My 9-year-old...

[dave rockness]

came home last week, having run the second fastest time in her class for the mile (8:15).  Of course some 9-year-old boy blew the field away with like a 6:45.  I'd love to hear what some of your children or nephews/nieces have accomplished...not that we parents get proud or anything. 

[adam]

I took my 3 year old niece for a 1/3 mile run. She finished in a little over 3 minutes, no stopping and talking completely normal the whole way. The topic of conversation, which she yelled most of the way: "You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man".

Not much compared to Sasha's kids though...

[Benn Griffin]

Wow that is awesome !

I don't have any nieces/nephews yet but soon I will! And I am intent on making them world class runners and living vicariously through them.


As far as youngsters go, I watched a 3rd grader (boy) run a 6:18 mile in gym class (though it was 4 laps of the track and arguably 9 meters short. SO it was probably more like 6:20 or 6:21. Best thing was he didn't even look tired afterwards. And he said he just runs because he loves it. Man I wish I had his gift!

[Sasha Pachev]

Benjamin - 9 years old:

100 m - 17.7
half mile - 2:57
mile - 6:32
5 K - 21:12
10 K - 45:36

Jenny - just turned 8:

mile - 7:09
5 K - 24:01
10 K - 53:06

Julia - just turned 6

1 mile - 8:17
5 K - 31:12

Joseph - will be 4 in January

100 m - 34
0.34 - 3:46

Jacob - turned 2 in July

100 m - 50

[Benn Griffin]

Hey Sasha, just wondering how you get your kids to enjoy running so much? Do you let them come to you, or do you introduce them to it and try to make it a daily activity? Just curious, because I know that I want my kids to be into running too. Maybe just lead by example and one day they'll want to try to see what the big hooplah is about? Your kids are already amazing runners! phew!

[dave rockness]

My wife and I really didn't get into running until about a year ago.  Once a week or so we go down to the high school track together with the entire family.  It's our only opportunity to run together unless we get a babysitter.  There is a jungle gym next to the track, yet over time we've noticed our girls just wanting to join in...some of them more than others.  Last Spring our 2-year-old angrily ran her first lap, furious that nobody would wait up for her.  By her fifth lap (done without stopping once), she was proud of the attention being received.  Every individual's different, yet for our family, example is the most powerful influence.  Also, I have a friend who played TE in the NFL.  He has 4 girls and a boy.  None of them played organized sports until high school (although all of our peers said it would be a terrible strike against them...they'll be so far behind...if you're not playing organized t-ball by age four you'll never catch up, etc.).  His girls all dominated h.s. tennis and 2 of them received college scholarships. 

[jtshad]

Great to see active kids!  My 9-year old son recently ran a couple of 1M races and finished them in around 8:15 pace as well!  Pretty cool to see kids running this distance.  My 6-year old ran a 0.75M race about a month ago and finished 5th with a time of about  minutes.  Both kids ran the whole time while most the kids around them did the "go out hard, then fade and walk, then repeat" approach. 

[Carolyn Herlin]

My 11-year son old just announced that he wants to run a 5K race with me. I better get him doing some training. My 6-year old daughter then said that she wanted to do it too. I better get them both outside and see what they can do. But they both seem to want to race but not train. I better disabuse them of that notion.

[Sasha Pachev]

Enjoy is perhaps the wrong word. Other than Benjamin, everybody complains here and there. Benjamin is more competitive than others and knows that if he does not run he does not win. He used to complain as well when he was younger, but after a couple of races where he was beating adults running almost in between their legs he came to a realization that the drudgery of training was worth the prize.

We set an expectation of a daily run for all kids once they reach the age of 4. The same way we expect them to do their school work, practice the piano, or clean their room. We do not go out of our way to make it fun, or at least do not reduce the expectations when meeting them stops being fun. We do, however, offer elaborate incentives for running performances.

Work does not have to be a daily flow of fun. We work regardless, try to make it fun as we go, but if we cannot, we still do the same amount of work. Let the fun come at payday when it is time to race.

[Jon Allen]

Now we'll see how all these kids react when they become teenagers... 

[adam]

Now we'll see how all these kids react when they become teenagers... 

I think it helped me get into running more as a teenager. Now, my parents didn't have us go out and run everyday, but everyday we knew our mom was out exercising and our dad was out doing Army PT, so if we weren't doing something during the day too, we were behind. Sometimes we would get to go to the track with them, and they would also display their patches on the wall at home (there was a system going on at the time where we were living that gave out patches for every 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 miles of training). We thought that was so amazing and we were encouraged to get our own. We were encouraged to go out and run/bike to the store, or to a friends house instead of getting a ride. I hardly ever got a ride to school (which I hated at the time). Years later when I started running XC in high school, I would go to the same track I went to as a 5 year old and feel grateful that I wasn't completely oblivious to running.

[Sarah Pachev]

I think anything parents can get their kids involved in is wonderful. I always joke that our kids are growing up on a running farm. We don't have a farm to teach them to work but we can take them out for a jog every day. It was really overwhelming to me at first when Sasha wanted the kids to do it everyday. I came from a family where we were taught to work with household things like vacuuming and dishes (which are children help out with too). I don't think our kids will rebel when they are older. I think when they are old enough to be on the track team at school they will love that they have already developed a talent and will enjoy the social aspect of running with a team.

[dave rockness]

I bet they'll start giving dad a run for his money during those teen years (running wise).  They may need some time to approach his marathon accomplishments, but look out for those 5k pr's.   

[dave rockness]

Yeah, felt good to throw down one of those "smileys". 

[Jon Allen]

Yeah, Sasha will have a real eye-opener when Benjamin beats him at a 5k...  I still remember how hard it was on my dad when I first beat him.