Saturday, November 7, 2009

cultural commentary

[via Runner's World Daily Views, 10/27/09]:

"An article in today's New York Times poses an interesting question, asking (implicitly): Should young kids run marathons?

The article is very well done, and includes anecdotes from several adults who ran marathons when they were, say, 8 or 9 years old, apparently with no ill effects. (In fact, judging from the jobs these kids went on to have, they've done very well. Apparently every 8-year-old who ran a marathon in the '70s went on to become an astronaut-lawyer, or Pope or something.)

It also quotes doctors who say, in essence, "Meh, sure, let your kid run a marathon. What do I care?"

So, it's a nice article. With all due respect to the newspaper of record, however, I believe they're asking the wrong question here. The real question is: Should adults run marathons?"

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