Athletics in adolescence

Eliud Kipchoge is the first person in history to run a marathon in under two hours. This means running 42km and 195m with a pace of 2’50” each kilometer, which is the same as running this colossal distance at 21,1km/h. His goal in running is to affirm that No Human Is Limited: “to show to the world that when you focus on your goal, when you work hard and when you believe in yourself, anything is possible”.

My intention is to relate this quote to the benefits of athletics in every single person and in this case specifically I´ll be focusing on the period of adolescence. Kipchoge’s record is the result of lots of hours of training and sacrifice, it’s not a feat that you can achieve one day to another. In fact, he has achieved this at 34 years old and with countless marathons in his legs. “No one is born a perfect runner. And none of us will become one. But through incremental steps, we can become better runners. And that’s the beauty of our sport: There are no shortcuts, nothing is given to us; we earn every mile, and we earn every result” (Peter Magill).

A teenager that decides to join and start running is showing a high level of compromise and commitment. Our trainings start at 8 in the morning before class and believe me: on a cold day in winter these are hours nobody particularly looks forward to. It’s incredible to see how they’re constantly capable of fighting that inner voice that tells you to slow down because you’re tired, because it’s cold and because you don’t feel like doing it. They row upstream with all its might, they suffer, they fight with themselves and they win, as Kipchoge says. The truth is that as a coach I’m so lucky to experience their tireless spirit of fight and sacrifice.

Adolescence is often a complicated period, it’s when teenagers define their personality. Lots of times they feel misunderstood and out of place. They need to be sure within themselves. Athletics can help this, a lot. They set personal objectives, achieve them and prove to themselves that they are capable of doing things which they often never imagined they could. The feeling of satisfaction which comes with such achievements is so great that it helps their self-esteem grow, which has a large psychological and emotional benefit.

This is essential because this increase in confidence helps in other aspects of their lives, for instance academically. In fact, according to a study by The Journal of Pediatrics, a high cardiorespiratory capacity and motor ability due to sport, may have a beneficial influence on academic performance in youth.

One could think of running as an individual sport, however it allows students to share trainings and experiences with other friends outside the classroom. Teamwork during trainings is essential. Interval running on the track, running technique, strength sessions, trail running days… everything is teamwork. It’s an extreme example but Kipchoge himself is based from Monday to Saturday in a camp in Kenya with all his team mates, which for him are the key to success. He always remembers: “100% of me is nothing compared to 1% of the entire team”.

Furthermore, in the discipline of athletics you burn a large amount of calories, which is why it’s an ideal sport for losing and controlling weight. You strengthen your bones, your muscles and improve your circulation and lung capacity. It’s a very complete way of being fit and can be a good focus point for all their never-ending energy. One consequence of all this is that they are calmer and they sleep better. Being exhausted and having burned all the tension and stress makes it much easier to get to sleep at night. I could continue analyzing all the good that sport does but I would never end.

At Viaró we are lucky enough to be a federated club and we can participate in competitions at all levels: we are able to produce officially recognized stats which enable the progress of our students to regional and state championships which students from Viaró have done in the past. A dream can come true for any athlete.