Malmo actually made a good point and I upvoted his remark.
"D1 Runner" is just shorthand for "had/has some talent for the sport" vs someone that has never done it.
Same thing if a former D1 football player comes to the gym. They will outperform most of the regular people that show up. There is such thing as talent/natural ability.
I could barely run 20min in a 5k in hs and college and in my early 40s I could run high 15s. I doubt I could have run that fast even if I trained 100% back in the day. It's just a point in time.
I know high 15s isn't good enough for D1 but it certainly was damn good for a 40 year old.
"D1 Runner" is just shorthand for "had/has some talent for the sport" vs someone that has never done it.
Same thing if a former D1 football player comes to the gym. They will outperform most of the regular people that show up. There is such thing as talent/natural ability.
95% of D1 runners suck.
According to the NCAA, there are 24,000 track athletes in the country, both men and women. So let's say there are 12,000 men track athletes in D1. Let's say out of those 12,000, 4,000 are distance runners. I think that's probably way too many, but let's assume all of them ran the 5k outdoors in 2025. 5% of 4,000 is 200.
The 200th fastest 5k last year was 13:58. (The true 5% mark is probably more like 13:40-45. But anyways.) According to Malmo anything even slightly slower than that sucks.
Also, according to Malmo, Wejo competed in the Baby Conference, aka the Ivy League, and was nowhere near the top 80% of D1. Apart from the fact that the Ivy League has produced some of our country's finest distance runners, Wejo himself was a 30 flat guy at least, which in that era was definitely top 80%.
So at the same time as Malmo decries the shade implied by the use of D1, he himself throws unnecessary shade at D1 and the Ivy League. Which is about the logical consistency one would expect of a supporter of our current president.
National Participation There are 339 NCAA member institutions that sponsor Division I Women’s Track and Field teams and 287 NCAA member institutions that sponsor Division I Men’s Track & Field teams and are eligible to compet...
Do you ever look at meet results from top to bottom, not just the BYUs, Syracuses, Notre Dames, etc. but ALL D1 results? At this year's Paul Short races there were 11 guys from D1 schools slower than 29 minutes. That's pretty Joe Blowish.
There were 84 over 29 minutes in the open race.
As an aside 574 runners is probably too many to be on the course at one time in any xc race. Sooner or later some one is going to fall and get trampled at that race.
I was looking at "Merged College Results" and only for D1 runners.
Getting back to the original question, I am 54, have barely run in the last 15-20 years and 50-60+ lbs overweight. A lot of days when I get out of bed my feet, hips, lower back hurt. I'm about as far as you could imagine from my D1 running days (I feel that I sucked in D1, never made the travel squad but never finished in the bottom half of any XC race).
A year ago I was working on getting back in shape, doing a combination of light running and uphill walking on a treadmill (was working overseas with the military). I progressed, starting with 10 mins at 12:00 pace with uphill walk of 3mph and 10% grade for 30 mins. By the end of the trip (90 days), I was running for 1 hour on the treadmill and averaging the last 30 minutes under 7:30 pace. At that point in time I was still 45 lbs over my college racing weight (but had lost 15 lbs).
I ended up getting some kind of weird tweaky injury in my quad so I had to rehab that and I gained the weight back. I'm getting started again after a busy year.
If my fat @ss can get back to 7:30 pace in 3 months, I'm sure anybody can get fit at this age. The key is staying uninjured.
Maybe find something to piss you off. I was just sort of walking/jogging occasionally with the thought in the back of my head that I would get serious about it eventually. Then a situation occurred at my job that got me so pissed off that I ran nine days in a row just to clear my head every day (all very slowly, it's been a while). I had to travel, so I skipped the 10th day, but resumed immediately thereafter. Otherwise, I seem to be back, habit-wise, anyway. Speed is something I'm trying to not even think about just yet.
I would think 2-3 years of consistent training in your 30s & you could run some pretty solid times.
This. 6 months to just get running consistently, 6 months to gradually build and then it will take another year or two of consistent background training.
If you're not dead, it's not too late. Will you be as fast as you used to be, doubtful. Will you be placing in your age group, maybe. Will you be having fun, I hope so.
And I've never in my life, not even once, said I was a D1 XC runner. I've always characterized it as, "I ran cross country." Or if I wanted to make a point, "I ran XC Nationals four times."
For perspective, in 2025 how many college runners ran sub-14 for 5000m?
D1: 241 runners
D2: 31 runners
D3: 4 runners
Conclusion: "I ran XC Nationals four times." means a hell of a lot more if you are a D1 runner versus D2/D3.
If you don't know, Malmo, aka George Malley, was a great, great runner. Former American record holder in the steeplechase and the half marathon, 5X NCAA AA at Penn State.
Just for the heck of it I looked at D2 and D3 runners at the D1 XC champs when George ran. 1973 Garry Bentley, South Dakota St, 8th, Joe Ruckanshaghiza, Siena, 37th. Malmo, 71st, Sam Young Cal State LA 80th, Cyle Wold, S Dak, St, 92nd.
'74 G. Bentley 32nd, Malmo 39th, Roger Schwegel N. Dak. St 60, John Prasuhn SW Mo 68, Dan Dwyer SW Mo 80.
'75 Malmo 17th, Joel Jameson, Occidental (D3) 31st. Warren Eide N Dak St 44, Dan Dwyer SW Mo, 82nd.
'76 Malmo 20th, Eric Hulst (RIP) U Cal Irvine 34th. Ralph Serna UCI 74th, Steve Scott 187th.
I may have missed some.
Oh, and George is a great guy to have a beer with.
If you don't know, Malmo, aka George Malley, was a great, great runner. Former American record holder in the steeplechase and the half marathon, 5X NCAA AA at Penn State.
Just for the heck of it I looked at D2 and D3 runners at the D1 XC champs when George ran. 1973 Garry Bentley, South Dakota St, 8th, Joe Ruckanshaghiza, Siena, 37th. Malmo, 71st, Sam Young Cal State LA 80th, Cyle Wold, S Dak, St, 92nd.
'74 G. Bentley 32nd, Malmo 39th, Roger Schwegel N. Dak. St 60, John Prasuhn SW Mo 68, Dan Dwyer SW Mo 80.
'75 Malmo 17th, Joel Jameson, Occidental (D3) 31st. Warren Eide N Dak St 44, Dan Dwyer SW Mo, 82nd.
'76 Malmo 20th, Eric Hulst (RIP) U Cal Irvine 34th. Ralph Serna UCI 74th, Steve Scott 187th.
I may have missed some.
Oh, and George is a great guy to have a beer with.
In that '76 race in Philadelphia Jeff Bradley from Millersville was thrid.
Just for the heck of it I looked at D2 and D3 runners at the D1 XC champs when George ran. 1973 Garry Bentley, South Dakota St, 8th, Joe Ruckanshaghiza, Siena, 37th. Malmo, 71st, Sam Young Cal State LA 80th, Cyle Wold, S Dak, St, 92nd.
'74 G. Bentley 32nd, Malmo 39th, Roger Schwegel N. Dak. St 60, John Prasuhn SW Mo 68, Dan Dwyer SW Mo 80.
'75 Malmo 17th, Joel Jameson, Occidental (D3) 31st. Warren Eide N Dak St 44, Dan Dwyer SW Mo, 82nd.
'76 Malmo 20th, Eric Hulst (RIP) U Cal Irvine 34th. Ralph Serna UCI 74th, Steve Scott 187th.
That's not a fair comparison. Not many D2/D3 even competed in the D1 Nationals, mainly because they weren't expected to run the D1 nationals, and because they ran their Nationals on Saturday, while the D1 Nationals were three days later, on Monday.
My entire point here was not that D1 was better than D2 or D3 ... that's obvious. My point was the insistence of weak runners calling themselves "D1", because 95 percent of of the 6,000 D1 runners sucked at cross country. You're only mentioning "D1" becasue you are trying to infer unearned gravitas to your blatantly weak running credentials. That's pathetic.
Just say "former college runner". That's good enough for me. It should be good enough for you. Save your "D1 status" for the Turkey Trots. I'm sure that they'll be impressed with you, especially alongside of your gift certificate and your finisher medallion.
"Former college runner". Go ahead, you can say it. There's no shame in it.
"D1 Runner" is just shorthand for "had/has some talent for the sport" vs someone that has never done it.
Same thing if a former D1 football player comes to the gym. They will outperform most of the regular people that show up. There is such thing as talent/natural ability.
95% of D1 runners suck. "Former D1 runner" implies that they are part of the other 5% when they are not. By saying that they are not part of the 95% of D1 or D2, D3, NAIA or JUCO is an attempt at unearned gravitas. If you were the real deal you would simply say "I was a college runner". Thats it. No need to create a class hierarchy that doesn't exist.
For years the brojos used to label nationals not D1, "the Baby Nationals" which was extremely offensive, especially considering that they themselves competed in the "Baby Conference" and were nowhere near the top 80% of NCAA D1. I used to make that point for decades until the message finally sunk in about 5 years ago when they stopped with the baby nationals shtick.
We don't have a class hierarchy in college athletics like social casts in India or other cultures. We don't need to wear a red bindi on our foreheads to show our status. We are all just runners.
Quit saying you are "D1". You are a former college runner, or just a "runner". Why isn't that good enough?
"D1 runner", although true, is really not much better than claiming false times or coaching credentials at a University in San Antonio.
Truth be told, if you were DFL in NCAA D1 XC you were actually better than 99% of all D1 runners. Think about that.
I have a lot of respect for you Malmo, but you have to look at this from a wider perspective. To the general public, the title "D1 athlete" simply carries a lot more cache than saying you ran for a random college. This is true when applying for jobs, grad schools, or just watercooler conversations. Most people do not know the difference between a 14:30 5k or a 13:30 5k, they just know that being Division 1 is rare and difficult.
I know this makes a lot of D3 and D2 guys mad, but it is just reality. It's just like someone mentioning they have an Ivy League degree (even if it's in basketweaving) will garner more respect than an aerospace engineering degree at no name state. Is it fair? No, but that's just how it is. I'm proud I earned the D1 title and will keep using it.
It's also worth noting that in the post NIL and House settlement era, there are not really a lot of the 4:30 mile stragglers left on D1 teams. Getting a roster spot now requires a very high level of ability to and most of the guys there are legitimately better than most D2 or D3 guys. The days of 2 minute 800m guys just hanging out of D1 teams for 4 years are over.
