How far and fast can your four-year-old run?

[Dygger]

Sorry, not an AIBU but want some quick traffic.

I met a woman yesterday who swore to me that her four-year-old had run five miles. I said I couldn't imagine a four-year-old I knew who wouldn't get bored of running very quickly. Apparently he didn't get bored, he just kept running for five miles. Didn't stop. I said did she mean five miles or five kilometres. She said miles — yes, really miles and she knows a mile is nearly twice as long as a kilometre. I asked how long this took and she said around 70 minutes, but she didn't start timing until he got well into it so she had no real idea. I said I wasn't sure running that sort of distance would be good for his muscles and joints and she just laughed and said he was fine — and he did look fine, though he didn't seem very lively.

Obviously BS. No idea why she said it. We were in a queue at M&S and she was on her own with her child — so not as if she had friends there she was having a laugh in front of. ('I told this older woman that he'd run five miles and she f**king believed me!')

I was laughing about it last night with a friend who got serious and concerned and said the mother sounds disturbed and what must it be like for the child to be hearing this sort of thing from her. I've woken up feeling bad about it. What do you think was going on?

If the fastest 5 mile run (world record) was completed by a grown man in 22 minutes how can a 5 year old do it in 70 minutes?

That woman is really funny. I’d have actually laughed too. She probably got her numbers mixed up.

Well an adult could run 5 miles (slowly) in that time. I don’t see why it’d be impossible for an active child.

My DS had bursts of speed at that age which were surprisingly quick, I couldn't always keep up. So I could imagine that a four year old with developed muscles could reach impressive speeds.

But sustaining it for an hour or more? Not so sure about that.

Well DD couldn’t at 4, she did a mile run for charity and got bored and sat down halfway round 😂but I don’t think that means that no 4 year old could ever?

I do remember the story about this boy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budhia_Singh?wprov=sfla1. He apparently ran 40 miles aged 5. (There's a film about it).
And while googling to find that link I found another story of a 6 year old in the US who ran a full marathon.
So I would say the story you were told is possible, although seems very unlikely. My 4 year old certainly couldn't do it!

The speed wouldn't neccessarily surprise me, but the fact a child ran continuously for over an hour would.

A 4 year old shouldn't be running 5 miles.

It is not that healthy for small children to run long distances, a lot of people would disapprove of 5 year olds doing parkrun let alone 5 miles, and definitely not a half marathon or more! 😳

I can believe it. 70 minutes for 5 miles is very slow so it's quite possible. I do a lot of parkruns and friends 4 and 5 year olds run 3.1 miles non stop in 30 ish minutes. It's not impossible that they'd run just under another 2 miles in another 40 minutes.

We’ve all been told crazy shit by people we’ve met in queues.

I'd be concerned that she pressured him to keep going.

My dd has just turned 4 and she can walk/jog about 2 miles on flat ground, usually less, before needing a break.

But yes the break would possibly be from boredom rather than exhaustion, maybe a bit of both.

Uphill - much less.

Junior parkruns exist. I'm not sure how far the course is for them but it's a decent run and open to 4+

It's not good for young dc to do such long runs.

She sounds bonkers.

2k.

A more realistic expectation of distance!

I suspect it's possible but unlikely that he did it completely without stopping or moaning or needing bribing.

I was walking five miles pretty regularly at that age so the distance doesn't surprise me.

I bet DD could have. ADHD, no recall, no risk assessment. She could happily walk 10km before she was 3. We threw the pram away at 18 months.

She would have got bored though, or looked at squirrels, after 10 miles of running.

My 5 year old runs 11 minute miles and does parkrun no problem, so I can believe it! 70 minutes is quite slow really.

Not sure many 4 year olds would actually bother running for that long though!

My 3 year old can cycle 5 miles but definitely couldn't run it. That said, I don't think it would be impossible with consistent practice. I wouldn't want to take my DS for anything more than 5km by 4 though.

Because their ligaments and muscles aren’t developed?

I had so many questions left to ask her. Like 'Did you run with him? Where did he run this amazing distance and how did you know it was five miles? What shoes was he wearing and weren't you concerned he'd get blisters? She was a large and not very fit-looking woman so I would have been astonished if she'd said she'd run five miles with him. So how would he have done it? We have an athletics tracks in the city but it's on university premises and part of a well-run sports club. People can't just turn up and run and I think they would have stopped a 4-year-old from running that distance because there are guidelines suggesting they shouldn't run more than half a mile.

I'm sure, as I said, that it was BS. Has anyone here ever just spun a ridiculous yarn to a stranger who was standing there minding their own business?

The thing is, based on my first two dc I would have called another mother deluded if she’d told me her dc was reading at 2. But then dc3 came along and could read a handful of words before her second birthday. So I’m a bit more open-minded: kids that age can be a bundle of energy so why not?

There is a lot of context missing. For example, the child could have been training with a parent for some time and building up to that run. In which case, it's perfectly plausible. If the child just decided one day to run 5 miles... less plausible but not impossible. Maybe they are a running prodigy and we'll see them in junior Olympics in the future.
As a young child, I did a lot of cycling training with my dad and was cycling 30+ miles every weekend form the age of 7 but we built up to it slowly as soon as I came off training wheels.

I find that easy to believe cause my son when he was 4 would cycle 25 miles and run 2 miles and I'm always eye rolling at mums who say their 10nyear old won't walk a mile.
My friends son was alot fitter than my son and would do 5km runs with his mum at 5. It's just how they are raised and no, at this age it doesn't have any bad effects on bones.

I just checked on a map, the furthest that my then-3yo ever had to maintain a proper fast run was 0.4mi (to catch a train). She was proper breathless and giggling and flopped into a seat when we made it, I don't think she could have maintained that any longer.

But maybe that was more a sprint than a "run".

Still, 5 miles looks really far on the map. Dd has scootered that far and been a bit tired by the end.

I often wonder if there will ever be a boy born who can swim faster than a shark