With a child of my own interested in running a marathon, I researched marathon training programs for youth in the US (there are some!), injury rates and how these compare to high school running programs.
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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I wonder if we should ask the best runners in the world.
https://ourkenya.com/Sports/Why-Kenya-Runs
"Running culture begins in childhood. Kenyan children run to school, sometimes covering 10-15 kilometers daily by age eight. This is not training in the modern sense but transportation and play. These miles build aerobic capacity in a critical window of development, creating a deep physiological base that European or American distance runners, who typically begin systematic training in their teens, never develop. Barefoot running, which was standard in rural Kenya until the 1990s, develops foot strength and proprioception differently than shoe-dependent running. By the time a Kenyan runner reaches age 16 and begins formal athletics training, they have accumulated 100,000+ unplanned running miles."
Timothy Noakes worked in Kenya for decades with elite runners. While running is part of the culture, running success is not. There is a strong genetic component tied to the Kalenjin (sp.) people. Again, the issue here is not whether children should run - they should. The issue is whether they should train for long distances.
The issue of barefoot vs shoed running is well studied at this point and I'd refer anyone interested I the work to Benno Nigg's Human Performance Lab as a resource. Basically it matters much less than you might think. Minimal shoes/barefoot running works for a subset of the population and small frames and light body mass contribute. Barefoot runners will also move injury from knee to foot and ankle.
There's also the Tarahumara of Mexico, another culture where running is a normal mode of transportation. Folks may remember the iconic story of some of the Tarahumara running in the Leadville 100-mile mountain race and winning one year... while racing in traditional sandals!
Well... "Traditional sandals" of an Indian aunty are for sure different than the ones of a culture of distance running