatever happened to that Florida girl from heritage high school who was a big star in middle school posting 17:XX 5k times and such? A young black girl. I think she ended up running at the high school level but didn't run as fast as her middle school times projected.

Also what happened to Brianna Jakowski?

bartholomew_maxwell wrote:

Whatever happened to that Florida girl from heritage high school who was a big star in middle school posting 17:XX 5k times and such? A young black girl. I think she ended up running at the high school level but didn't run as fast as her middle school times projected.

Also what happened to Brianna Jakowski?

Daesha Rogers is the name,

Daesha is running at UCF:

https://ucfknights.com/sports/womens-track-and-field/roster/daesha-rogers/5931

ex-runner wrote:

You can expect a lifetime of parental and coach pressure to achieve his 'potential' followed ultimately by disappointment, over training and quitting the sport.

I was a lot faster than this at 11, and I am still running strong in my mid 40s, loving the sport and , by the way, my parents.

If he did this off the couch then yeah, talent. If he's been training then it's mediocre at best.

I found an article that says Jakob Ingebrigtsen began training like a pro since "at least" 8 or 9. Burn out is possible, but it isn't inevitable.

It's hard to say this kid's talent level other than in rough terms since most other 11 year olds aren't running 10Ks. In rough terms, you can say he has better than average talent, but that would apply to anyone that made top 7 on their high school team. Who knows if he'll even want to keep running once others his age catch up to him, which is likely because there's no reason to believe he has extreme talent based on this.

On the other hand, a kid I saw in the results often as a kid in 10K races later did turn out to be great in high school, and in college, got two individual second places in NCAA DI track and field.

YoungTalent? wrote:

Like the title says; I have an kid who ran a 38:30 10km. I’m doing my best not to overtrain him and such. But I’m wondering what we can expect from him at high school. Then in college, etc.

To run this time so young, would you say there’s some talent involved?

These kinds of threads come up all the time, and the only correct answer is that it means nothing. You have an 11-year old who ran 38:30...that's the only thing to know from this.

An 11-year-old should not be training at all. At least get him into 7th grade first. I can not tell you how many kids I have seen who trained even a little bit more than normal in middle school and who beat all the middle school kids but then got blasted in high school.

Goes both ways. I know a kid who ran 5:28 in 8th grade for 1600 and was beaten by a ton of kids on his team. By track season a year later as a freshman, he ran a 9:45 3200, and those kids who beat him in middle school never did again.

There are stories of boys and girls who were good in middle school who just never amounted to anything in high school and then didn't even run in college.

Let your kid have fun. SLOWLY build him up to running 35 MPW the summer before his freshman year of cross country, see how he likes it, and then up the mileage from there. No need for an 11-year old to run more than 8-10 miles a week other than being in a sport (soccer, baseball, etc.). His interest in running is a bigger factor than his talent or training. If he ends up with no interest in it, he won't do it. Don't set any expectations. Don't ever tell him to go train. Let him join a team if he wants and let him get all training advice from the coach. Support, don't direct.

kids can train a mile or two per day.

and play other sports

that is enough.

soccer is the best sport for runners by far.

well if you recover, you can do any kind of training that you want

if you train at 80 percent. and not above...

I agree he has some talent and clearly his body is well-suited to distance running. Don't pressure him to run but do encourage him to be active. He may decide to take a break from competitive running, and that's OK. Soccer or ultimate frisbee might be fun alternatives that would help him develop his speed. He might enjoy obstacle course races, Crossfit, mountain climbing, biking, etc., and you could encourage him to try those things. If he really wants to run, let him run. It would be good to get him into a youth cross country program if one is available.

It's hard to predict how he'll do in high school and college if he is still running at that time. If he is passionate about it, he'll probably be anywhere from really good to just OK. His body will change a lot in the next few years. I've seen boys who were really fast in middle school gain a lot of weight during puberty and slow down.

I ran road races as an 11-year old (about 4-5 minutes slower than your son) and was just OK in high school and college. I ran a 4:39 1600 when I was 16 years old and went on to run for a Division 3 college. I continued to run on and off into my 40s.

H.S.: 32:12

College: 29:54

Could be good, could be average. As stated above, definitely mentally prepare him that although he is far ahead if his peers(because NONE of his talented peers are training), he will undoubtedly be surpassed by some kids his age and younger.

This is a tale as old as time. My nephew was the top distance runner in the state in his age group in 8th grade, even with little training. At state XC his senior year he got 25th place. He now runs division 1 and is still really fast compared to the general population, but will never be an all American.