Running in Med School

at most your only going to have one year left to complete your 10 semesters of eligibiliyt, so you can suck it up for a year. i knew someone who ran in the SEC in their first year of med school.

I really can't stress enough how bad an idea I think it would be to even attempt to run at a collegiate level during your first year of medical school.

As someone else said, medical school is a special opportunity that deserves your best effort. It's unlikely that most people can successfully balance the workload with adequate training. Again as mentioned, there is always more you could know. Even if you studied 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you'd be missing stuff. Time becomes a valuable commodity.

I know the sport's great and it's tough to walk away from competing regularly, but in the grand scheme of things I just don't see how it could be worth it.

I am currently a second year med student and ran better than ever while in my first year of medical school. I moved up in distance and spent a lot of times on the roads but I left undergrad with a 30:30 10k pr and went through the 10k in a half marathon fast than that and qualified for the Olympic trials.

If you like running enough and medicine enough it is not very challenging at all. It does take a decent balance but it is definitely doable.

I went to medical school and had eligibility left too..I had indoor only and let me tell you it kicked my ass. It was a big 10 school and even though the coach was understanding my body took it badly and after 10 weeks of training with the team(meanwhile my grades were hurting) I came down with MONO and had to quit the team and almost failed out. However, after that things got much better and now I am a 4th year and am able to train a good amount. I am accomplishing more now than I ever did as an undergrad. I was able to get a lot of training in on my own. It is a lot easier when you don't have the rigors of a team and scheduled practices. Best of luck

There is definitely a distinction between running and competing for aD1 program. I am a first year and came in with eligibility, ready to use it. The coach was really great and flexible, but there is a different between running 60 miles a week how and when you want and actually training/racing, etc.Medical school culture is very different from undergrad and being on the team was definitely frowned upon by the administration. It is possible but I reckon few would have the energy to put into a D1 sport. I did not.

On the other hand, running keeps me sane. I run 60-70 a week, just make time for it like sleeping and eating. I am shifting to longer road races now, which can be done very well during medical school since they can be scheduled by you, local, etc.

i was going to be a dr

but chose mailman instead

chicks are into me

Justin Grunewald (Minnesota Alum) is in med school, training for the half-marathon (1:04:49 PR at Houston) AND I think he maybe a volunteer assistant coach at UM Duluth...not too bad

Let's get back to the original question:

medd wrote:

Anyone run for their school team during med school? If so advice on how it worked/ if it worked?

Please read what has been written already by TriedIt and others. It is near impossible to run *for a college/university team* during medical school. Not because it's "too hard" but because of a bunch of reasons that have nothing to do with your will to do it.

Running *outside* of a college team is very doable while in med school, and in many cases, people find they enjoy their running more and/or run faster than they did in a structured team environment.

I realize you didn't ask this question but if you want to continue to train at a high level throughout your career choose your specialty wisely. Real life in some specialties and practice situations is way tougher than med school. It's a bitch to train and recover properly when you're up all night every 3rd night and working 12-16 hours on your non call days.

Nicole Kelleher (ran at Dartmouth) is in med school at UVA (not exactly a cakewalk) and is also a professional triathlete, which takes a much bigger time committment than running (20-25 hrs of training plus more frequent travel). She just got third at the USPRO Championships. Crazy fast cyclist, and can run as fast off the bike as she can fresh. Very rare.

I think it all comes down to how disciplined and efficient with your time you are, and your perspective. My friends that did Teach For America before going to Med School are having a much easier time than my friends who went straight there from undergrad or worked in a lab or something. Going to class and studying is a hell of a lot easier than surviving teaching in the inner city and going to grad school part time.

Like most things, it's all relative. If you make running a priority, you'll be able to do it. If you're not focused, and don't structure your time, it'll be the first thing to go.

Seemed to work well for Roger Bannister.

Pretty sure Dan Lincoln ran a year of eligibility while in Med School...could be wrong.

3 thoughts-

Bob Kempainen was granted a year away from med school (U of MN) to train for the olympics, which is a rather unique situation. Certainly he trained hard before his hiatus, but that level of commitment required time off.

There is a big difference between years 1 and 2 of med school and years 3 and 4. 1st 2 years are classroom based, and now many lectures are online. Plenty of time to train, although perhaps not at the same time as your team, since rarely were there ever 8 hours of lecture. More like 4-6 of lecture, some lab time (anatomy and histology), and lots of study time, which clearly can be done at ones own discretion. Years 3 and 4 are clinical rotations, and depending on the rotation can be pretty time intensive, up to 80 hours a week. More importantly, there are fixed times you have to be in the hospital, and they usually don't revolve around track or cc practice.

Finally, you need to have some outlet, and going running is probably a good one, as long as you recognize that when there is a mandatory small-group session, or anatomy lab, you'll have to run on your own that day. My best running was during med school and the first year or 2 of residency, after that the combination of having kids, long call nights, and age started to kick in. So might as well keep it going while you can, but always make our job your priority.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I was just talking with a friend who tried to run for the college team and after two weeks decided it wasn't going to work out...decided to move to the roads and run as a stress reliever. I think that sounds reasonable and is probably what I will do, who knows maybe I could jump in a home cross race or two unattached for the heck of it. Undergrad hasn't been that challenging academically for me, so I'm not that afraid of the material, but I am definitely very afraid of the sheer volume med school is sure to bring. That level of workload is definitely not something I have had to deal with before so it should be entertaining to say the least. Also maybe I'll be able to run a decent race or two on the roads this summer and make a couple hundred bucks

Maggie Infeld (formerly of Georgetown) was in her first year of Medical School at Georgetown this past year. She finished 8th in the final of the 1500m at USAs and pr'd at 1500m and 800m, 4:10, and 2:04, respectively.

Another example: Marshal Armitage (BC '00, BU Med '04) had track eligibility remaining during his first year of medical school. He improved from college, running a 14:15 5k three times and winning a couple of America East titles. It take a rare breed, but it can be done.

my mom went to medical school with Bob Kempainen and he would take every other year off from med school, or something like that

im a pretty non spectacular 31 min 10k runner and quite easily fit in my 90-120 mins per day training, i get up at 7, run to school for 9 (10 miles) spend all day there till 5 ish, run home the shorter route (6 miles) maybe 1-2h study on the night...I would take my schedule over any full time job and wife/kids..i can only guess the op who is trying to put you off is a drama queen in other aspects of their lives. It is a great opportunity,and it should be taken seriously, but you need other strings to your bow.there is always more to life than any one thing.goodluck

Am a doc. You could quite easily train at a high level all throughout most of med school - esp the 4th yr which is a joke. I doubt you could pull off being on a college team - you could do some workouts with them though I bet.