12 year old wants to run with me (Read 1075 times)

Yeah I'm sure your wife coming home from Europe had nothing at all to do with it. It was the vernal equinox.

Busted.

Okay, I have to go warp teach young minds now. You win, Scout,--for now.

HEY! I wasn't paying attention - are we you all done talking about Jeff now?

I was doing about 25 miles a week with no speed training 2 years ago when I was 12 so I would say if they feel like it go for it. it will only make him a better runner when he gets into high school and whatnot.

My kid's started doing 5K's with me last summer. Both my 8 yo dd who does the walk/run thing, usually with her friend and my 10 yo ds who was so much faster than I was that I'd never even see him until the finish line. The best advice (besides good shoes) is to just keep it fun. My 16 yo started running on his middle school cross country team at age 11. I know I was 11 or twelve myself when I started running CC and track. I think it can be a great experience for the whole family. We all race together in the summer. (Go Team Barton! ) Even my 4 yo started running last summer when she was 3. Most of our races seem to have 1 mile fun runs associated with them. Little Lily is the one who obviously got all the natural talent in the family. She won a trophy in her first actual race. Third place in her age group. She was the youngest one running in the 6 and under age group. 12:21 on those little tiny legs. It's been a lot of fun for our family. We're racing again next weekend and looks like dd and ds have talked several friends into running with us. We'll be taking so many kids we have to drive separately to get them all there! LOL! Teresa

tbarton--- That is so neat that your family does so much running together. Having them start so young gives them an appreciation for what you do when they see you working extra hard to reach a goal and what not. My older children have all run in mile fun runs, they loved it. I'm curious to see if they run as they get older. Charlie (the 12 year old) struggles with sticking with anything. I've had to force him to finish seasons of wrestling and soccer. The only reason why I made him stick with it is because he knew from day one that if he joined the team he was to see it all the way through. If he wasn't planning on finishing, then he wasn't going to start. House rule. abbaroodle---- Sure, you can run with me. Tomorrow, 6 a.m. - just a short drive from Nashville TN. I could have used a running partner tonight. I ran by myself at night for the first time ever. I did 6 miles and realized that I didn't like a few of the areas along my course. I forgot about the whole "being dark" factor, I had to run on sidewalks more and couldn't see how clear they were. Plus, there was small stretch of woods that freaked me out big time. I was really wishing I had a running partner at that time.

Charlie ran his first 3.1 miles today!! YAY!! He was so excited. I mapped out a 3.1 mile course that has one mid size hill. He did great. We ran together. His first mile was 9:34, second was 10:30, and third was 11:00 (which included the hill that we slowed down for). He finished at 31:04, we had to stop for two cars at cross streets, so his actual time might be more like 30:00 (or something like that). I'm very proud of him, and he's proud of himself too. Such a good feeling!!