Official Cross Country/ Distance Running Thread

Ununhexium

I closed my eyes and I slipped away...
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I forgot about this thread and just wanted to let everyone know that the Dartmouth relays is tomorrow and I would be happy to meet any of y’all who might be there
 
Perth Australia here, so I have no idea how the American system works with school and college XC. At school we could choose cross country as a winter sport which is broken up into Junior (Year 7-9) and Senior (Year 10-12) alongside the likes of soccer (football), hockey, rugby and footy (AFL, good football) and I was one of two people to originally choose cross country in Year 7 in my year, so my school kinda sucked for a while. The season consisted of races against the other 6 schools in the PSA individually and then all-school races such as 3x5km relay or 5x3km relay or the final 8km race for Seniors (Juniors run less). The top 15 runners count in Seniors, top 10 in Juniors with races being 5km and 3km respectively. I was glad to see the team go from not even having 10 runners competing in the Juniors to eventually placing 4th in the Seniors in my final year of school when I was XC captain (though I’m not the fastest runner).

I’m at university now and I’ve maintained a passion for running but there isn’t a university XC competition or any group at uni to join that does something like school did, at least not that I’ve found, which I find really frustrating. We do only have like 4 universities here though, so it’s not quite the same as the US colleges.

My personal best 5km time is 20:01, which isn’t as great as some people in this thread, as I said I’m not the fastest runner. My benchmark time was a 25:20ish three years ago though, so I hope there is still improvement left in me as my times have come down quite a bit. I’m more of a long distance runner, I ran my first marathon a month and a bit ago which taught me a few bits and pieces (Perth Marathon, nice relatively flat course with beautiful scenery along the Swan River if anyone from overseas is thinking about running it next year). I ran the first half in a 1:45:35 which was pretty much dead on 5min/km but then I tweaked my hamstring at about the 24km mark and had to walk for a fair chunk of the rest, did eventually get going again for the last 7km or so and ended up finishing in a 4:43:07. I’m running a half marathon in a months’ time rather than another marathon as I hurt my foot the week after my marathon which derailed my training a bit. Ran a 20:37 5km on the weekend. Hope everyone’s training is going well. Great thread.
 
Just an update from me. Ran my half marathon last weekend in a time of 1:42:02 which is a PB, despite the course being very challenging and a lot harder than the flat course I last set my PB on! Hoping to run a sub-20:00 5km tomorrow. Does anyone else here actually run half marathon or marathon distances? I'd love to know, and maybe get some tips for my running.

Edit: I did it, ran a 19:58 this morning! Get in!!
 
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I didn't know this thread existed lol. Well I started running my freshman year of high school then got taken off cause my grades were shit. Came back my senior year and my coach put me in every running event. My best events were the 800m, 400m and the mile. Now in college, D3, going into my senior year this coming fall, I have no idea how track is gonna be with this virus still around so this year might have been my last collegiate year of running track. Worked with the sprinters a lot this year and improved my 400m time. Was trying to go 54-56s and barely scraped 56s and went 57. Didn't get the chance to run the 800m this year for the outdoor season. So until further notice, I guess that ends my run.
 
I'm gonna necro this thread even though it died because I love running and want to talk about it. Hopefully other people that love running will respond. I'm a junior in high school, and a varsity member on one of the top 25 teams in the US. I started running competitively in 7th grade and I wasn't that fast until recently, where I had a breakout. My PRs are 4:43 for the mile, 9:50 for the 2 mile, 14:57 for the 3 mile, and 15:29 for the 5K. Next XC season, our team is set up to be top 2 in the nation, which is crazy.
Edit: Oh yeah and and we won state by the skin of our teeth against another top ranked team and I got 8th overall in the race :)
 
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