Would a good college let me at least run with them until I get better?

And as a hypothetical question, would they let me train with them if I had run times like this...?

5K: 16:25

3200m: 9:40

1600m: 4:25

800m: 2:04

It is not common for a school to simply "let someone run with them." You are either on the team/been on the team or not.

Another thing is that having the excuse of starting late, is not good. You would be surprised how many good runners did not run until HS, or even as a frosh.

These times could probably push you into a mediocre D2 any D3.

If you are considering ANY college, then the answer to your question is yes.

The sooner you start thinking "how can I make this happen" instead of "let me ask others (who have no say on the matter) if I will be allowed to do something", the better off you'll be in life.

If you want to run with a team, start making it happen. Contact various coaches at schools you are considering and figure out a way to sell yourself.

What difference is it going to make if one of us random dudes on LetsRun say "yes" or "no"?

Even if it has never happened in the history of the universe (and we all accordingly say "no"... because it's never happened in the history of the universe) it doesn't mean that you can't create the right scenario to be the first.

Oh, and a tip - can't speak for others, but I would ditch the use of "burned out" when trying to sell yourself. If I was a coach considering letting you tag along, using that phrase twice, in your second year of running, wouldn't be a strong selling point.

College teams will most likely not let you train with them without being a member of the team. This is for insurance reasons, as you are not covered by their policy and have not signed any of the releases.

If you're looking for a place to train at a bigger school, the club teams that many large universities offer are great, and can often have some really talented runners who either couldn't make the cut for the official team or didn't want to have the additional burden of the time commitment required to be on a team. There is a story in Runner's World from 2013 (link below) about Wisconsin runner Michael Van Voorhis, who moved up from the club team after having great success there.

Article:

http://www.runnersworld.com/rt-web-exclusive/the-tale-of-the-wisconsin-walk-on

If you want to run on the actual team, you should look somewhere other than D1, which I'm guessing is what you mean by a "good college". There are many schools who would take you on the team, probably a decent amount of them would even give you a scholarship offer.

If you're already planning on going to a D1 school or somewhere like Adams State, the club team is your best option because it's a bad idea to sacrifice academics by going to a different school just so you can run on the team. You'll still have a great time with that, and have some awesome training partners and option to run meets without the pressure than can come with being a collegiate athlete.

start contacting coaches. You can walk on at a lot of non-DI schools with those times, especially if they were run at altitude.

If you aren't an absolute stud you kind of have to recruit yourself to schools.

I ran 15:55, 4:18 and 1:53, and very few coaches contacted me on their own before I emailed them.