Am I running or doing a marathon when I take more than 6 hours to complete the race?
When I start running, I mix in a few walk breaks, bonk a little in the later miles, and push hard at the finish, which is running a marathon. My finish time may or may not be under 5 hours.
At other times, I start out walking, mix in a few running breaks, bonk a little in the later miles and push hard at the finish. It still is a marathon. I’m not running. I’m doing.
With the advent of the Galloway method of marathon training, mixing in walk breaks, there is no longer any shame of walking during a marathon.
Given enough time, almost anybody can do a marathon, and they can proudly state, “I did a marathon.”
There is an understanding by race directors that the “masses pay the bills.” Our revenues and profits are higher. So, we want to welcome all to our events.
On May 1, 2022, a family of 8 from Kentucky completed the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio. The family included two adults aged 42, four daughters ages 11, 15, 19, and 20, and two sons ages 6 and 17.
The same family completed this race in 2017, 2018, and 2019, less the 6-year-old son. Yes, in 2017, their youngest daughter was six years old, and their finish time was 6:49:29.
There are finish times for the father of 6:50:19 for 2016 and 5:41:03 for 2013. I am assuming some of his children accompanied him in these years as bandits.
Their finish times in this year’s marathon are strange.
On marathonguide.com, six family members have a finish time of 8:35:39, the father has a time of 9:24:17, and the six-year-old does not have a reported time. There were nine other finishers with times over 8 hours, with two close to the 9:24 time.
The pictures on marathonfoto.com have all eight family members and a display clock showing 8:35:39. The course had a cutoff time of 7 hours. The timing mats were not on the roadway in the photos. I wonder why the timer was still recording times.
On the race website and Race Roster results, seven family members have a finish time of 8:35:39, and the father has a time of 9:24:17.
Also, on Race Roster, five family members have a 19.2-mile time of 5:48 with mom, dad, and the 6-year-old at 6:08. It is pretty reasonable that the five siblings waited for the remainder of the family to finish together. The father’s 9:24:17 finish time bugs me. Another runner finished at 9:24:14. Perhaps the dad went back and helped the other runner finish. There are no photos of this latter runner’s finish. He was hand-timed.
Of course, the big bruhaha is the 6-year-old participating in a marathon. I don’t remember an outcry for the family’s other 6-year-old participating in 2017. Is this a problem? Is somebody to blame?
The family posts their exploits on YouTube and has over 45,000 followers. They are considered social influencers of families playing together. With that number of followers, they are getting paid by YouTube.
An aside: In the past week, I watched the 1941 movie “Meet John Doe,” which is about a social influencer created by a media magnate. Maybe a movie review will be a future blog post.
After their posting, there were calls to Child Protective Services asking to investigate the situation.
The race rules do not have a minimum age. There were eleven finishers younger than 18 years old. The youngest award’s age group is 18 to 24. I don’t see any publicity about the youngest finisher. From a race management perspective, they are not doing anything to incentivize young people to run.
The race waiver, terms, and conditions have the following sections:
PARTICIPATION
“Participating in a road race is a potentially hazardous activity. Runners should be medically able and properly trained to participate in the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. The runner understands the risks associated with running this event, including, but not limited to, weather, traffic, course conditions, surfaces, falls, and contact with other runners, volunteers, or spectators…”
COURSE
“The course will close on a continuous pace of 16:00 minutes per mile. Anyone who cannot maintain the 16:00 minute per mile pace must move to the sidewalk as the course closes to allow regular traffic through. Runner services cannot be guaranteed for participants beyond the 16:00 minute per mile pace. The finish line will close at 7 hours.”
Sometimes, the medically able clause includes a phrase about “certificated by a medical doctor.” There is no doctor to point to who okayed the 6-year-old to participate in this case.
The parents gave informed consent and thus released the race director’s decisions.
Are the parents abusing their 6-year-old by letting him participate in a marathon?
For the races longer than 5km that I managed: The youngest age group was 19-and-under. I did nothing to encourage runners younger than 14 years old. I would not comp a participant younger than 18 years old. One year, a parent asked me to comp their 10-year-old in a half-marathon.
These standards came from my understanding that running races longer than 5km can damage a child’s growth plates in their expanding bones. Actually, running the race is not the issue. The damage to the bones comes from the proper training to run the longer distance race.
So, the parents either lied and indicated their child trained correctly or abused their child with the 20 weeks of 40 plus miles in training runs. Let’s assume the former.
Maybe they did the proper training to “do” a marathon rather than “run” it. What is the appropriate training to do a marathon? It could be some family hikes without the title training.
If a 6-year-old can stay on their feet for 9 hours, I hope for a long healthy life. Is it better than sitting in front of an Xbox for 9 hours?
There is no evidence that running longer races before age 14 gives an experience advantage over starting later in life. Whereas, there is an advantage with the eye-hand coordination sports (i.e., Basketball, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, Field Events) and shorter distance races in running and swimming.
This story reminds me of the uproar in the ultra-running community about James Bonnett from Phoenix, Arizona. In 1996 at age 10, he completed 53 miles in the Across the Years 24-hour event. Like today’s situation, expert runners exclaimed how this was not good for a young person. I don’t remember allegations of child abuse.
The following year Bonnett completed 84 miles, and at age 12 in 1998, he won the male division with 101 miles. Today he is still running well in the 94th percentile for 36-year-old males. Over the years, he has completed 64 ultras with 17 podiums and six wins. Could he have done better by starting later?
Enjoying life is a success.