Hey guys I am currently a college freshman and am considering talking to the coach and walking onto the cross country team next fall. I have been running 30-40 miles a week the for the last six months since graduating from high school. My training has just consisted of distance runs and occasional tempos. I ran track and cross country all four years in high school and my best times were for the mile -4.45 and 5k: 17.20. Which i know aren’t spectacular times. But with this team in particular I know some guys that ran in the low 4.30s in high school have successfully walked on to this team. My most recent race I have run was on a nine mile race on thanksgiving which I ran in 55.55. Any advice or tips with dealing with the coaches or training/prep for next fall would be much appreciated
thanks!
I would post this exact thing on letsrun.com and get those guys advice 17:20 is not fast enough to walk on to d1 maybe walk on d2. Maybe. You need like 16:4x or lower at least.
What school/conference?
George Mason University, Colonial athletic association
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Im a sophmore in college and had the opportunity to walk onto Morehead State Universities team my freshman year (went on official coaches visit and all that my senior year of high school). My times are about the same as yours but with better times at shorter distances, not by much though. As you can see, i couldve went D1 with about the times you have run. That same month i was turned down by a D1 coach with a slower team than Morehead. So id say it all depends on the college, the team, and the coaches attitude towards his roster and talent, etc. You HAVE to increase your mileage though. I have no doubt about that. D1 running isnt everything, i know alot of D1 runners who have had a lesser experience than anticipated as well as seeing runners at smaller schools love their team and run some seriously fast times for any collegiate level.
It doesn’t hurt to ask. You are not running fast enough yet but if you work hard and are not a bother, you never know what a year of hard work may bring. I would spend the next several months building your miles up and try to be comfortably running 50-60 miles per week at least 6 weeks out from the season.
FWIW- I was a lazy, run only in season, xc runner in high school with a PR of about 18:30 who ended up being asked to run for a DI school after getting serious with triathlons and getting my times in the lower 16’s training on my own. I wish I had more miles in my legs prior to the college season. I could have used the durability.
Best of luck to you!
I had similar times and mileage and tried to do it at middle of the road state d1 program. Saw the writing on the wall and quit after a week of practice. same thing happened to my friend a few years later and he was a bit faster than me
First and foremost best of luck with the endeavor. I would suggest finding a summer track/run club that offers coaching where you will get some good speed work and mid-longer distance runs with a diverse group. I got lucky that back when I was getting ready to make the jump I still had my high school coaches. Use it to get your base built and work toward some mid-summer 5k/10k goals to make sure that you are ready for the season and work load that your college coach will demand.
FWIW I was a 16:39 5k XC and 4:33/mi track runner in high school and I did a season at a semi-competitive D1 school. I decided to pursue my studies after more than a few discussions with professors and friends about what the long term, end goal was to XC/track. I’ll be honest that I did not want to be a professional runner, I did have friends that did and have pursued that successfully.
WWell, if you look at their previous results, the slowest guys on the team are running faster than your 5k pace for 5 miles on grass/dirt/mud, so you would have some work to do.
My recommendation would be to slowly build your mileage towards 60-70mpw, with a long run of about 15, a weekly tempo run of 20-40 minutes (build from 20 to 40), and a weekly track workout to build your efficiency at higher speeds. If you can get yourself in 16:20 shape by next summer, you may have a shot.
I am a JUCO cross country coach. Most of my runners post faster times than that. However, you can do it but it is going to take some work. You need to think in terms of 8K and 10K races. It depends the school and conference, but realistically, you need to be under 27:00 for 8K, preferably under 26:30. The B teams at many D-I schools are full of runners who are in the low 26s. And that is on dirt often in very difficult conditions. Again, you can do it, but you have got to get your mileage in the 70 mpw range for an extended period of time.
Talk to the coach. You will see a bunch of different philosophies on team size even at D1. Right now your times are slow for the traveling Varsity squad and even the B team at most competitive D1 schools. But what you are not seeing are all the times from all the other guys “who don’t dress/travel” with the travel squad. Many teams keep a very wide bench. XC and track are non revenue and low cost sports and the added cost of keeping an extra deep bench is neglibible. I was D1 and some of the guys that ran with us were much slower than your times. They didn’t travel and run the big away meets but they practiced every day, worked their asses off and were part of the team. So just talk to the coach you might be surprised. Also if you get the chance and run with a really talented squad with good coaching, you will be surprised at the improvement you may see as opposed to running solo.
I did it, with a slower mile time but faster 5k time, but not by much.
In fact it was on a school that ran in the same conference. We were a new program and I didn’t know crap about college or running. came from a low mileage HS program. Ended up with mono my freshman year running right at 30:00 for 5miles.
Improved about :75-:90 per season for the next two years.
I also know people who walked on at a major D1 school, top 10 nationally. They ran in 4 meets their entire college career, their home meet. But they ended up leaving school as high 31 to 33 10k runners. A few of them went on the triathlon.
I think how you approach it might matter, if you’re a dick the answer will be no. But if you explain to the coach what and why he might say yes. You won’t be able to unless you ask that much I know.
For your training, I’d work up to a steady diet of 55-65 mpw with one solid fast session every week once you get there. maybe sprinkle that with a few 70-80 weeks.
If you want more info PM me.
I say go for it and do it for the experience! You won’t be the fastest guy out there, but then again, only the fastest guy out there will be the fastest guy out there. You and I have almost exactly the same PR’s. I toyed with the idea for about 1 second until I saw results from Ryan Hill and Patrick Campbell’s first meets, but George Mason has a very different XC program. If I went to a school with a less-storied history in XC then I damn sure would have tried to walk on. If I failed in the process so be it, but it’s fun to try. I had a couple friends who were athletes at NC State and they were not the fastest folks by any stretch of the imagination but they wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. You get to travel, you get things paid for, you get sports med and training facilities and coaching and a team and all kinds of awesome things. Talk to the coach; if he says you’re not fast enough then ask him what goal time he’d like to see you hit for a certain event. Train until you can hit that, or fail in the process. Either way you’re doing something cool, interesting and meaningful and you shouldn’t let any ST haterz tell you can’t.
I would talk to the coach and ask him, given where you are now, what he would want to see from you w/respect to times. If you chop a minute off your 5K time by the end of the Spring semester he/she is going to be a lot more interested than if you are still in the 17s, and if you can’t chop a minute off your time in 5 months, well, D1 running isn’t for everyone.
like they are saying on here, really depends on the coach. When I ran at a mid-major D1 program about 20 yrs ago, first day of practice was always a 10 mile run. It was always a pretty good pace, fast enough some of the walk on guys often dropped way off. I don’t know how the coach dealt with it, but we generally never saw them again. Honestly, that must have been a pretty rude introduction for many of those guys.
Fast forward, my son is a soph at a mid-major D1 school with modest PRs in HS of mid 4:30s and 16:30. He walked on freshman year and got hurt and it really was a wake up call for him. This year he has just been running on his own and focusing on academics. He really loves to just go run when/how he wants and I’m not sure he even cares to run for the team again. He isn’t real “fast” at 2:08 or so for 800 and said many of the workouts were speed oriented and just killed him. He said he often felt the need to prove himself as a walk on and ran harder than he should have which probably led to his injury as well.
The only thing for sure though, is that you will never know if you don’t try. You may just surprise yourself…
As others have suggested, get in contact with the coach. Some schools have roster limits, others have coaches that want small teams. Even though you are on the slower side, there is nothing to suggest that you cannot be a much stronger runner after some time at a higher volume/intensity of training over a few years time.
I was a former NCAA Div II head cross country coach and always enjoyed talking with athletes like yourself. We had no limitations on roster size so most of all who asked and were willing to make the commitment, were welcomed with open arms.
I would immediately:
Contact coach through email - quickly explaining your background and how you want to be part of his program. Wait for a week for a response and if you don’t get one, stop into his office to see him during the work week. He might be in before school is back in session. If you get a hold of him but he/she is not interested in you joining, ask if there is anything you can do to join the team the following year or track season.
If you aren’t going to be 100% committed, don’t waste his time and go out for the team. If you get rejected from joining, keep your chin up and find some running buddies on campus. There has to be some good runners on campus who aren’t on the varsity team.
Good luck
One thing nobody has mentioned is your grades. If you are a very good student, 3.5 gpa or higher, that would also be a big selling point. Coaches like having good team grade point averages. The better your grades, the slower you can be. Lol. I had a girl on my team last year who couldn’t break an 8:30 pace at 5K. But she was a straight A student who made two Academic All America lists. That impressed my president more than anything else.
George Mason was in my school’s conference when I ran in college. From meeting their coach when my team got cut, he was very approachable even though he has coached multiple national champions at Stanford in the 90s. It’s worth a shot to talk to him and see what he says. He may not let you race until next year, but practice with the team this spring. I can say running for a college team is definitely worth the experience; I wouldn’t give up that time and I met some of my best friends and girlfriend running for Univ of Delaware. Good luck with it.
I was a small college cross country walk-on in the late 70’s, so take my advice for what it is worth.
I would think they will let you give it a try. It really doesn’t cost them anything. You need to start (gradually) building up the miles. They are probably laying in some serious miles right now, building up to the indoor track season. We would get to 90-100 miles/ week this time of year. You should talk to the coach soon, my coach claimed it takes at least a year to build a college level distance runner. If you start training with the track/cross country team, keep your ego in check so you don’t get sick or injured.
Cross country was one of the best parts of my college experience. Track, not so much.
Definetly go for it. If you don’t make it try again later. XC is the best. I don’t know anything about george mason’s program but there is a world of difference between d 1 schools. Some places you’d have problems making the womens squad with those times, and your times are good. However, I suspect that if you can get your 5 mile times around 30 flat, the coach may keep you in his eye but not make the squad. But if you can hit the 27-28 minute range I suspect you will be golden at george mason.