I missed xc nationals by 0.9 seconds last fall. Now that I lost my senior season, how do I get over it?

That sucks. I missed my senior track season when I had a decent shot at NCAA's which was extremely disappointing. My advice is to go out and qualify for a OT's. You have track next year and Marathon in 3.5 years. Once I got that OT qualifier a lot of the disappointments from college have faded away. Still wish I would have won that conference title or got that All-American, but not near as big of a deal after having success after.

There's always another race to run and another goal to shoot for.

Nobody cares. You and your accomplishments (or lack there of) will be totally forgotten in the sands of time.

Help?

I honestly feel bad for you and for young people in general who are missing out on these important life experiences. I think you have every right to be disappointed at losing this opportunity.

Not much I can say to make it better, but you will have opportunities in the future to do lots of cool things if you keep working for it. Stay strong. This too shall pass.

1) Train your butt off and run a sub 14 5k or sub 29 10k this spring. Other runners will respect you just the same as if you qualifed for NCAAs XC and finished 67th

2.) There is no guarantee you would have a qualified this season. Yes, missing xc season will always sting but it sounds like you had a great junior year. Appreciate that for what it is and move on.

3. Realize that your peak athletic years are 23-27. If you love running, draw up a realistic long term plan and go for it. OTQ, road national placings, sub 4 mile, etc, etc.

Good luck-

Find yourself a hottie. Boy. Girl. Whatever you’re into. You’ll forget about that race in no time.

ston ronitsch wrote:

My question to older and former ncaa athletes is how do I get over this and be able to properly move on with my senior year and life in general. I've been sort of tormented by this over the past couple of months and I would love any advice.

Thank you in advance for the responses.

You screwed up big time. You should have taken the semester off. This will haunt you forever, and you deserve it.

You were in such a rush to start your career - where you'll be working for 50 years. So you gave up one of only 4 years you get to compete in college. Do you know how DUMB and IDIOTIC that is? All that training for nothing.

You can't blame coronavirus, you can't blame god, you can only blame YOURSELF.

It's reasonable to be disappointed, but all you can do now is look forward to the next race. As someone mentioned, try to knock down your times to make the Olympic Trials.

And be glad that you had some success during your college career. There are a lot of former NCAA runners who don't really have any individual successes to look back on (like me).

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

That sucks. I missed my senior track season when I had a decent shot at NCAA's which was extremely disappointing. My advice is to go out and qualify for a OT's. You have track next year and Marathon in 3.5 years. Once I got that OT qualifier a lot of the disappointments from college have faded away. Still wish I would have won that conference title or got that All-American, but not near as big of a deal after having success after.

I think this is the best answer. If you do track, focus on it and try to qualify for NCAA's or something. After that you can focus on road running to try to get a marathon OTQ or a track one if you're really good at it.

Missed out on nationals my senior year by 1.something seconds in XC. No one can deny that agony. Even more so given this pandemic. Can't imagine how it feels for people in your position and I'm so sorry.

Sorry to quote the cliche, but thankfully running is not cancelled. Find your next best thing to train for when races come back, whether it's Boston, other track races or even the Olympic trials. You can write your own chapter now without the definitions of collegiate success.

We don't know if this guy is D1. He mayb be a 14:40 D3 scrub.

He could also be .9 seconds off in the 100, not 5k.

Bleh wrote:

He could also be .9 seconds off in the 100, not 5k.

??

Thread title

I feel for you. Many, many people will try to minimize this, but it is a big deal. Many kids put 100s or 1000s of hours of work into becoming the best runners in their state or the nation. Or just becoming the best runner they can be. Last spring, I had the best distance runner I have ever had and possibly ever will have. It hurt a lot to lose his senior season.

Senior year of high school is a very special time. And the best parts of it have been ripped away from many kids. The best you can do is continue to improve your craft. Work hard. GO on to college, and run times you never imagined possible. You will still always have the "what if" from your high schools days, but it will be dramatically lightened if you go on to accomplish great things in college.

I missed my entire senior season, too. Not because of Covid, but because I was in wrongly convicted of a crime and was in jail. At the time, I was the nations #1 recruit and had just led my high school team to the state title (in two sports..the other was football). There was a fight in a bowling alley and I was there and wrongly accused and convicted. I got out after less than a year, as my conviction was overturned..I'd later have the entire thing expunged. That summer, despite almost every other school backing off, and much thanks to my mom, I signed with Georgetown and, my sophomore year, I was an All-American.

im sorry. i did not read carefully. you are already in college. this stinks for you. but do as the others have said and set your focus to track, road racing, etc.

Be the best you can be. many years of racing ahead.

You won't get over it. In middle age you'll still be throwing a football over them mountains.

Time heals all wounds.

I missed being all-american by a hundredth of a second in the D3 800. It haunted me for a while, but it inspired me even more. You do get over it quickly and can put it to good psychological use for many years. I had an XC season left so took the extra semester to use it. I would advise you to do the same -- pick up a minor or a second major or take some grad classes. You'll always be glad you did it. (Having said that, it's also true that there might not be an XC season next year, although I think there will be. ) Also, when I was in college a semester cost me about $3,000. Yours is probably 20K or more. So you have a lot to consider. But in 10 years, I think you'll value the extra XC season more than whatever you might gain by giving it up, and that would hold true whether you make it to the nationals or not.