It's Cross Country season!

[stovebolts]

So, my son is in his first year of High School and has already made Varsity on the Cross Country team. Not only that, but yesterday was his first meet and he ran the race (5k) in 19:27 That's pretty fast! Fast enough to rank him 4th on the team!

That's still not fast enough to place, but it's very respectable considering he's a freshman. By the time he's a Senior, I can see him running in the 15's.

He's very athletic and has been wrestling since he was 5 and he's in excellent shape. Here's a picture he took last weekend with his good friend. I can't beleive he's only 14. BTW, he's the blonde.

Who else has kids in sports? Let's brag on them for their hard work!

 

[abrown9]

The key to running fast is - more running! Cross Country / Track is a unique sport in the sense that the success you get out of it is entirely dependent on the work you put in. If your son puts in consistent, hard work for four years (and not JUST in season), he can go places with the sport. - coming from a former almost four-minute miler (4:02).... who is now horribly out of shape.

 

[stovebolts]

The key to running fast is - more running! Cross Country / Track is a unique sport in the sense that the success you get out of it is entirely dependent on the work you put in. If your son puts in consistent, hard work for four years (and not JUST in season), he can go places with the sport. - coming from a former almost four-minute miler (4:02).... who is now horribly out of shape.

Wow! you ran a 4.02! That's pretty awesome!
I'm more of a distance runner and still haven't managed to bust a 20 minute 5k. Best mile right now is a 5:40 although I can keep a 6:40 pace across 8 miles. Well, I did last time I tried lol!

He's big enough that he wants to run with me, but at this point he's just faster now. I love the sport, so I hope he stays with it. Wrestling is his main sport.

Wow, I'm amazed at your mile! That's awesome!

 

[stovebolts]

View attachment 3637 My son ran a 19:13 last Wednesday and I don't think there was a flat piece of the course anywhere.
He's running his last full High School meet today. Hoping to break into the 18's! Woot woot!
Next tuesday he runs his last meet against Freshmen and Sophomores.

Sorry for the lousy picture lol! He's the one in front.

 

[Claudya]

Wow! you ran a 4.02! That's pretty awesome!
I'm more of a distance runner and still haven't managed to bust a 20 minute 5k. Best mile right now is a 5:40 although I can keep a 6:40 pace across 8 miles. Well, I did last time I tried lol!

He's big enough that he wants to run with me, but at this point he's just faster now. I love the sport, so I hope he stays with it. Wrestling is his main sport.

Wow, I'm amazed at your mile! That's awesome!

You are both amazing. My body isn't made for endurance it seems, or maybe I never had the right running training.
I exercise almost every day of the week (doing different kinds of martial arts), and I'm fine with hardcore sprint intervall training, but my best achievement in long distance running is 10 kilometers (roughly 6.5 miles) for which I need more than an hour and end up nearly dead. Or with a runner's high, which physically means the same as nearly dead. My fitness must be horrible.
Anyway, now I feel like finding a 1 mile distance nearby and try if I can beat 5 min.

I hope when I have kids they will be as atheletic as your son. Sports is one of the best things you can do for your health and mental wellbeing! So I'd sure do my part to motivate my kids to exercise. I'd be super proud if I had a kid like stovebolt's son. So when the day comes that I have kids in sports I'll come back and will brag about them.

 

[stovebolts]

You are both amazing. My body isn't made for endurance it seems, or maybe I never had the right running training.
I exercise almost every day of the week (doing different kinds of martial arts), and I'm fine with hardcore sprint intervall training, but my best achievement in long distance running is 10 kilometers (roughly 6.5 miles) for which I need more than an hour and end up nearly dead. Or with a runner's high, which physically means the same as nearly dead. My fitness must be horrible.
Anyway, now I feel like finding a 1 mile distance nearby and try if I can beat 5 min.

I hope when I have kids they will be as atheletic as your son. Sports is one of the best things you can do for your health and mental wellbeing! So I'd sure do my part to motivate my kids to exercise. I'd be super proud if I had a kid like stovebolt's son. So when the day comes that I have kids in sports I'll come back and will brag about them.

Ha!
Well, I do like bragging about him and I think we keep each other motivated. When I started running again several years ago I barely made it out of my driveway and quickly realized the stop sign was a but further than I thought lol! It took me about a week to make it to the stop sign without stopping. Two weeks into it and I was looping from the house to the sign and back with a sprint at the end. 4 months later I did the Crim which is a 10 mile run. So you can build endurance quick, and I want to say i was probable 42 at the time?

BTW, he ran a 19:14 but I don't think he was fully recovered from the day before when he pulled his 19:13 on the hilly course. Actually, He's got two meets left so there is still a chance he can hit in the 18's. That's his goal and it would be nice for him t make it.

Wrestling season is next. That's the sport he loves. We are super excited because the high school coach (who was his coach when he was 5-9 years old) got let go two years ago. Wait... we were bummed he got let go, but then the other coach from last year left, so we are super excited because his coach for the last two years got the high school wrestling coaching job!

 

[jasoncran]

I joined the army running the two mile at 13:30. I should push myself back to that level.

 

[Nikki]

That's great! I think it's so important for kids to be involved in sports or clubs while in high school. Keeping them busy is the key to keeping them out of trouble.
My daughter cheered and now she's doing track. The coach has her pole vaulting. She's only been practicing for 2 weeks, has never pole vaulted in her life before that and she made 7-6 at her first meet last week, making 2nd place at the meet. She's an AMAZING cheerleader (she's at the highest level in tumbling and was also a flyer), but she's thinking of giving up cheer and sticking with track. She can't do both in the fall/winter, so she's going to have to choose. She's got a long way to go before a college would even look at her in track, but at the same time, there aren't very many cheer scholarships. I told her she needs to just do whatever she has the most fun doing. Quite honestly, most of the cheerleaders are BAD, so it wouldn't hurt me if she chose track. She said they're going to start training her for the 400 this week. I don't even know what that is. lol