Forums >Racing>HS freshman daughter wants to run cross country next fall
Live Free & Run
I ran XC during my freshman and sophomore years in HS, I continued with track sophomore - senior year. I was a heavy kid. Not morbidly obese, but above the recommended BF %. I wasn't concerned about my times as I was looking to shape up and slim down and it showed because I started controlling my weight even though I was placing DEAD last 9 times out of 10 in my freshman year.
However, the support I got was amazing. It was a great group people cheering and encouraging each other, regardless of placement and experience. As many others have said, both of you meet and talk with the coach about what kind of standards, expectations, etc are forthcoming. But overall, she should just be focus on having fun and competing against only herself.
PRs
1-Mile - 6:18 on 4-4-2015
5K - 21:48 on 10-31-2015
10K - 47:57 on 10-24-2015
HM - 1:52:36 on 3-25-2017
FULL - 4:41:12 on 1-11-2015
Upcoming Races
Tanger Outlet 5K
Disney World 19.3 Challenge
Race the Runways 10K
I have a 5k out and back from my front door. Today she did it in 27:00. I think I am going to emphasize easy days with her, you can't just race 5ks all the time and expect to improve. Here's what I'm thinking,one run per week in the 5-7 mile range,one hour maximum. One 5k out and back per week moderate effort. Any other run just nice and easy 3 mile max.
There are three decent climbs on this out and back I wouldn't classify it as fast .
Feeling the growl again
At that age it's all about learning to enjoy it and consistency. Frankly is she runs 20-30mpw but does it year-round, versus, only running during the season even if it is more/harder, she will out-grow her peers.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Agreed. She doesn't even log her runs. She's been at it about a year now. I'm tempted to take a step back at this point, although she wants me to write her a "plan".
Your daughter may become a great runner, you never know. At about the same point in time, my daughter was running a couple miles a day to get in shape for soccer. I put her in a 5k in April of her 8th grade year and she took 4th place overall in about 22 minutes. The competition really got her going. A few weeks later, I put her in a small 5k and she won in about 22 minutes. A month after that, she won a 5k in 21:00 or so. Her next race, July 4 before she started high school, she finished less than a second behind me sub 20 ( I had no idea she was right there). I called the xc coach that week, brought her to preseason practice and in her first xc race, a 35 school invite, she took third. She was the only girl running in trainers, all the others had spikes. So much for soccer, it's been xc and track ever since,
so I'd turn your daughter loose and put her in a local 5k. Amazing things can happen. Also, although I did not express it in my earlier post, I agree with all the posters that xc kids are great and incredibly supportive to their teammates. Coaches are too. All they really want is effort. Only one girl wins the race, but the way scoring works, the 5th girl can be so much more important than the first girl. A bad day by the first girl loses a point or two, a bad day by the fifth girl can mean 20-30 points. And, perhaps most important, meets are a ton of fun.
Even though I wanted my daughter to continue with soccer, after that first meet, she was hooked.
Sounds like your daughter has some talent. If I remember correctly it took me about a year to go from 21:30 to sub 20.
One day at a time
I will just echo what everyone else has said - high school cross country is wonderful! All three of my kids participated, and my daughter has one more year to go. My oldest was very fast and won races. My middle child was very slow and occasionally came in last. My youngest is middle-of-the-pack. And all three of them had good experiences! My daughter's XC team just had a "team dinner," even though it's not XC season! The kids tend to be dedicated, hard-working, and good students. Teachers have told me they love having distance runners in their classes!
She's pretty talented, one of the top XC and 3200 runners in the state, but a few months back, I had a dialogue on this forum with a guy who had certain amateurism type questions regarding crowd funding to raise money for his young daughter to attend meets. Being intrigued, I did a little digging and found that his (then) 10-year-old daughter holds at least one world record (in the mile I believe) for her age group and her XC PR for a 5K was in the low 18s. Now that's talent, and I can't wait to see what she does in HS.
Wow hopefully she doesn't burn out.
+1. When he was an 8th grader my now sophomore said he wasn't even going to run in high school, just to focus on basketball. But the coach reached out to him and gently persuaded him, so he ran CC last year and had a blast (and some talent for it), and much to his mother's horror, dropped b-ball entirely to be a year-round runner.
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
Just tell your wife that b-ball is harder on the knees than running is.
Btw, "talent for it" is an understatement! Just saying...
I'm late to this thread, but I echo what everyone else said about xc kids being great. I went from being one of the slowest on the team in gr. 9 and 10 to being one of the fastest in gr. 11/12. However, I was able to have a good time with some great kids no matter what speed I ran; all the coaches expected was effort.
Sulphur Springs 50km-- Ancaster, ON-- May 28, 2022
Tally in the Valley 12 hours-- Dundas, ON -- July 30, 2022 (Support SickKids Toronto)
Stokely Creek-- 56km-- Sault Ste. Marie, ON-- Sept. 24, 2022
Are we there, yet?
Also late to this thread. I coached HS girls xc and track back in the late 70s and early 80s, so my observations may not be up to date. The coach, as stated earlier, makes a huge difference in the runner's experience. I saw this reflected in some of the schools having a hard time keeping kids on the team, sometimes to the extent that they couldn't field enough girls (5) to get a team score at meets. With over 30 runners on our team we had a wide range of paces and abilities from top 5 at states to barely running sub-30:00. The biggest challenge for the coach was in designing workouts suitable to each girl's level, but as long as the girl was willing to practice and try hard, she was welcome on the team both by the coaches and the other runners. We tried to focus on individual improvement and not just placement and times. We also had a lot of different backgrounds and experience with some of the girls having begun running in Jr HS or middle school and others not until they decided to try it their senior year.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Resident Historian
I'll echo all the great things people have said above about HS XC. I coached a small town HS and MS team, boys and girls, from 2006-2012. I almost always had wonderful kids, some very talented and dedicated, some... not so much. Almost all of them got right into the spirit of the team -- have fun, give your best, and support your team-mates. Also, XC kids almost always do very well academically -- I think that's both because the smart kids are more inclined to run, and because the work ethic and perseverance of XC carries over to academics. In my state, there were awards for the school team (in any sport) with the best GPA; an XC team usually won that. My team missed by a thousandth of a point one year; this past year, my successor's team won.
HS XC builds long-term friendships. I know many of my runners remain close years after graduation. I still keep in touch with some, who are now in college or out working after college. As it happens two of those used to be the fastest and slowest girls on my team. Quite a few others continue to run; several have now done marathons. At Hood-to-Coast a couple of years ago, a young woman came up to me and re-introduced herself -- at first I didn't recognize her -- from my 1st team. It made my week when she said "I SO became a runner after that year of XC."
Neil
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Some people will tell you that slow is good – but I'm here to tell you that fast is better. I've always believed this, in spite of the trouble it's caused me. - Hunter S. Thompson