At a recent Half-Marathon in Texas, 6 year old Keelan Glass ran the 13.1 mile course in 2h 46m. This works out as being 12:42 per mile pace. It is also being claimed as a world record for a six year old.
A short video report from local TV station KTXS can be seen HERE
This of course raises the whole debate about whether young children should be running in distance races anyway. As a one off, it's unlikely to do them any harm whereas if a six year old was doing it on a regular basis then it might be different. The current guidelines from Athletics Ireland is that no-one under 18 should be racing distances longer than 10 kms.
Update....There is a story about 10 and 12 year old sisters running races on a regular basis in the New York Times . These include half-marathons and a full marathon.
ah, Texas...enough said.
ReplyDeleteNot good for kids at all. It can damage their epiphyses (growing ends of their bones) causing Perthe's disease, and other less serious osteochondritides.
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