Young Kids running

Budhia Singh, as shown in this months runners world, ran 40 miles as a 4 year old, and had a coach. I think this is ridiculous. Passed out on the run and couldn't complete the other 3 miles. Now is considered a "wonder boy" in India. His controversial coach was even shot dead.

Second grader, 8 year old Zhang Huimin, who weighs 41 pounds gets up and runs 41 kilometers before school has high hopes for the 2016 olympics. Experts say her tiny body is likely to give out if she keeps running like this. Well of course it would she weights 41 pounds my cousin is 8 and she weights 60. At 7 she completed a marathon in 3:28.45, about 8 minute pace.




I really do not think it is even right for parents to allow their children to run miles like that at such a young age. Parents should wait until their childrens bodies have grown and let them develop before they run like that.

We won't even know who they are several years from now.

thats insane!!

and to be fair, she probably weighs less because asian people are usually always really tiny.

but she would probably run a marathon faster then me.. haha well maybe not, but it would be close

oh yeah, her marathon would be faster then me, or really close


lets seee....
If i run 1:04 for 8 miles. Thats 2:08 for 16. 3:12 for 24 add another 15 mins for the other 2 thats putting me at 3:27 + a 400, 1:45 = 3:28.45 which is her time.

so we would be close and i would probably tire out and get slower as it goes anyway.

and yeah asian people are small, but thats why its putting her at an even higher risk of hurting herself, shes just a tiny little girl for crying out loud.

not to mention those guys in the second picture a really creepy

yeah, the one behind her is like staring at her

Geb ran 10k to school and back everyday as a child, and he turned out fine, so I don't know what to think sometimes... That is pretty crazy though.

BagoXC25 wrote:Geb ran 10k to school and back everyday as a child, and he turned out fine, so I don't know what to think sometimes... That is pretty crazy though.

+1, as did most famous runners from kenya.

But 40k everyday is a little wiggity wiggity wack.

And in the article about Budhia in RW, they mentioned that he's not even faster than the rest of his class. He does all of his runs at like 12 minute pace.

RUNxxWILD07 wrote:yeah, the one behind her is like staring at her

He looks like he wants to eat her.

They will burn out..enough said

Just Because wrote:They will burn out..enough said

Did Geb burn out? According to The Guinness Book of World Records, I don't think he did.

That seems to be everyones answer to kids running fast times at young ages. These kids are obviously crazy-talented, and can obviously take more stress on the body than an average person.
The truth is there's no way to know if they'll burn out. We'll just have to wait.

They might not burn out, but it still can not good for them to be running THAT much THAT young...their bodies are still developing, they haven't even hit puberty yet yeesh.

^exactly

whether they will burn out or not they should still wait until their older to be safe...why would you take that chance?

Notice it's all the Asian kids who are doing insane mileage due to their small frames. But they will definetly burn out or get some type of injury.

Meh, legends have to be made somehow. As long as the kids are enjoying themselves, I don't have a problem with it. Good on them!

thelagwagon wrote:Meh, legends have to be made somehow. As long as the kids are enjoying themselves, I don't have a problem with it. Good on them!

It's all fun and games until one of them gets hurt.

RUNxxWILD07 wrote:oh yeah, her marathon would be faster then me, or really close


lets seee....
If i run 1:04 for 8 miles. Thats 2:08 for 16. 3:12 for 24 add another 15 mins for the other 2 thats putting me at 3:27 + a 400, 1:45 = 3:28.45 which is her time.

so we would be close and i would probably tire out and get slower as it goes anyway.

The most accurate marathon time is supposed to be 5 times your 10km time. You run a 50 min 10km (calculated from your 8 mile time, so you might be slightly quicker), that times 5 is a 4 hour 10 min marathon. I'm doing a marathon in a few months, and I run a 48 min 10km, so I'm hoping for a sub 4 hour according to that method :S

That's providing that method is accurate. I'll get back to you if it is, or if it's BS.

Consider the fact that there have been a few threads on this forum where we, highschool kids, have talked about how it would be unhealthy for one of us to run a marathon. These kids are way younger, and theý're running farther than marathon distance. I think it's bad. The only thing that might make it good would be if those kids truly enjoyed running and weren't pressured into it by adults. This is probably a result of poor parents trying to ensure a better life for their child by turning them into an athlete, but in the end, it will only make it worse.

I thought Budhia was pretty chill about the whole thing (in the interviews I've seen)--not exactly enthusiastic about running.

I think a lot of these kids are being mishandled. Training should be self-driven and flexible in order to allow for them to be children. Heck, if the kids really are that talented, I say let them decide whether or not they want to train. It isn't as though that natural talent is going to go away--let them develop it on their own if they want to, in their own time.

If these kids are running 30+ miles every day when they're this young, I feel like their enthusiasm for running is not going to necessarily be there when they're older. I guess for Budhia it must have seemed like a ticket out--a ticket to safety, and if that's the case then I suppose more aggressive training is necessary. But barring that, I don't feel like it's warranted to have small children who are still developing (metabolically, hormonally) put that much of a toll on their bodies.

thelagwagon wrote:

RUNxxWILD07 wrote:oh yeah, her marathon would be faster then me, or really close


lets seee....
If i run 1:04 for 8 miles. Thats 2:08 for 16. 3:12 for 24 add another 15 mins for the other 2 thats putting me at 3:27 + a 400, 1:45 = 3:28.45 which is her time.

so we would be close and i would probably tire out and get slower as it goes anyway.

The most accurate marathon time is supposed to be 5 times your 10km time. You run a 50 min 10km (calculated from your 8 mile time, so you might be slightly quicker), that times 5 is a 4 hour 10 min marathon. I'm doing a marathon in a few months, and I run a 48 min 10km, so I'm hoping for a sub 4 hour according to that method :S

That's providing that method is accurate. I'll get back to you if it is, or if it's BS.

Keep in mind that you arn't going to hold the exact pace through the whole thing and that you will probably slow down in the later miles.

*sg* wrote:Consider the fact that there have been a few threads on this forum where we, highschool kids, have talked about how it would be unhealthy for one of us to run a marathon. These kids are way younger, and theý're running farther than marathon distance. I think it's bad. The only thing that might make it good would be if those kids truly enjoyed running and weren't pressured into it by adults. This is probably a result of poor parents trying to ensure a better life for their child by turning them into an athlete, but in the end, it will only make it worse.

Or the government. Remember that Chinese olympic article that was posted?

T B K wrote:

thelagwagon wrote:

RUNxxWILD07 wrote:oh yeah, her marathon would be faster then me, or really close


lets seee....
If i run 1:04 for 8 miles. Thats 2:08 for 16. 3:12 for 24 add another 15 mins for the other 2 thats putting me at 3:27 + a 400, 1:45 = 3:28.45 which is her time.

so we would be close and i would probably tire out and get slower as it goes anyway.

The most accurate marathon time is supposed to be 5 times your 10km time. You run a 50 min 10km (calculated from your 8 mile time, so you might be slightly quicker), that times 5 is a 4 hour 10 min marathon. I'm doing a marathon in a few months, and I run a 48 min 10km, so I'm hoping for a sub 4 hour according to that method :S

That's providing that method is accurate. I'll get back to you if it is, or if it's BS.

Keep in mind that you arn't going to hold the exact pace through the whole thing and that you will probably slow down in the later miles.

the way he did it is further then a marathon 5 times 6.2 = 31 a marathon is 26.2, so his way is already showing the slowing down by using a time from a further distance

ATribeCalledGreg wrote:I believe the majority of kids like that will burn out. I won't admit to being the god of running knowledge, but I'm pretty sure of these grade school phenoms, very few have gone on to have long and successful running careers.

+1, but there's always a couple people who do make it all the way without burning out.

Geb ran a 35-40 min 10k twice a day five days a week. And that was just getting to school.