How bad is it for a freshman in high school to run a marathon? (Read 920 times)

When is it? And when does XC season end? And how far does your team run for your long runs? There is also some discussion about whether it is healthy for someone who is still growing to run that many miles. But I will let you sort that out. (When you say "bad" you seem to only mean "bad for XC season" not long-term health and height.) Do double check that the one you are considering allows runners under 18 to participate.

Check with your XC coach... they should be able to help you coordinate the training.

Hey! Awesome to see some XC runners on here! Here's my LONG answer (sorry about that.. lots to say on the subject.) I ran XC in highschool and I had this same question. My advice: Hold off on the marathon and find a good running camp for the middle distances (5K, 10K). You've got your whole life to run a marathon (don't worry, you'll get around to it) but you'll not always be young/strong/eager enough to do the speedier stuff. That said, it is of course, a personal choice. I think the answer to this question depends a lot on what you want to get out of your XC season. From the 5K PR you've got posted on your log, it looks like you're already pretty strong in XC (not back of the pack, I'd bet?). So, I suspect that if you focus on the XC 5K distance, you could really excell (go to State, set some school records, etc?). If you train for a marathon (even in your off season), you'll put in a ton of miles (way more than is necessary for 5K training) and you'll necessarily miss out on speed training (you can't do it all). Those extra miles will make you a stronger runner in general but you probably won't have as much raw speed as you would if you focused on a 5K training program. I say that because I knew a runner from another school in HS that trained/ran a marathon in the spring/summer before his senior year XC season. He was an amazing runner, don't get me wrong (placed at most invitationals, ran at state, etc) but, after his marathon, he didn't have 'wheels'! He just couldn't push past a certain pace... He would run a moderately-strong 5K pace throughout, but when it came to that last 800m of the course, he would get burned every time. I think that has something to do with the development of 'slow-twitch' vs. 'fast-twitch' mucles, but I'll leave that to the PT experts on this forum to address... All that said, I don't want to discourage you from increasing your running. If the choice is between training for a marathon and sitting around on your assplaying X-box, do the marathon. Any way in which you can make yourself safely (avoiding injury) increase your mileage will help your XC times. I went to a running camp run by the Univ. Wisconsin XC coach and athletes (called "Camp of Champions".. corny name, but a good program). It forced me to train throughout the summer (we ran 2 or 3x a day at the camp) and I went from being a middle-pack runner in my Soph year to placing at invitationals my Junoir and Senior years. Plus they taught us all about the sport of running and how to train yourself intelligently. (And did I mention that the camp is co-ed?) Good luck with your decision.. keep us posted.

My PR is kinda miss leading that was on a really fast course in perfect weather. I was only on varsity for 3 or 4 meets. But i did win a jv meet by about a quarter of a mile (that was awesome).

Perfect conditions still = PR in my book! And winning a JV meet is no small accomplishment! I would really encourage you to find a running camp during the summer... even if it means a trip to Madison WI for a week... I think you'd be amazed at the improvement you could make in your XC and track events. Every guy who went to such a camp on my XC team experienced this amazing improvment... those who didn't train much during summer got left behind! (Of course, no matter how you train in the summer, be sure to do with really gradually so you're not one of those guys who gets injured a couple weeks into the XC season!)

Hey, can I go to running camp? I'm 34 and I think it would be fun to be an elite...

I'm not saying there isn't one that'll let a 14-year old run ... but I've never seen one. If it's out there, you may have to search a bit.

Top of Utah, Ogden, St.George, and the Valley of Fire Marathon allow runners 12 and under run. Youngest runner at St. George this year was 10.

We should organized a RA camp! I'll bet we could find a place not far from here with big cabins to rent...or even a beach house! How cool would that be?! Maybe organize it around a race... k