Sunday, February 8, 2009

Kids and Running

Whatever happened to little Wesley Paul? Born in 1969, Wesley tackled his first 26.2 mile marathon at age 7. Running side by side with his dad, they finished together in a time slightly over 4 hours. In 1977, at age 8, Wesley set an age group world record at the first Chicago Marathon with a time of 3 hr: 15 min: 20 sec (footnote: I was also a participant in that race!). At age 15 Wesley ran the Houston Marathon in 2 hr 38 minutes, a 6 minute per mile pace. Future Olympian or potential burned out runner? Neither. Today Wesley is 6’2” tall and a graduate of Harvard law school residing in New York. Reportedly he still enjoys running, starting each day with a 2 to 5 mile run. Wesley Paul, Marathon Runner

"I trained 6 miles a day. The marathon wasn't my best distance, but I did 3:01 at age 10. I won Bay to Breakers three times and ran for San Francisco State. Running provided me with opportunities I never would have had otherwise." -Mary Etta (Boitano) Blanchard -halhigdon.com

MY COMMENT: Should your kids be running? Absoulutely! Should they be running marathons? Absolutely not! Go to kidsrunning.com for some great information on how to keep your kids in the sport- sanely.

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