On Saturday, I went running for the first time in a very long time with my twelve-year old son. I think the last time we were out running together was at some point this past spring. In the intervening months, he's gone from being able to run just short intervals of our 1.5 mile jaunt (I always do short distances with the kids which they can alternatively walk/run) to outrunning me the whole way. He's developed an easy, loping stride -- and I think if we had had more time, he could have quite comfortably run even further. I couldn't be more delighted!

While he's improved his running purely through the conditioning program that's incorporated into his tackle football practice, the quickness with which he's built up endurance and speed makes me wonder why more kids don't run distances regularly. Certainly most high schools and many middle schools have track programs -- and I often see the kids from these programs running the shorter races in Central Park -- but there is no question at all in my mind that if my son chose to, he could train for marathon-type distances. The NY Times featured an article some weeks ago about kids who have run the NY Marathon. But most of them did it many years ago -- it would be great to see some kids doing it now.