12-Year-Old Trail Running Phenom Wins XTERRA 21k (Read 1053 times)

Interesting story. A bit hyped but...

http://www.outsideonline.com/blog/outdoor-adventure/12-year-old-trail-running-phenom-wins-xterra-21k.html

I fear a sad ending to this.  It smacks of Dad pushing them rather too hard. Racing every weekend?  Sleeping in the car?  Do they get to play with their friends and goof around?  I think the fun will very quickly vanish for them.

Yup.  Sometimes part of being a parent is knowing when to hold your kids back.  Some of Dad's quotes disturb me a little...though I'd hate to judge on such little context.

I saw her briefly when she ran her first marathon last year. I was doing my long run along the same trail, and the marathon was not a closed-course one (my first accidental banditing). A fellow runner who did run in the same marathon had the following to say:

"... she was crying at some point during the run, and her dad was pushing her to keep going..."

"...her dad was on a bike following her..."

My friend was not impressed with the father at all (well, she's a mom, so that's probably an universal sentiment)

Sounds like my first marathon.

Hard to imagine you crying like a little girl, at least from your profile pic...

Well, my almost 12 year old daughter has cried during most of her races. In fact, in a race a week ago, she declared to me while still on the racecourse "you have taken what little pleasure I might have gotten from this race by the throat and STRANGLED it."  Wow.  However, these are all 5k or 4 mile races.  She does 2-3 a year.  And every time she begs me to sign her up.  She loves the saying-she's-going-race, saying-she-raced, wearing the t-shirt and putting the stickers on her school notebooks, and, in the case of an annual all-women 4 mile race, volunteering at packet pickup, which she's done now for 3 years.  and of course the doughnuts after the race (and before if the post-race food is set up early enough).  

Both my little kids ran a new years day 5K last January, and both ended up crying during the race. (My daughter because her 8 year old brother was beating her, 8 year old because he ran on when I went to tend to crying sister, then got scared because he was by himself.)  It was not my finest parenting moment.  I'm glad we weren't written up in a national publication and then discussion on a message board.  And that there was no cell phone coverage on the course  for folks to immediately notify CPS.  

  I'm glad we weren't written up in a national publication and then discussion on a message board.  And that there was no cell phone coverage on the course  for folks to immediately notify CPS.  

Yeah.  That's why I try to remain a bit neutral on the whole thing.

I think it is a GOOD thing that they don't train during the week.  Heck, racing 1-2 times every week there is no need to at that age.  That being said, if racing on the weekends is what qualified as training for my kids, there is NO WAY IN HELL they would be running marathons!  THAT much I will judge on.

... something that we can together that doesn't cost money and that involves being outdoors and I hope it lays the foundations for them to keep it up - not necessarily be going out and winning races, just taking part.

Good job, Dad...

As the kids apparently don't do any training, my instinct is that the dad isn't pushing them.