Is the programme suitable for an 11 year old child?

[woody74]

[gdeann Graduate]

Our 14 year old daughter is doing the program and is progressing well. She also really likes Laura. I think an 11 year old may enjoy it as long as it can be made fun in someway so they don't feel bad if something goes wrong. Our daughter just downloaded a 5K zombie run version so she is now collecting items and staying away from zombies as she runs. She decided to keep Laura but do the zombie run some days as well. Will an adult be joining the 11 year old? Its a great bonding experience for the family. Gayle

[GoogleMe Graduate]

I have a feeling that 14 is the "It's OK" age for a lot of such things. However, there's a difference between actively encouraging an 11 year old and not stopping an 11 year old who wants to do it. I think this may have come up before and the conclusion seemed to be that up to 5K is fine.

[woody74]

Thanks for the answers. I am starting the c25k and my daughter is keen to do it with me, there is no pressure as she wants to do it. She is quite active, goes dancing, swimming etc so I think she should cope. Its exciting to take the venture together and she will definately keep me motivated. Thanks for the tip about the Zombie run, I'm sure she would love that!

[greenlegs Graduate]

I was looking round the parkrun website (parkruns are 5k) and came across this graph of ages of parkrunners:

parkrun.com/results/demogra...

There seem to be about the same number of 11 yr olds as 53 yr olds. Whether it means anything is another matter entirely though!

Fascinating to see the age 30 and age 40 peaks, in both men and women. (It also made me feel much better about being slow, as over 50s are in a minority, so not so surprising if I find it hard to go as fast as all those young things!)

It sounds like a lovely idea to do c25k alongside your daughter - may you both enjoy it!

[woody74 in reply to greenlegs]

Thanks for this. The link to the website was useful. Wish us luck we start tomorrow!

[notbad Graduate]

There is some advice on the PR website about this sort of distance for children:

support.parkrun.com/entries...

The British Athletic association doesn't recommend races longer than 4k for under 13s, but as long as children aren't under any pressure then PR are okay with it. There are defintely people on here who have blogged about children of that age doing c25k with them, again it's back to your own judgement.

[Clawmum Graduate]

My 10 (11 next week) year old and 15 year old join in, sometimes they run sometimes they come on there bikes, no pressure just enjoying time outside

[shelleymcb Graduate]

my 12 & 13 year old girls have completed the program & son of 10 is on about week 3, but I havent taken hiim out lately because I think it is too cold on the walking bits at the moment. I would think that 10 is fine for this as long as 10 year old is enjoying it & knows that they can stop if they want to. I was amazed at how my 10 year old coped but when you think about it, he is used to running around all day anyway.

[woody74]

Well we completed day one today and she did really well ( better than me). She was excited about it all day and was proud with herself when we finished. Thanks for all your responses.