I just found out that my nephew ran 5k in an official timed race in 23:31 (while chatting to a friend); the surprising thing is that he's only 10! I reckon that's equivalent to 12.8 kph. I was astonished at his time - but perhaps I'm easily astonished? Does anyone know what pace a 10 year old would run at? Obviously the family is happy to see him just enjoy running so not keen to put any pressure on at his young age. Thoughts welcome...
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I seem to remember there was a thread about a 12 year old girl on here a while back, and she'd run a 5k in about 19:30 I think. She was a member of a football youth team, though I can't remember which one.
Anyway, I digress.
I've no feeling for such young kids racing - but that sounds pretty amazing to me. A young Alf Tupper !
12 runners broke 17:00 for the 5k in the U15s last year, the best being 15:50. On what did you base your speculation?
I was just about to query those stats...........
My 14 year old is just 5 secs of going under 20 mins and he is only an average runner..........a good team member for the school but a way down the field in all events........
still i'm impressed that he wants to run..........but boys develop so much differently to each other its hard to tell at that age whose good unless they really stand out from the crowd
i believe you have to be 14 to officially do 5k's but you can run park runs younger.........
still if he enjoyed it take him to the local athletics club...
Moraghan, I base my speculation on the same source as you- powerof10. That only has listings up to 17:00, which as you say, 12 U15 boys broke. Assuming not as many younger people try at longer distances, I know at my club there are no U15s who try at that distance, then I think top 30 at least would be a quite reasonable estimate.
And since this couldn't have been under UKA rules there's no way of telling where he'd be offically until he's 13/14... I'd definately take him along to a children's athletics club, if he can get that time now and enjoys it, he could have a lot of potential By going once a week it hopefully won't be putting any pressure on him.
I can't follow the logic there. If there were 12 U15s who were between 15:50 and 16:53, it follows that there would be more runners at each correspondingly lower time. That would be the obvious pattern because there is more and more depth the slower you go.
Otherwise you are suggesting just 18 male under 15 runners ran between 17:01 and 23:31 which is utterly ludicrous.
I've no idea what a national 5k U11 ranking would look like, but I agree that the main thing is that he enjoys running that far at all!
Looking back at my school days I'd absolutely love to have had the opportunity to pursue a more aerobic based sport at a young age. Being a late developer I was fairly poor at most sports on offer, especially those involving strength and speed, but I did at least enjoy taking part in and training for the longer events at sports day. Provision of sports in my school went RAPIDLY downhill after my first couple of years. We had no sports day after my second year at secondary school and I ran a total of two cross-country races, both in the first year. After that, you were either good at football or didn't get much of a look-in. Fcuking joke.
I didn't enjoy sport till I joined the cycling club that my brothers were in, at age 12. To be fair, this was funded by the local education authority, but had nothing to do with my school.
Er, anyway, so what I think I'm saying is I agree with Jokerman. Whatever the time signifies, get him down to a club and see if he enjoys taking part in structured sessions.
My 10 year old son does the hallam park run, and he managed it in 21:53
Nephew.
And what became of him one wonders?
Did he break the fabled top 30 of U15s or is he sat, bloated and greasy on the sofa, with a PS3 controller clutched in his grubbby paws?
I hope the answer was option 1 but due to the lack of an update I'd guess option 2.
All I know is that the regularity with which junior "10 run" white T-shirts pass me in the last 50 metres of my parkrun,is getting beyond a joke!
I remember running for my school in the first and second year, so being 13/14 and running around 5 min for the 1500m and there was a couple who were faster than me.
I was smaller than the others and a late developer so no matter how hard I pushed I just couldn't keep up with the one or two others that were good.
I ran longer distances cross country but I can't remember the times.
As an aside when I picked up running again recently at the age of 31 the first race I had was a 5K and when I pushed it the pain took me back to my school days and brought back to me the pain of running competively
with the advent of parkruns, many younger kids now love running... my son (8) plays a lot of football, swimming and now loves parkruns... does them when we can and is already running just over 23mins.. and there are a number of others within a few mins of him.
I love seeing them all run together, going fast/slow etc... and he loves it..
Not sure how he'll progress, but i need to watch it... won't be too many years before his old man gets very concerned!
Bah - it's not a level playing field, these young 'uns will be far lighter than the likes of us! I bet they are lugging around at least 40Kg less than I do, no wonder they get such good times!