Quote Originally Posted by Witton Park View Post
Chris - I have to say I'm not sure and that isn't what I'm on about really and I did say in my last post that the racing was a side issue. I'm interested that Chris Smale and others have done long races young and I am sure that intrinsically kids are far more able to do long distances than we give them credit for.
But in terms of improving performance I don't think it is a good idea.
In terms of longer races, I am angling for a little leeway. We have our international U18/U16 spending 4 years running in races generally no longer than 4 mile. It's worse for lads, as they can be thrown in to a U20GB race where they can have an uphill only race longer than that.

And clearly they are lots of reasons why our male endurance runners, as much as I admire them, are not as good as they used to be. Other sports taking more of the pool of talent perhaps, but also we have a dumbing down approach to most things in life these days.

The target seems to be "average" and that can't be right.
But as Graham B stated some time ago they are not stopping people from doing what they want to do. When I was 16/17 you couldn't run much more than 3 or 4 miles in races but I was already 'cruising' around my 20 milers at 6min mile pace. I knew then that when I reached the senior ranks I'd be ready so I just got on with doing what I wanted to do.

I'm proof that race limits on young people will not prevent the determined athlete from running long distances . You just have to accept that your time will come.