Running with Kids

I know there's a lot of moms (and dads) out there that struggle with sacrificing Saturday morning cartoon time with their little ones to run a race instead. I've been in the same boat (almost every weekend lately). It's not easy to remove the parental guilt we associate with putting ourselves 'first'.

That's why I got my older daughter into running. She expressed an interest so we took full advantage of it. I helped to organize a race in April 2011 and it was almost literally outside our back door. My father-in-law and I volunteered at an aid station while my mother-in-law, husband, daughters (the baby in the jogging stroller), and a family friend ran the race.

We didn't do any specific training for my older daughter, who had just turned 6. Our several-times-weekly walks were usually walk/runs with her anyway. Many times she runs ahead (on the trail) to the next road crossing and stops and waits for me to catch up. We walk more than 3 miles fairly often as it's about 1.5 miles to the park and back and we usually go beyond the park to a nature preserve further down the trail.


The family that runs together, Stays together?

I never even thought about 'training' my daughter but I didn't have any concerns about her participation either. Suddenly I'm surrounded by running parents who wonder if they should or could let their young children participate. Runner's World magazine even did an article in their September 2011 edition on this topic and recommended that children 6 and under not participate in races. (7-9 is okay for 5k's and 10+ is okay for 10k's according to the article.)

I started to wonder if I was harming my daughter. Was I being the pushy parent? Was I damaging her growing body? Why SHOULDN'T she run(/walk) a 5k if she so desired? Would it be wrong to let the baby do a 5k earlier (maybe 4 or 5) if she wants to? So many questions and so few answers!

Parenting is so individual and there's so many ideas on how to do it 'right' that I decided to trust myself and my husband. If we think our children are capable and they believe they are too then why not let them try? I'm thankful to report that it's working out well for us.

Gem has her own medal hanger full of age group awards and soccer medals. She set a new 5k PR of 39:00 at her last race. The baby even has a medal because we registered her at one race just for kicks even though she was in the jogging stroller the whole time. My older daughter is now asking if I will let her do a longer race and I told her we would talk about it come spring.


Those are all Gems on the pink hanger!

So what's your take on running with your kids? Is it good? bad? neutral? What age is a good age to start and do you worry about 'training' your children? At what age would you let your child run farther (5M, 10k, HM)?