CHILDREN'S RUNNING GUIDE
Healthy Miles For Kids of All Ages
by Marc Bloom
Ever watch children on the run? Running with friends down the street, chasing a squirrel in the backyard, or in one of the increasingly common kids’ dashes found at races large and small throughout the nation?
They fly: arms jutting out, knees high, feet kicking back, heads up, big smiles. No rules, just pure joy. “Play refers to the young child’s activities characterized by freedom from all but personally imposed rules…and by the absence of any goals outside of the activity itself,” the noted child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim once wrote. In the same essay, Bettelheim referred to the philosopher John Locke’s view that recreation must include “delight” and that when children experience the diversion of play they must be permitted to do it “after their own fashion.”
So, parents, get out of the way when it comes to kids running! No system. No structure or programs or advice on “how to run better.” No mileage or “training.” No goals. No plans for the Junior Olympics. Right?
Well, yes and no.
Like most issues surrounding children’s and teenagers’ running, fitness and health, the complexities of today’s world offer conflicts. With surveys showing at least 17 percent of American children 2 to 19 overweight or obese (not to mention the millions merely out of shape), and no more than 8 percent of schools providing daily P.E. class according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s no wonder that more and more kids show early signs of adult-type ailments like hypertension and heart disease. The New England Journal of Medicine reported in 2005 that today’s kids could wind up with a shorter life span than their parents.
It’s obvious that kids need to move their bodies, and what better activity than running? “Children involved in running can carry it on as a life-style that is maintained into adulthood,” said Dr. Teri McCambridge of Baltimore, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) sports medicine and fitness committee. “Kids get used to being active,” agreed Dr. Bill Roberts, past president of the American College of Sports Medicine. “Running taxes their cardiovascular system, builds muscle, increases endurance and burns calories.”
However, just as we have a nation of young couch potatoes in dire shape, we have the other extreme: over-booked, over-stressed, over-trained young athletes, including runners, immersed in parent-fed year-around competition, resulting in an epidemic of youth injury and burnout. According to the AAP, children and teens 5 to 14 now account for 40 percent of all sports-related injuries. In track and cross-country, stress fractures, especially among girls, is said by coaches to be increasingly prevalent. The biggest study of high school sports injuries, covering 60,000 athletes in Seattle in 1993, showed girls’ cross-country runners with the highest percentage of injury, even greater than football.
The author of that study, Dr. Stephen Rice, who is now director of the Jersey Shore Sports Medicine Center at University Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey, said in an interview, “I think that data probably still stands. If anything, today’s young athletes are more intense in their training. Sports are year-around. There’s a lot of over-use injury. It’s the nature of society. We’re trying to make kids grow up faster. We’re ‘stealing’ their childhood with too much structured time.”
But there is a healthy middle ground between too little activity and two much adult-generated structure, and it’s right under our noses. People in running—from coaches and teachers, to doctors and children’s advocates, to everyday parent-runners—have created a groundswell of inspiring, user-friendly running programs for kids with thousands of participants nationwide. Some programs have been around for awhile and are growing; many others are fairly new, attempting to lead the nation’s youth back to health. Collectively, these developments represent nothing short of a Kids’ Running Boom.
It’s a no excuses time for parents—for families, really. Dr. Roberts, who serves as medical director of the Twin Cities Marathon in October, calls the upsurge in kids’ activity a family running movement. “We now have a constellation of weekend events, something for all age-groups,” said Roberts, of Twin Cities’ race menu. “Not only a marathon and a 5k, but also a mile for school children, a diaper dash, a toddler trot. “That’s our future--getting kids running early.”
Indeed, kids are running in droves--from the 924 youngsters who did last fall’s Marine Corps Marathon kids mile in Washington, D.C., to the 1,080 in the Orange County Marathon kids program in southern California, to the 90,000 involved in the Texas-based Marathon Kids program, to the 2,800 in the Spirit of St. Louis Marathon “Read, Right and Run” event, to the more than 17,000 youngsters served by the New York Road Runners Club (see separate list of events and programs).
Whether kids run with parents, friends or join track clubs, whether they enter races, join school programs or just do loops in the backyard, there are important guidelines for parents to follow to insure kids’ health, safety and enjoyment. The overriding point is this: kids and teens are not smaller versions of adult runners. They are children, requiring particular care.
Pre-School Guidelines:
Doctors and coaches agree that it is premature to start kids running in any purposeful way prior to school age, at 5 or 6. Dr. Rice said that by 4 years, 2 months, only 60 percent of boys “achieve a mature running pattern” and for girls the milestone is 5 years. Duke University pediatric cardiologist Dr. Brenda Armstrong, who helps coach the Durham Striders youth track club, for ages 6 and up, in North Carolina, said she would be concerned about “shin splints in very young children whose gait is not coordinated.” Also, kids of 3 or 4 have miniscule attention spans, and their vision is not yet mature. “They have difficulty tracking and judging the speed of moving objects,” said Dr. Rice.
A young child can still be introduced to running to plant seeds for a healthy habit. “Even if it’s only a couple of hundred yards,” said Dr. McCambridge. “As long as the child is capable of running without falling down. If the parents are doing a 5k race, the child can do the ‘kiddie dash.’”
Many races and running clubs stage such events. The Twin Cities Marathon has a “diaper dash” and “toddler trot” in its smorgasbord of kids’ races. The diaper dash is literally a crawl—“for those requiring assistance on their hands and knees”—on the lawn of the State Capitol. The toddlers do 50 yards, also on the lawn. It’s fail-safe fun.
The Freehold Area Running Club kids’ summer series, where I live in central New Jersey, is equally spirited. Kids’ events include a 25-yard “toddler trot” for those 18 months to 3 years, and a 50-yard dash for kids 4 and up. Club president Isabel Keeley shows the kids how to line up at the start and tie their shoe-laces. The youngsters take off running, stop, walk, run again, bump into each other, laugh. “They look so happy accomplishing something,” said Keeley.
I see the same satisfaction in my 4 1/2-year-old grand-daughter, Jordana, whom I’ve coaxed into running by designating a backyard path that I call “The Jordana Loop.” I have her run from one tree to another, touching each tree, in a circle. Jordana can manage two or three trees before stopping to watch a bird, or giggle, or just do nothing. When her mom comes home, she runs up to her saying, “Watch me do the Jordana Loop.”
Age 5-8 Guidelines:
Dr. Rice advises this same loosey-goosey approach as kids become of school age. He would like to see youngsters run as play, in groups, in games of tag, in short bursts, which, he said, enables a child to use more of his or her body than if “jogging in a straight path.” This movement also is less likely to bore or injure a child, he said.
This is the approach taken by long-time coach Bob Glover, who conducts the City Sports For Kids track program for the New York Road Runners Foundation. The youngest kids, 5 to 8, work up to 20 to 30 minutes of movement, running or walking, three times a week. While running a couple of 200-meter laps, they play games like hiding behind the coach, and Glover takes frequent breaks, reading running-related stories to the kids like “Berenstain Bears.” He said, “Most of the kids are having so much fun they don’t even know they’re running.”
The Durham Striders club also gives the youngest members small doses. Coaches have the 6 to 8 year olds run the curve of the track, or the grass infield, in 100-meter sprints. “They can run or walk,” said club founder Frank Davis. “Nothing is forced.” By the end of practice, he said, the kids don’t realize they’ve run as much as 1,000 meters.
Other days, Durham kids run hills, repeating bursts on a 50-75 meter incline, said Dr. Armstrong. “Kids love hills, and it teaches them good running form. You can’t run a hill without using your arms and legs properly.”
Kids this age do not have much patience for long distance. But a little running can go a long way. Marathon Kids, the innovative, Texas-based k-through-5th grade program, has grown to 90,000 participants with a goal of 26.2 miles in six months, or about a mile a week. “The average completion rate is 83 percent,” said founder and director Kay Morris. “I see exhilaration and pride. And the finisher medal every child receives is important.”
The program goes beyond running to good nutrition, promoting intake of five fruits and vegetable servings a day. The Spirit of St. Louis Marathon in April has a similar “Read, Right and Run” k-through-8th grade program, also asking for a minimum of 26.2 miles in six months while promoting nutrition, reading 26 books and performing 26 good deeds. In the last two years, participation has nearly tripled to 2,800 participants.
All kids, the youngest especially, must be instructed on pacing. “Some kids take off at full speed, then run out of gas, then cry,” said New York’s Glover. “We have a chant, ‘Start slow, finish fast.’”
Another issue is weather. “Kids are more at risk for heat exhaustion than adults,” said Dr. McCambridge. “They sweat at a slower rate and create more heat per body mass.” Dr. Armstrong said children will be heat-safe if they drink 64 ounces of water a day, which increases blood volume so kids sweat more. “We require kids to bring a liter (32 ounces) of water to practice,” she said.
Armstrong also requires all youngsters, even beginners, to wear regulation running shoes. She’s adamant against basketball or tennis sneakers and recommends a running specialty store for proper fit. Lack of shoe support can lead to shin splints and ankle problems. “Between age 6 and 12, children’s feet do not grow together at same pace. One foot is bigger than the other. The same is true with legs,” said Armstrong. “Put kids in shoes that work for them, not against them.”
To further guard against injury, Armstrong and her Duke medical colleagues warn against 5ks and 10ks in this age-group. “We’re fine with a mile fun run, but nothing longer,” she said. “And we have a rule: if a child says he’s hurting or tired, he must be allowed to stop running.”
Dr. Roberts, who said kids vary widely in running interest and aptitude, has his own rule: the Smile Test. He said that children of 7 or 8 should not be prevented from running a few miles--“as long a distance as they want”--providing it’s their choice and they enjoy it. How can you tell? “Smiles,” he said.
Age 9-12 Guidelines:
In the pivotal pre-teen years, growth and maturity allow for formal training, competitive opportunities are abundant and puberty is around the bend. It can be a volatile time for youngsters, a confusing time for parents. Some kids, even at this age, will lean toward training and racing year-around. One 10-year-old might thrive on 20 miles a week, another on 2 miles a week.
Dr. Rice said it’s healthier to do multiple sports than to specialize. “If you join another sport, you can still run on your own,” he said. “Don’t go crazy and risk burning out. The idea is to enjoy running in the long term.”
Matt Centrowitz, a 1976 Olympian in the 1500 meters and track coach at American University, kept his kids from running more than mile “to whet their appetite for more later on.” His daughter, Lauren, did not run her first 5k till age 12. His son, Matthew, continued soccer into high school. Both youngsters would win state high school track and cross-country titles in Maryland. Lauren now stars at Stanford, while Matt, finishing his senior year at Broadneck High, is the national 2-mile champion headed for the University of Oregon on a track scholarship. “If you push someone,” said Centrowitz the father, “sooner or later they balk because it’s your will, not theirs.”
Daughter Lauren agreed. “Running was my choice,” she said. “I liked running and talking with my dad. He always made us turn back early.”
New York’s Glover said he prefers seeing kids this age emphasize speed over distance but that, depending on the level, youngsters can work up to running 3 miles or more 3 to 5 times a week. Linking parental excess with the prevalence of age awards, Glover said, “I passed a rule that you have to be 12 or older to win awards in a New York Road Runners event.”
Many easy-does-it programs are centered around the mile, whether it’s building up to run a mile a day or racing a mile. The Newton Heartbreak Hill International Youth Race on Boston Marathon weekend is a half-mile up, and a half-mile down, the famous ascent. The Marine Corps Marathon “Healthy School Award” winner, Lynbrook (VA) Elementary, has students doing up to a mile in P.E. class. Another healthy school, Carmel River (CA) Elementary, has 4th- and 5th-graders running about a mile a day (see sidebar).
California coach Bill Sumner asks for even less—2.5 miles a week for 10 weeks--in his Orange County Marathon program for kids 8 to 12. “I want to hook kids, keep them running, make them healthy. I’m not trying for Olympic champions,” said Sumner. “I want to put that sparkle in their eye.” In a decade, the program has grown from 50 kids to over 1,000, with 1,500, said Sumner, expected in 2008.
One reason for restraint is growth-related injury. As kids’ long bones grow, the cartilage is not ossified and hard running can lead to discomfort near the ends of the bones. When this syndrome strikes the knee—a common running condition known as Osgood-Schlatter—it can be very painful. “Some kids try to run through pain,” said Dr. McCambridge. “Parents should not give kids anti-inflammatory medicine in order to run.”
Age 13-14 Guidelines:
Many middle schools have track and cross-country teams. However, coaching expertise at this level is spotty, most schools have poor facilities and kids may wind up practicing around the parking lot. Parents should get a handle on these programs before signing up their youngsters. Some alternatives are adult running clubs, most of which embrace kids and may have youth directors; also, youth clubs, and informal parent-organized group runs for kids. Make sure you know the workouts ahead of time.
In about a dozen states, 7th- and 8th-graders are allowed to participate on high school varsity sports teams, in some cases after passing a physical exam. In track and cross-country, this opportunity is a mixed blessing. Youngsters get hooked on running early, become part of a wholesome school activity, benefit from structured training, and have older team members as role models. However, those who show early talent may be thrust into a varsity role for team scoring and find themselves in high-pressure races while they are still immature emotionally—and physically. “The key is to control progress. Oftentimes, this means holding young runners back,” said coach Jim Mitchell of Bronxville High in New York, a state allowing middle-schoolers to move up.
Growth issues continue at this age, a period of “peak height velocity” for many youngsters, according to Dr. Angela Smith, an orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. Teens experience rapid growth while their bones have not fully mineralized and their muscles are not yet good shock absorbers, she said. Consequently, Dr. Smith advises against the kind of heavy training loads—running several miles a day, hard pace, frequent competition--that bring young runners into her office with stress fractures.
During puberty, boys gain strength and muscle mass while girls gain body fat, once menstruation begins, in effect slowing them down. Some girls may also be slowed by menstrual bleeding since blood loss reduces oxygen transport to the muscles.
One model program for middle school is the Running Partners Mileage Team conducted by the New York Road Runners Foundation. Around 15 to 30 students per school in 65 schools practice two or three times a week, running a few miles at a comfortable pace, training for races of 1 mile up to 10k. Teachers are trained to coach the kids, who run on school grounds or at nearby parks or tracks.
Age 15-18 Guidelines:
High school track and cross-country programs are booming. In 2005-06, boys and girls outdoor track and field teams had combined participation of 973,000, with girls’ track showing the greatest growth in recent years of any of the 49 boys and girls high school sports, according to the national high school federation. Coaching tends to be competent across the board. Nowadays it’s increasingly rare to find the basketball coach also handling cross-country because no one else wants to.
For many teens, high school running is a year-around commitment, with base training in the summer, fall cross-country and winter and spring track. Competition ranges from dual meets, to county and conference meets, to invitationals with 50 or 100 schools, to state championships and national meets. Big-time events have grown and it’s common to find teams traveling to inter-state events.
Training loads vary widely, from modest mileage (20 to 30 a week) to higher mileage (upwards of 70 to 80 a week), as does workout intensity. There are many paths to success; no one method is best. The most effective coaches learn how much training each athlete can handle, and find ways to motivate and inspire their squads. Increasingly, knowledgeable coaches employ a total fitness approach, with elements like weight training, calisthenics and pool exercises to strengthen athletes and reduce injuries.
For example, at Oakton High in Virginia, coach Scott Raczko (who also coaches world-class miler Alan Webb) uses weight training, core exercises and plyometric drills to develop whole body fitness. This past winter’s USA junior cross-country winner, Elliott Heath of Winona High in Minnesota, includes bicycling in his training. The 2006 Foot Locker High school girls cross-country champion, Kathy Kroeger of Independence High in Tennessee, is also a competitive swimmer. Another top-ranked runner, Max O’Donoghue-McDonald of Seattle Prep, cross-trains on an elliptical machine for up to an hour weekly.
Many coaches emphasis a particular theme, whether it’s hill training, peaking or running form. At national power Yankton High in South Dakota, coach Dan Fitzsimmons uses a 3-month summer base program in which athletes work up to 45 minutes’ running a day, a prelude to hill work and mile repeats in the fall. At state champion Corona del Mar High in southern California, coach Bill Sumner (the Orange County Marathon director and kids’ organizer) is careful about racing frequency, allowing his team no more than four all-out races per season, what he calls his “Four Aces” system. At state winner Colts Neck High in New Jersey, coach Jim Schlentz stresses good form, instructing runners to relax arms and shoulders to “open up the chest” for better breathing.
Those youngsters not on school teams can train for road racing, and there are some marathon programs for teens such as Students Run L.A. and Students Run Philly Style. Doctors are split on whether 26.2 miles is too long for teens (see sidebar), but the Philadelphia program director, Heather McDanel, said, “One boy, 16, is a cancer survivor who started running while undergoing chemotherapy. He ran and finished the Philadelphia Marathon.”
Sidebar/Running Schools: 2 Gold Medal Winners
At Carmel River Elementary School in Carmel, Calif., the principal, Jay Marden, set up a 5th-grade program in which students run up to 15 minutes a day on the school’s 200-meter, 2-lane track, and integrate their running into classwork in math, science, history and geography. For example, the mileage logged is used to show distances from one state to another, said Marden, who took 6th in the 1988 Olympic Trials 5,000.
In addition, a P.E. teacher, Peggy Tobin, developed a school-wide program in which children run during gym class and at recess, logging their laps. Many students cover as much as 4 miles a week. For every 50 laps, the kids get “foot tokens” to put on their shoelaces as an award. They also receive coupons to redeem for merchandise at the school store. “It’s been wildly successful,” said Marden. “First graders might do a quarter-mile a day, 5th-graders a mile a day.”
Every April, upwards of 100 Carmel students (25 percent of the enrollment) also run the Big Sur 5k, and in May, the school boasts a big turnout at the end-of-term Carmel track meet. “Our kids are excited about fitness, about participating with friends,” said Marden.
The same holds true at Lynbrook Elementary School in Springfield, Virginia, where 83 children out of an enrollment of 420 ran the Marine Corps Marathon kids mile in Washington, D.C., last October. “We are not normally the most physically fit school,” said P.E. teacher Sean Niehoff, who supervised the program before transferring to another school in the district. “But the kids are improving, learning a healthy life-style.” So much so that for five years running, Lynbrook has been named the “Healthy School Award” winner at Marine Corps.
Lynbrook benefits from a Fairfax County requirement of 90 minutes a week of P.E. class. The kids run in P.E and the kids are tested monthly. Niehoff used music and beeps as pacing devices. “Taking the first step is the biggest thing,” said Niehoff. “We have kids in the childhood obesity category. They’re out there with us.” To top it off, the school has an end-of-term “Dream Mile” for the fastest kids in the upper grades.
How can your school get on the run? Said Marden, “An interested parent should speak with the principal about forming a running club during recess. The parent would serve as coordinator. Create a positive reinforcement system, with token rewards that kids receive for reaching running milestones.”
Sidebar/Club Success: Durham Striders Set the Pace
Okay, the Durham Striders in North Carolina—with 20 volunteer coaches including a pediatric cardiologist who checks kids’ blood pressure and sets nutritional guidelines—may not be your average youth track club. But there are excellent clubs everywhere, and many can be found through the national track group, usatf.org.
Durham has 300 kids 6 to 13 (plus some in high school) in a track program that runs from late March through the summer, when they compete in Junior Olympic events. Durham kids have won numerous regional and national titles, and many of their athletes have gone on to college teams and even professional sports. Success is based on learning, patience, discipline and teamwork. “We don’t put pressure on kids,” said club founder and director Frank Davis. “But we’re disciplined. We check report cards. And poor conduct can get you kicked off.”
Davis connects responsibility with running. “If a youngster is not dependable, he cannot be relied on to run on a relay team. And kids love relays.”
Durham holds practice three to five evenings a week at a college track. The kids break into age-groups and coaches emphasize fast repeats of short runs, like running the track’s curve or the grass infield, to match kids’ limited attention spans. For most kids, the longest repeats are 300s.
The physician/coach, Dr. Brenda Armstrong of Duke University Medical Center, said “running is a sub-text for kids to get control of their bodies, and their nutrition.” In pre-participation screening, Armstrong finds a lot of high blood pressure in kids as young as 6 or 7. “Their diets have too much salt,” she said. “They sit around watching TV and eating potato chips.” Armstrong replaces chips with fruit snacks and sugary drinks like soda with water—as much as 64 ounces (8 glasses) a day, given the Durham heat. By season’s end, she said, blood pressure and pulse rate are normalized in 90 percent of the youngsters. “This correlates with their endurance,” said Armstrong. “If you train with poor nutrition, you can’t achieve.”
Sidebar/Is Your Child a Superstar?
The increasing opportunities in national competition, influence of websites, parental obsessions with their kids’ achievements and lure of high-priced college scholarships have created a superstar youth sub-culture in running. It’s not uncommon for a 12-year-old’s times to become the talk of track.
That’s what has happened with Jordan Hasay of California, a once precocious pre-teen runner and now precocious high school runner who in the fall of 2005, as a 14-year-old freshman, won the Foot Locker national high school cross-country title in San Diego. This past February, as a sophomore, Hasay captured the USA national junior 6,000-meter cross-country title, a competition typically won by high school seniors or college freshmen. Hasay led the junior women’s qualifiers onto the American team competing in the world meet in Mombasa, Kenya, in late March. (Hasay did not compete because of security issues.)
Is Hasay on her way to becoming the next Lynn Jennings or Suzy Hamilton? The odds are not in her favor. “At this age,” said University of South Carolina exercise physiologist Russ Pate, a 3-time Olympic Trials marathoner who has studied the middle school age group, “you’re too young to be ‘great’ in anything. Parents see gold medals. But it’s rare for someone who is an all-star runner at 12 to be exceptional as an adult.”
Hasay, 5’1” and 98 pounds, attends Mission College Prep in San Luis Obispo. She started running with her mother in 4th grade and joined a running club in 7th grade. She ran modestly, a few miles at a time, but outran older kids in races. “I’m happy. I love it. I’m glad I didn’t push it in younger years,” said Hasay in an interview. “My coach is good. I don’t over-train. My running is based on how I feel.”
Currently, Jordan’s longest runs are 8 to 10 miles. She does tempo runs, speed work and hills. She lifts weights and also swims regularly. Her long-term goals are to be both a professional runner and orthopedic surgeon.
“Jordan seems like a natural. She has tremendous recovery powers,” said her father Joe. “You hear about young prodigies burning out. We take it one day at a time.”
“She’s just a normal kid who’s blessed with a gift,” said her mother Teresa. “She has a medical doctor as a coach. We don’t see any problems. Jordan knows her body better than we do.”
She certainly knows a lot more than most kids her age. “I take my pulse every morning,” said Jordan. “If it’s too high, in the high 50s, then I usually do easy days.”
But according to doctors specializing in teen development, there are more compelling medical issues. Adolescent girls who train heavily tend to be ultra-thin with low body fat, having what doctors call a caloric deficit—burning up a lot more calories than they take in. “This deficit,” said Dr. Mona Shangold, director of the Center for Sports Gynecology in Philadelphia, “leads to a delay in puberty, which leads to deficient estrogen production.” Girls deficient in estrogen do not produce as much bone as they should, leading to stress fractures and future osteoporosis, among other problems.
One former teen star victimized by this syndrome was Amber Trotter, who grew up in Ukiah, Calif., not far from where Hasay lives, and was graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in May, 2006. After winning the 2001 Foot Locker cross-country title by 45 seconds in a record 16:24 for 5k, she was injured in track, then got three stress fractures in college and had to stop running. In an interview, she admitted to excess thinness, an eating disorder and irregular periods. “I took almost two years off from running, gained weight, got healthy and have started running again,” Trotter said.
Shangold advises, “Parents should be careful that their daughters are not obsessed with exercise or thinness. Girls’ growth should be checked regularly by their pediatrician.”
Sidebar/Marathon Mania: Should Kids Go the Distance?
Kids running marathons is nothing new. In the early days of the running movement 30-odd years ago, there were a number of headline-making, let’s-flog-the-parents cases of youngsters running 26.2 miles. Then the fuss seemed to die down.
But thousands? In March, 2006, 2,400 middle school and high school kids, age 12-18, ran the Los Angeles Marathon. Called “Students Run L.A.,” it’s a growing program in its 17th year, geared primarily for inner-city at-risk youth. The kids get medical clearance, train for months with volunteer coaches at 150 schools, and must complete an 18-mile time trial to prove readiness. “The kids gain health and maturity and finishing the marathon has a rippling effect,” said one of the program creators, Paul Trapani, a teacher. “The marathoners’ high school graduation rate is 90 percent in an area where the norm is 60 percent.”
The program has its detractors—some doctors feel the youths can derive the same benefits running shorter distances with much less risk of injury—but Trapani points to the 99.2 percent finishing rate, higher than that for adults in the race. “We see very few kids with medical problems on race day,” said Dr. Rudy Sabaratnam, the event’s medical commissioner.
Since there’s never been a study of marathoning kids, anecdotal evidence is all there is to go on. That has made strange bedfellows of Dr. Sabaratnam and Dr. Bill Roberts, the Twins Cities Marathon medical director and past president of the American College of Sports Medicine, which advocates a moderate running approach for kids. But Roberts—who does warn against what he terms the “Toos”—running too much too soon too hard too often—looks at his own Twin Cities event, sees a couple of hundred kids running the marathon each year without incident, and says, why not? “I’ve kept medical records at the finish for 24 years,” said Roberts. “In all that time, only one youngster needed care.”
That’s not enough to convince Dr. Stephen G. Rice, director of the Jersey Shore Sports Medicine Center at University Medical Center in Neptune, N.J., who co-authored a 2003 article in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine arguing against young marathoners. He wrote that the combination of kids’ growing muscular-skeletal system and the repetitive trauma of running for an extended period of time increased youngsters’ risk of injury. “Why push the envelope?” he said in an interview. “Kids can run 5ks and 10ks.”
Other detractors include Dr. Lyle Micheli, director of sports medicine at Children’s Hospital in Boston, whose negative view led the Boston Marathon to have an age requirement of 18. “When a youngster’s body is still growing,” said Boston race director Guy Morse, “then the strain of the marathon is magnified. Play it safe. There’s no need to rush it.”
Sidebar/Happy Feet, Healthy Food, and Much More
In the late 1990s, Carol Woodrow, a teacher and runner from Sturbridge, Massachusetts, knew she was on to something when she’d take her 2nd-graders out to run and they’d come back to class writing excitedly about the experience in their journals. Goodrow’s students, “reluctant writers,” found creativity through fitness. “Running and learning go together,” she said. Soon Goodrow developed a website, kidsrunning.com, which became a part of Runnersworld.com in 2000. The site, chock full of user-friendly advice with links to running programs and how to incorporate running into student curriculum, has become a must-click for kids and parents, running clubs and schools.
Goodrow, who teaches in Tolland, Connecticut, and currently has a class of special needs youngsters, finds learning opportunities in almost every aspect of running. When she started racing, she realized she could use the race numbers in a math lesson, so Goodrow collected numbers. She continues taking her students for a weekly run-and-write--a full mile and a full page--while also supervising a twice-weekly after-school reading-writing-and-running club, which includes a walk on a nature trail. The club is so popular, Goodrow has to cap the members at 50 students per class.
Goodrow’s messages of growing through running fill her popular children’s book, “Happy Feet, Healthy Food” (Breakaway Books), a year-long journal for ages 6 to 12 with advice and daily pages for writing entries. The book, available on the website for $14, has a list of healthy snacks including an ice cream sundae filled mostly with fruit. Goodrow promotes not only running but other children’s activities like bicycling and swimming. Goodrow has a second book, “The Treasure of Health and Happiness,” a sweet fictional story about a 2nd-grader who overcomes her fear of running.
Goodrow’s bottom line for parents: When running, children should feel they can “be themselves” and walk part of the way if they have to, gaining confidence. The goal, she said, is “happy feet.”
Sidebar/Starting Line: A Sampling of Events and Programs
Here are some popular events and programs for children and young teens:
*Bolder Boulder Middle School Challenge (Boulder, CO): Now its 12th year, more than a 1,000 middle-school students participate in school fitness programs to prepare for Bolder Boulder 10k in May. www.bolderboulder.com.
*Colgate Women’s Games (NY area): Indoor track racing for girls in 1st grade through high school, from 60 meters to 1500 meters. Preliminary rounds at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in January, finals at Madison Square Garden in New York in February. Now in its 30th year. Open to all regardless of residence. www.colgategames.com.
*Feeling Good Mileage Club (Flint, MI): Crim Road Races serve 7,000 children who are club members, and hundreds more in Crim Kids/Teen summer running clubs, for both inner-city and suburban youth. www.crim.org.
*Fit For Bloomsday (Spokane, WA): Now in its 21st year with over 5,000 kids in 50 elementary schools, youngsters 12-and-under complete an 8-to-10 week training program to walk or run the Bloomsday 12k in May. www.bloomsday.org.
*Fit For Life Kids Challenge (Richmond, VA): 3,000 elementary and middle school students run or walk in school or on their own, logging at least 26 miles in 10-week period, with culminating James River Kids Run in June. (website tk)
*Freehold Area Running Club Kids Summer Series (Freehold, NJ): 6-event adult 5k series also features races, from 25 yards to mile, on park grounds, with more than 200 participants. www.farcnj.org.
*Girls On The Run (national): Training, racing and self-improvement for girls in 3rd through 8th grade. Includes 30 5k races this year throughout the country. www.girlsontherun.org.
*Hershey’s Track & Field (national): Now in its 32nd year, kids 9 to 14 compete in local, regional and national meets. www.hersheys.com/trackandfield.
*ING/Fit Miami Run For Something Better (Miami, FL area): New program for middle school students in Dade County encourages running 26.2 miles in 25 weeks, with “Final Mile” on day of ING Miami Marathon, on Jan. 28, 2007. www.ingmiamimarathon.com.
*Intermountain Kids Marathon (Salt Lake City): Utah school children 5 to 12 complete 26 units of fitness, nutrition and good deeds in 4 months culminating with a 1,000-meter walk/run coinciding with the Salt Lake City Marathon, June TK, 2007. www.saltlakecitymarathon.com.
*Junior Olympics (national): Local, state, regional and national track and cross-country competition in 5 age-groups, sponsored by USA Track & Field youth athletics committee. youthchairusatf@aol.com.
*Just Run (Monterey Peninsula/Salinas Valley, CA): Serves 4,000 students in 40 schools, with several hundred kids participating so far, logging mileage with support from Big Sur Marathon and Team Monterey professional group. See story on top school, Carmel River. www.justrun.org.
*Marathon Kids (Texas and beyond): Now in its 10th year, this model program created by Kay Morris in Austin now has 90,000 kindergarten-through-5th grade students throughout Texas, and is expanding to other states, with its program of completing 26.2 miles of running or walking in 6 months. www.marathonkids.com.
*Marine Corps Marathon Kids Run (Washington, DC area): Over 1,000 kids 6-13 expected for mile run Oct. 28, day before Marine Corps Marathon, on looped course around D.C. Armory. www.marinemarathon.com.
*Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Youth Running (Minneapolis/St. Paul): Children’s races and year-around training coordinated through school districts and park recreation programs, with more than 2,000 participants expected this year. www.mtcmarathon.org.
*Motivating Movement Through Marathoning (Cleveland area): New 12-week program for Cleveland 7th and 8th graders in connection with Rite Aid Marathon has students running a total of 26.2 miles, with last 1.2 miles on marathon day, May TK, 2007. www.clevelandmarathon.com.
*Newton Heartbreak Hill International Youth Race (Boston area): Now in its 14th year, about 450 kids 9 to 18 ran up and down Heartbreak Hill, 1 mile total, on the morning of the Boston Marathon, in April. (The event, normally on a Sunday, was moved to Monday this year because of Easter.) Lplant@newtonma.gov.
*New York Road Runners (NY City): Running Partners Mileage Club has 15,000 students in 50 New York schools (mostly elementary) in running and walking, Running Partners Mileage Team has 2,000 students in 65 schools (mostly middle schools) training to enter races of 1 mile to 10k, and City Sports For Kids track program has 300 kids in spring and fall in 6-week track and field program using Armory Track Center. www.nyrr.org.
*Orange County Marathon Kids Program (southern California): Now in its 12th year, more than 1,000 kids 8-12 run 2.5 miles a week for 10 weeks, then 1.2 miles on day of Orange County Marathon in Newport Beach, Cal., for 26.2-mile total. 2007 marathon is Jan. 7. www.ocmarathon.com.
*Spirit of St. Louis Marathon Read, Right and Run (St. Louis, Mo area): In April, 2,800 kids from kindergarten-through-8th grade in 5-county area culminated 6-month program of reading 26 books, doing 26 good deeds and running at least 26.2 miles, on day of the Marathon. Next year’s date is April 15. www.stlouismarathon.com.
*Students Run L.A. (Los Angeles area): Now in its 16th year, 2,400 middle school and high school students from Los Angeles and environs, many of them at-risk youth, train to run Los Angeles Marathon in March. www.srla.org.
*Students Run Philly Style (Philadelphia, PA): Middle school and high school students do 9-month training program and compete in 10-mile (May), half-marathon (September) and, in some cases, Philadelphia Marathon (November). Sponsored by National Nursing Centers Consortium. www.nncc.us.
*Texas Children’s Hospital Run (Houston area): Over 2,000 Houston middle school students do 8-week training program, and then 2-mile fun run on weekend of Chevron Houston Marathon, Jan. 14, 2007, with health concepts from Texas Children’s Hospital. www.houstonmarathon.com.
This article was written in the spring of 2007. |
