King Ches

google friend wrote:

Age at graduation:

Bryan Dameworth 19 years + 9 months

Adam Goucher 19 years + 9 months

Mebrathom Keflizeghi 19 years + 1 month

Age cheats have been dominating high school distance running for decades.

I don't care who you are, there's a HUGE difference between 17-18 and 18-19 with regard to maturation and development for a middle-long distance runner. In high school, this is a tremendous advantage and any good coach would agree. Case and point, I was 17 years + 8 months when I graduated high school (sub 9:05- sub 4:15- sub 15:00 in XC), and If you compare those PB's to when I was 19 years + 8 months...OMG!! The point being, that a year of growth and development at that age is massive, let alone two years. I don't think the playing field levels out until 21-22 years old and then you can start accurately comparing times from that point on. Don't forget training mileage, coach, injuries, etc... are variables to deal with. FYI- not easy to achieve.

"King Ches" has a lot of great running ahead of him, it's not debatable that he was at an age advantage in high school and college, as were Goucher, Meb, and Hunter (if he went to college). Now that age is a non-factor or excuse for others, and if he connects with the right coach and training group he will be a contender for global titles. The talent is there and he's already proven it.

"Go Run One"

On the flipside of this is somebody like Cooper Teare. 4:06/8:51 in the 1600/3200 as a 16-year old high school junior. While those are very good times, they don't look like world class high school times. Was injured as a senior. Was allowed to progress gradually at Oregaon. Now a 21-year old senior, is running 3:50/7:46 in the mile/3000 indoors, which suddenly looks very world class. There's a lot of improvement to be had between 16 and 21.