Olympian says marathon ‘not good for the child’

Cincinnati event’s organizers express regret after allowing six-year-old to run

The race director for a Cincinnati marathon issued a statement of regret Wednesday after her event allowed a six-year-old boy to participate in the 26.2-mile event.

“I assume full responsibility for the decision and accept that it was not the best course of action,” wrote Iris Simpson Bush, the executive director of the Flying Pig Marathon. She added that, going forward, the age minimum of 18 for the full marathon “will be strictly observed.” Flying Pig registration policies also require a minimum age of 14 on race day for the half-marathon and 12 for the 10-kilometre event.

Bush shared her statement after the participation of the boy in Sunday’s event began to spark a reaction. Among those weighing in online was two-time Olympic distance runner Kara Goucher, who tweeted Wednesday, “I’m not questioning motivation or saying it is bad parenting. But as an Olympic athlete, I promise you this is not good for the child.”

Goucher added that a six-yearold child “who is ‘struggling physically’ does not realize they have the right to stop and should.” That was a reference to a social media post by the boy’s father, Ben Crawford of Bellevue, Ky., who stated Monday that by mile 20 of the marathon his son was “struggling physically and wanted to take a break and sit every three minutes.”

On Tuesday, Crawford returned to Instagram to respond to what he described as “a lot of attention from some who are accusing us of being irresponsible and even abusive.”

He stated that all six of his children have always had “the option” of participating in marathons without being forced to do so. His youngest child, the six-year-old, was “begging” to run this year, Crawford said, adding that he and his wife “gave him a 50/50 chance of completing it and were ready to pull the plug at any moment if he requested it or if we viewed his safety at risk.”

“We asked him numerous times if he wanted to stop and he was VERY clear that his preference was to continue,” wrote Crawford. “We did not see any sign of heat exhaustion or dehydration and honoured his request to keep on going.”

Crawford’s oldest child is 20 and he has other children under 18. All of them ran in the full marathon Sunday with him and his wife, and he wrote that the five older children waited over an hour at mile 25 for their young brother to catch up so they could cross the finish line together at a time of just over 8 hours 35 minutes.

Bush wrote in her statement that because Crawford and members of his family had unofficially run the marathon course as “bandits” in the past, their aim in allowing the six-year-old to participate was to “try to offer protection and support if they were on our course.”

“This decision was not made lightly,” wrote Bush, who noted that event officials receive requests each year for “special accommodations.”

“The father was determined to do the race with his young child regardless … Our decision was intended for some amount of safety and protection for the child.”

“The race has got to do what the race has got to do to protect the race,” Crawford said in a video he and his wife shared Thursday on social media. “I don’t expect them to fight our battles, and I don’t want to fight theirs. … We don’t need the recognition of the race.”

In a reply to an Instagram commenter who criticized Crawford’s parenting and warned of what may come when his kids grow up and “find their own voices,” he pointed to his three oldest children, aged 17 to 20, and wrote that they have all been “raised this same way.”

Crawford was reached Thursday, but did not immediately respond to questions posed via email.

In Tuesday’s post, Crawford addressed reports that his six-yearold son was crying during the race.

“Yes there were tears,” he wrote. “He had a fall and every single member of our family has cried during marathons. These experiences were very limited compared to what has been reported and despite the incredible physical and emotional difficulty of running a marathon the amount of his crying is comparable to what we would have experienced had we stayed home on a Sunday morning.”