A 6-year-old ran a marathon. Now, Flying Pig race officials and his family face questions
A 6-year-old appears to have completed the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati with his parents Sunday in 8 hours and 35 minutes, but the feat has sparked controversy among runners and parents. Some think it should never have been allowed to happen.
Online comments started pouring in following a social media post from the Crawford family of Bellevue, Kentucky.
Ben and Kami Crawford said they didn't make the boy run, they allowed him to try to do the race, and they watched him closely the whole time. Race organizers said the family has participated for years with or without permission and it was better to have them registered so they could get full on-course support.
The Crawfords have six children. They wrote a book about being the largest family to hike the Appalachian Trail. They have a YouTube channel with more than 46,000 subscribers, a podcast and a large social media following.
The Instagram post from this week, which has since been deleted, stated: "A story about race registration and breaking the rules."
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In the post, the family talks about running the Flying Pig Marathon for years with the kids running unofficially. The post goes on to thank a race organizer for helping the entire family, all eight of them, "navigate around the rules" to get them registered for the race this year.
The Flying Pig requires those participating in the marathon to be 18 or older. How exemptions to this rule are made remains unclear, but race organizers say cases are evaluated on an individual basis. The Crawfords' children range in age from 20 to 6. Four of them are under 18.
There is debate within the running community about allowing children to run marathons and some scientific research that shows running and training for long distances isn't great for kids.
In a 2014 article, The Atlantic reported that overuse injuries in adult runners are common and because children are still growing, they are even more vulnerable to the repetitive stress of running. But the article also says there hasn't been much research following young competitive runners to see how their bodies deal with that stress long term.
In a statement Tuesday, the Flying Pig Marathon said it takes safety and security very seriously.
"We receive numerous requests for special accommodations each year and carefully evaluate each one," the statement said. "Our goal is to provide a positive race experience for all participants while supporting them along the course."
Concern, outrage and support on social media
Hundreds of comments have been made on the marathon's statement and other social media posts about the Crawfords' participation in the race. People are concerned Flying Pig officials broke their own rules. Other participants reported seeing the 6-year-old crying on the course and feared the boy was being forced to run.
On the Crawfords' own Instagram page, people have accused them of abusing their child.
"Little kids are not physically developed to handle the physical demands of the half marathon and full marathon," one man said on Facebook. "What if one of those kids had died on the course? This is why they offer the 5K, 10K [and] Kids 1 mile races. Irresponsible behavior by many adults."
Other commenters expressed disbelief that the race would allow someone so young to participate in the full marathon.
The child's bib number didn't appear in official time, prompting speculation that the Crawfords had registered their youngest child for a shorter race and "bandited" the full marathon. Banditing a race is running a race you aren't properly registered for.
Along with the criticism, many commenters have said they support the Crawfords. Some said their own kids wanted to race and they were confident in their abilities.
"I think we are way too easy on children and create many lazy and unable humans so teaching them endurance and overcoming difficulties is great!" one commenter said.
What the Flying Pig Marathon says
The Crawfords were all registered for the full marathon, marathon spokesperson Jackie Reau told The Enquirer Wednesday.
"They have a pattern of banditing races," Reau said. "It was clear they were going to run the race whether they were registered or not. For the safety of their family, they were permitted to register for the full race so they would have on-course support."
Reau said race organizers have known about the Crawfords for years.
In their since-deleted social media post, the Crawfords said they were told by a race organizer not to worry about getting a doctor's clearance for their juvenile children, something they had done for at least one child in the past, but Reau said that was not the case.
Race organizers did not tell the Crawfords that they didn't need a doctor's clearance, Reau said, but that clearance was also not required because officials believe the family would have run the race regardless.
As for why the 6-year-old doesn't appear in the race results, the Crawford family said on social media they don't know, but stated they crossed the finish line together.
What the Crawfords say
Ben Crawford issued a statement responding to some of the criticism they have received.
He said none of their children are forced to run and their 6-year-old was only allowed to attempt the marathon because he "begged" to join the rest of his family.
Ben Crawford said 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."
"We did not see any sign of heat exhaustion or dehydration and honored his request to keep on going," he said.
The statement said the accusation the boy was crying for the whole race, or even most of it, is inaccurate.
"Yes, there were tears," he said. "He had a fall and every single member of our family has cried during marathons."
Crawford said the family plans to put out a video about their son's first marathon experience. He said it will show "his emotional state very clearly." He said the videos are done with their children's cooperation and permission.
"Our parenting methods are unconventional but we do not think accusations or arguments with incorrect facts are helpful," he said.
'It was stressful, but it was worth it'
The Crawfords' website and other media accounts focus on parenting. They say they are raising their children "outside the box."
Last month, the family posted a video on their YouTube channel which showed Ben Crawford and Kami Crawford running with their 6-year-old son on a 3-mile training run in the rain around Northern Kentucky.
The couple said in the video that there was some "whimpering and crying," but they got through the run. Ben Crawford states in the video that they are training for a marathon, and at that point, their 6-year-old had not run more than three miles at one time.
"When he's just crying and we're running, I've found that I have to trust the process," Ben Crawford said in the video.
Kami Crawford replies: "I was worried people would see us, especially if they heard him crying, and be like, 'What are those people doing to that child.' ... even though we're totally letting him pace however he wants to pace himself."
They said they try to give him as much autonomy as possible. At the end of that video, the 6-year-old said once he started that run in the rain he didn't want to quit.
Another video from two weeks ago shows the couple and their 6-year-old participating in the Heart Mini-Marathon, a half marathon that also starts in Downtown Cincinnati.
The couple stayed with him the whole time and were among the last to finish, according to the video.
During the run, Ben Crawford said they were only running about a quarter of the time. Their son said at one point he was "pretty amazed I'm doing this."
At the end of the run, the boy squealed with excitement as the finish line came into sight and sprinted the last few dozen yards.
"It was stressful, but it was worth it," the 6-year-old said. During the run, he said he mostly stressed about the course getting shut down before they could finish.
The rest of the Crawford family appears in the online race results for the 2022 Heart Mini, but their youngest does not, even though he was wearing a race bib during the event.
The American Heart Association, which organizes the Heart Mini-Marathon, did not respond to requests for comment at the time of this report.