MINNEAPOLIS - This year's Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon featured several teenagers on the course, including a 15-year-old girl who finished sixth in the elite women's field.
All those young people had many of you on social media wondering, can you be "too young" to run a 26.2-mile race?
“As long as it’s balanced and approached in a healthy way which should be guided by, sometimes, a sports medicine specialist, physical therapists, trainers, it’s usually fine,” said Dr. Dave Jewison, a University of Minnesota sports medicine physician.
This weekend’s marathon got people talking, many of them concerned about the risks those 17 and under face running a 26.2-mile race.
Race officials say they don’t have an age limit. They say 24 people who were 17 and younger ran this year's Twin Cities Marathon. The youngest was 12.
Jewison says the cause for concern for kids is over training or over use.
“And this happens in gymnasts, young people who are still growing, if they do a lot of the weight-bearing activities on their wrists sometimes the end of their wrist bones will close early," he said.
To avoid young people overusing a part of their body, he suggests that parents encourage them to take a more well-rounded approach to training, making sure they use different muscles and movements.
He says the goal is to have balance and avoid stress fractures and joint problems later in life.
“Our typical message for young people, pediatricians, and adolescents and athletes is the amount of training per week should equal their age per hour. So if someone is 8 years old they shouldn’t be doing more than 8 hours per week for that sport," said Jewison. "And if they do there is that risk, like in any sport, to have an increase in injury."
The Twin Cities Marathon requires parent consent for youth 17 and under. Several other big marathons, including the Boston Marathon, require runners to be at least 18 years old.