Kids' 2 km run at the city marathon in August. Sensible for a 6 year old?

juniper_violin_77416 Jun 2026

I've signed up for the 10K again and my son wants a medal of his own. The event has a kids' category, around 2 km, and registrations are open now. He runs all the time, but in bursts, like every 6 year old. He has never run continuously for more than a few minutes. I don't want to drag a crying child over the line in front of a crowd, and I also don't want to say no when he's this keen. If your child did one of these at this age, did they run it, walk it, or get carried? Any practice that helped in the weeks before?

3 comments

plum_puzzle_301016 Jun 2026
Our daughter did a kids' run at around seven. Practical bits first: the start is chaotic, so stand at the back of the kids' pen, not the front, or he'll get swept along too fast and be done in 300 metres. Walking breaks are completely normal in that category, half the children walk. She walked the middle stretch and sprinted the end for the cameras. The medal is still on her wall ❤️
fig_spoon_27017 Jun 2026
One thing nobody told us: the reporting time for the kids' category can be very early, and the wait before the start is long. Our son was tired and hungry before he even began. Pack a snack and water, and have a plan for the toilet queue. The run itself was the easy part.
rose_pool_480617 Jun 2026
my daughter did one at 7 or 8. question back though, does he want to run or does he want the medal? ours only wanted the medal and the photo. which is fine, it just changes what practice you do
- cinnamon_rain_602318 Jun 2026
  medal is a perfectly good reason at 6. mine is nearly 10 and still asks if there's a medal before agreeing to anything
- juniper_violin_77418 Jun 2026
  Fair question. Mostly the medal, I think, he's seen mine on the shelf. We did our first short jog-walk yesterday evening anyway. Ten minutes in he asked me to stop talking so he could concentrate 😄