My 8th grade son is running cross country this year. The first meet is tomorrow and there are 58 teams and 1200 kids. The course is 1.8 miles and there will be a couple of creek crossings and muddy hills. He is running on the A team and each team gets to enter 7 kids on their A teams. Not all of the teams will enter 7 kids, but I think his race will be crowded.
His coach is going to use the times from this meet to solidify the A team, so my son needs to run a fast race. I never ran cross country and even though I’ve raced a lot, I race for myself and generally don’t “compete” against other runners (I’m slow!). What advice to you guys have for him? I’m looking for simple starting line and race tips.
My 8th grade son is running cross country this year. The first meet is tomorrow and there are 58 teams and 1200 kids. The course is 1.8 miles and there will be a couple of creek crossings and muddy hills. He is running on the A team and each team gets to enter 7 kids on their A teams. Not all of the teams will enter 7 kids, but I think his race will be crowded.
His coach is going to use the times from this meet to solidify the A team, so my son needs to run a fast race. I never ran cross country and even though I’ve raced a lot, I race for myself and generally don’t “compete” against other runners (I’m slow!). What advice to you guys have for him? I’m looking for simple starting line and race tips.
Raced high school and college. That big of a meet he doesn’t need to sprint to the front pack in the beginning but needs to get well positioned to not get caught in traffic. Also younger runners don’t realize how much extra gas they have left in the tank. Make him start his final push 1/2-1/4 to the end rather then the last 200-300 meters, can pick off an extra 1-2 guys.
Tell him to maintain effort up the hills, not ease back or charge them. He needs energy to run strong on the downhill it mentally kills the guy next to him who is exhausted from pushing too hard up the hill.
Unfortunatly, you can tell him all of this, but he wont get it until he has run several meets.
Even though it sounds muddy I wouldnt use anything more then 1/4’’ spikes, but thats personal preference.
Edit to add: Agree with the other poster. Race his race!!
Due to a lack of experience, many kids will go out way too fast. Even a 2 mile race requires pacing, he should resist the urge to go with the rabbits. There may one or two really talented kids who stay away but most will come back, likely on the first hill.
I loved XC, raced in high school and college as well. Agree that he should avoid sprinting out to the front (likely a common urge at that grade) but still get a quality start to get positioned properly (I still remember getting trampled at a big meet while a high school freshman because I didn’t do that). Also agree on the hill since most runners will push hard to get to the top and die after getting over, he should keep a solid effort but have something left to charge down the other side and pick those off who are easing up after wasting too much energy.
Like everyone here said, he will run his best race by controlling his pace at the beginning.
It’s better to be smart than to be tough with regards to pacing. If he goes out too fast that 1.8 miles will be the toughest race of his life AND it will be slow – I should know, I’ve done it more times than I care to mention. He should seek even splits of each .9 miles.
Agree that he should avoid sprinting out to the front (likely a common urge at that grade) but still get a quality start to get positioned properly (I still remember getting trampled at a big meet while a high school freshman because I didn’t do that).
Most XC courses have a quick bottleneck where everyone on the line gets crunched into a narrow path. I remember getting trampled, spiked and sometimes almost having to walk as the crowd gets to big at the bottleneck.
Pretty cool to see, huh? My daughter is in 6th grade and ran her first race last Saturday. I’m getting off work early to go watch her race today. My kiddo is still a little kid (some of the older kids have nearly adult bodies, mine just barely makes the age cutoff for her grade), so not up near the front yet. I’d echo what others say about bottlenecks and not blowing out on hills.
Also- train with your kid! That’s been one of the true joys of parenting.
Also- train with your kid! That’s been one of the true joys of parenting.
This. My 9 year old son rides his bike with me when I run since he’s still pretty young. We’ve had some great 1-2 hour sessions, and it’s always awesome.
Edit: his favourite part? Gels and Gatorade. The other day he wanted to eat his gel while still riding, I could tell he was getting a kick out it.
My 8th grade son is running cross country this year. The first meet is tomorrow and there are 58 teams and 1200 kids. The course is 1.8 miles and there will be a couple of creek crossings and muddy hills. He is running on the A team and each team gets to enter 7 kids on their A teams. Not all of the teams will enter 7 kids, but I think his race will be crowded.
His coach is going to use the times from this meet to solidify the A team, so my son needs to run a fast race. I never ran cross country and even though I’ve raced a lot, I race for myself and generally don’t “compete” against other runners (I’m slow!). What advice to you guys have for him? I’m looking for simple starting line and race tips.
No advice to give but dammit now i really miss it. My daughter was 4 year xcountry and this is first year that i dont get to spend my saturday mornings watching. I love the sport and thought the meets were great fun. Always got a good speed workout in too…sprinting from
Point to point on the course to cheer on my daughter
The spectators race is just as fun and sometimes as competitive as the actual race going on! ; )
I coached high school XC after I finished college and used to dart from point to point to catch my team along the course, would do the same when going to watch big high school and college meets at Franklin Park in Boston. Such a great sport, I miss it.
How fast can he run 1.8 miles right now? Tell him to run at is normal comfortably hard pace and toward the end he should find the point where he would puke and dial it back a touch.
The spectators race is just as fun and sometimes as competitive as the actual race going on! ; )
I coached high school XC after I finished college and used to dart from point to point to catch my team along the course, would do the same when going to watch big high school and college meets at Franklin Park in Boston. Such a great sport, I miss it.
My son started running in 7th grade and that’s when I got hooked. I played baseball in school and didn’t run unless I had to. I was determined not to be a parent that watched the kids leave the start and then wait for the finish. I would scope out the course and see as much of the race as possible yelling encouraging things to all of the racers. I miss it a lot, he’s been out of school for 5 years. Fortunately for me, one of my friends coaches a local XC team so I go watch them from time to time.
Him running in school is actually what got me into triathlons.
My son also plays baseball. It’s fall ball season, which is pretty relaxed, so he’s able to do both sports. He really loves running and I hope he enjoys this meet. We had a little snow on the ground this morning, so those stream crossings should wake things up. Baseball is ridiculously competitive at the high school level (the high school he’s likely to go to had 2 players drafted by the MLB this past year) and if he doesn’t make the team, I’m hoping that he’ll be just as happy running.
