Is This Normal - Running Competition

I think it is great mini purple had a go and tried something new. It was a bit naive to sign up for something described as long distance when they have never run more than a 100m, but tweens are a bit naive by definition.
What I am amazed at is that PE teachers entered kids into an inter-school athletics event without at least some assessment of their ability. At DD’s school kids are selected based on their performance in PE lessons at a minimum. However, this is often followed up by looking at performance in after school clubs and trials. PE lessons include sprints, middle distance etc. Teachers have a reasonable idea of performance & fitness. In the autumn they run multiple laps of the field (not the track) to trial for x-country. A Y7 walking in a 800m race would be last by some considerable distance at our district athletics event. This isn’t a poor reflection on mini purple - she was just enthusiastic & didnt understand the level of fitness required. However, if schools are going to enter an inter-schools event, teachers running some sprints & middle distance practices in PE or after school would seem a pretty essential preparation. This is partly to check the kids have the capability to run and partly so they are familiar with the distance and that it isn’t advisable to sprint off like a rocket at the start.

Yes, pacing is definitely the key. I’d be useless at 800m; I can either sprint or jog, nothing in between. And my brother was a county 100m, 200m and 400m champion throughout his teens but wasn’t a good long distance runner at all.

Hopefully if they do athletics in PE, the OP’s DD’s teachers will explain that as they do a bit more running.

It’s normal, yes.

And ‘long distance’ is usually a minimum of 2 miles. 800 metres is the shortest of the middle distance races. While I appreciate that your daughter has only ever done 100m sprint races (and that’s fine!), 800m is a normal distance for kids to run and there will be loads of kids who run that sort of distance frequently. It’s really good that she gave it a try and managed to complete it even with a bit of walking - sounds like she could certainly build up to being able to run it easier and faster, so hopefully her PE teachers will encourage her to keep trying.

Well done to your DD for giving it a go. The walking a bit probably means she started too fast if that is something she wants to work on for next time (assuming she wants to do it again). Incidentally, my year 9 DS doesn't usually do well at 800m and would be annoyed at anyone calling it long distance, as he can't get the pacing right for mid distance. He can however run parkrun a lot faster than me and do a 10k in less than an hour, so there's clearly more to it than just fitness.

Our primary is awful for sport but my son can make it round junior parkrun, It's great that your DD is having a go - she might enjoy it and if she doesn't, she doesn't have to do it again.

In year 7 in the mid 90s, we got dragged onto the school field and made to do 3 laps of the school running track. The whole year group got made to do it, no excuses.
Kids were dropping like flies 😂
When I told my mum what we’d had to do, she just said “that’s nice, did you manage it ok?”
No fuss, no “but you didn’t do any training!”

Do parents question everything nowadays?

Well done mini purple. She did well to keep going and finish. Now she knows how far 800m is I hope she sticks at it, practices and I’m sure she can improve in another competition.

Hi @purpleme12. I mentioned walking, in the context of it being the case that lots of kids at secondary school struggle to run a couple of an athletics track. Your daughter sounds like she's active and probably wouldn't struggle to maintain a run for a couple of laps once she has a better idea how to gauge her pace for the distance, which can take practice experience. Unfortunately, that's not the case for many kids of a similar age.

Well done her for doing it. It was at something similar - albeit in Yr5 in her case - that we accidentally discovered DD is a decent runner. She’s always been average in school sports day 60m type thing but it turns out she’s got real stamina. She’s done cross country ever since.
I know your DD has done it and may not have enjoyed it being second to last but hopefully she found it was a supportive environment and that it was probably tactics and experience that led her to come to that position. In DD’s first 800m at secondary, she was trailing quite significantly after the first lap and I just thought “oh well, she was good for the local primary competition but not for the wider secondary field” but, actually, she just reeled them all in in the second lap and won by a good few seconds whilst those who had been leading ended up
walking. It might be worth reminding her that she’ll run further than 800m in any of her team sports over the course of a training session.

Well done to your DD.

I hope she understands how proud you are of her for giving it a try.

Her place doesn't matter, what matters is that she put herself out there to try something new and did the best she could.

If she does another race I'm sure she's learned a bit about how to pace it from this one.

@Manyleaves Some kids, but really not all. Some kids get a daily walk to a school a mile or so away, but lots have very short walks, or get driven to school right through primary school, and for various reasons, not least of which is cost, aren't doing other sports or activities, e.g. swimming. Kids are spending far less time being active than they did a generation or two ago, so yes, it is the case that a lot of kids in secondary school struggle to run a couple of laps of the athletics track without needing to walk for a bit. This isn't a pop at the OP - it's brilliant that her daughter is confident to volunteer for things and give them a go - it's just a reflection of how things are.

800m isn’t a long distance it is only half a mile or twice round a running track. I guess the PE staff wouldn’t even have thought about it. We did 800m at secondary school every summer, and cross country in the winter.

My ds is year 2 and his year group have done “mini marathon” round the field twice already this term: it’s 1 mile (about 1600m)

I think the expectation is that children are fit enough to do this.

if your concern is that your dd doesn’t have a clue how to time a run like that, well, no substitute for having a go! I would suggest she plonks herself middle of the pack and try and keep up. Simple!

Yes indeed. Sticking to it and completing the course is an achievement. Being not last is an achievement. Onwards and upwards. well done to her.

I’m a bit surprised at these answers. An 800metre race is known to be a hard distance for anyone. Any decently fit kid can run for that time or distance, but racing is another animal.

To me it’s another example of schools having to rely on sport experience outside school because they don’t have the time, facilities or funding to actually do proper sport in school.

I think your daughter did brilliantly to sign up for something unknown; I hope she doesn’t take the lesson to never do that again! Good for her.

Yep. Happens here. From Y1! Distances get further with age, but “Neilly Races” is a right of passage. A healthy Y7 should be able to run 800m if they don’t try to sprint.

Swimming I can understand because you need access to facilities, but walking and running, just part of what DC do....?

@Manyleaves Yes, we have. Similarly with swimming more than a couple of lengths, or even walking a handful of miles without a break.

Oh wow. Have we really got the a place where the average 11yo needs to train to run 800 metres/half a mile?.