November 9, 2005

Budhia, the three-year-old marathon runner.

Sold by his poor mother for 800 rupees, the tot is famous now in India. He's run 33 miles in 6 hours. Child abuse? Or is this some super boy?
[His mentor] Mr Das, a judo coach, noticed Budhia's talent when scolding him for being a bully.

"Once, after he had done some mischief, I asked him to keep running till I came back," Mr Das said.

"I got busy in some work. When I came back after five hours, I was stunned to find him still running."
I would like to believe in Superboy, but I think something is very wrong here.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

I dunno. Sounds better than piano lessons . . .

Robert Holmgren said...

Could be a protege of Doug Forrester.

goesh said...

Yeah, the truth be known, master is probably on a scooter behind the boy prodding him on with a sharpened stick...they are an odd bunch over there. They burn widows and worship rats some of them - give me a man nailed to a cross any day. The kid is probably Jessie Owens reincarnated.

SippicanCottage said...
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vbspurs said...

Child abuse? Or is this some super boy?

Who cares!

The real story here is that his mother sold him, can you imagine that?

That reminded me of hearing that Jackie Chan's parents sold him at the age of 10 to a Chinese circus...

Sometimes, just sometimes, I want to thank God on my knees for having such awesome parents.

Life is truly a lottery, and that kid got the turnip prize.

Cheers,
Victoria

Steve Donohue said...

I believe 33 mile in six hours, is um, walking, actually.

Hardly. 30 miles in 6 hours would be five miles an hour, which is a light jog for someone of my height (5'8"), but for a three year old, this is an all-out run. This kid would have done it in under five hours- that's pretty impressive.

Furthermore, his average mile is about 11 minutes. I remember from my cross-country days that there were teenage girls running at city qualifiers that couldn't handle three miles at a pace under 12 minutes a mile. To take 33 miles at that pace is astounding for such little legs. I do worry about the stress he's putting on his heart though at that young of an age.

SippicanCottage said...
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price said...

There was a family of marathon runners on the Amazing Race this season, including two small kids. Adorable, all four of them.

My parents taught me to swim by throwing me in the pool. Shouldn't they have been arrested for that? I certainly think so.

Albatross said...

I gotta agree with fxklm. I suspect this story is a hoax. Or at least the supposed trainer is simply trying to build some hype for his little runner by claiming extraordinary feats.

But, then again, I'm just cynical.

vbspurs said...

I don't think they burn widows anymore.

Kinda.

I always thought that banning the odious practise of suttee was one of the greatest legacies we left in India.

But with the recent rise of Hindu religious nationalism (as opposed to the secular variety), women have been paying an awful price of late -- including suttee.

Well, read this.

Yes, burning the faces and bodies of Indian women for bigger dowries is a big problem (still the largest population of inflicted burn victims in the world, second only to Cubans...the latter do it as a suicide attempt though).

Not sure if you saw this, but recently on Dateline (was it?), there was a special on how a village full of women saved themselves from burning by their abusive spouses, and generally marauding males, by being given and then being taught how to use handguns.

Not one incident, not one, has been reported since then.

Second Amendment, I love you.

Cheers,
Victoria

Finn Alexander Kristiansen said...

SippicanCottage said above:


I was an unexceptional runner as a teenager. I ran marathons under three hours. I then walked home. Five miles.


I know how this is, cause sometimes I have fantastical dreams too, where I have sexual stamina like Sting and am able to give my wife Julia Roberts and her best friend Vivica Fox pleasure for hours and hours. And I could swear I am not dreaming. But I am, like Sippican is.

goesh said...

I guess I would rather worship a rat than be one of those snake handlers like we have here in America in some places. I've seen a video of these snake handlers. This one guy,who by the way was missing most of his teeth, had a rattler in each hand and was dancing around in some kind of trance. People were waving their arms in the air and clapping and jumping around, all in a big fervor. Rat worship is more sedate - you give 'em a snack, say a quick prayer and go home.

SippicanCottage said...
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Ann Althouse said...

Sippican: The 4 mile an hour speed is called the "Boy Scout walk." It's a fast pace, faster than I could make myself walk. I walked a mile and a third to work for many years, and it took 25 minutes. I could push myself but still not get to 20 minutes. I couldn't achieve the 4 mile an hour pace. I tried and timed myself thousands of times. And I'm 5'5" tall. Leg length matters. The ordinary adults you see walking around are not going 4 miles an hour. Even at 4 miles an hour, the 3 year old would need to be at least jogging.

Is it a hoax? The BBC is lame to report it if it is, because it sounds unbelievable on its face.

SippicanCottage said...
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jeff said...

Please don't judge Christianity as a whole on the practices of a (very) few...

MattieG said...

I watched the programme on Channel 5 last night and I was horrified the over the course of the run he was given no water and his coach actually used it to entice him to keep going. it was a disgrace and the Indian authorities should be ashamed of themselves for letting this happen. I was also in tears watching it and I hope that the little boy can be saved soon.