Dear Carol,
My wife and I have begun training for a half-marathon and we don't want to leave our 13 year-old daughter out. We know that we do not want her running the distance of a half-marathon so we suggested that we all train for a 5K together. Although she is somewhat active, she has never really run as an activity. Do you have any suggestions in getting her training off to a good start? We have not picked out the race yet, so we have the time to build as slowly as needed. My daughter seems really excited about the prospect, so I want to make sure this experience is one that she will enjoy and, hopefully, continue with.

Dear Philip,

She should be fine. Make sure that she understands about pacing herself. Maybe she could join you for the last half mile of your training to start and then gradually increase the distance.

I don't have 5k training programs on the kids' page. You can find them on the Runner's World site. If she's active and she learns to pace herself she should be fine. I'd try to get her to think of her first 5k as a finish not a race.

I don't think that she would need the intense training program that adults need to work up to their first 5k but she will need practice feeling what it is like to run the distance. You may want to pick up a training program at RW and then water it down. She shouldn't need to run as often if she is active in other sports too.

Have her tag along during your warm down. Start with a half mile at first, then increase. When she wants to run competitively, she can start training with more intensity.

If you run with her during her 5k, that would be great!! Hey, she can use her training to log her miles for our Log-a-Mile program and go for a blue ribbon on this site.

The most important thing is to make this a positive experience. Encourage her, stay with her and try not to focus on her time. They say to ask your child if they had fun when they finish instead of emphasizing the time.

Emphasizing 'winning' was a mistake I made with my son when he was an athlete in high school. I always asked him how he did (how many points he scored, if he won etc.). Now he's a cat 2 or 1 bike racer (I try not to ask anymore) and when he sends me his reports I ask him if he is still having fun with the sport or I tell him I'm glad he's still having fun with it.

It's a subtle point and maybe is only important between parents and some kids, but I think that I would have been wiser to show more interest in his fun than his excelling in sports. He was a great athlete, but I wonder if I was as great of a sports mom as I thought I was.

Keep us posted on your daughter's 5k training!

Note from the kid's editor:

It's best to start your kids off with easy training for 5k's, and then help them enjoy their first races. With this approach there is more of a chance that they will enjoy running for a lifetime.

Do you have any questions about a child's running program? Feel free to email the kid's editor at carol.kids@rodale.com.