Slowest guy on your cross country team?

Good for him. We should encourage this, rather than mock his times. The slowest guy on my team was around 25-26 minutes for the 5k

HS: low 31:00 for 5k, freshmen sprinter

Had a kid get so far behind on a 1 mile loop warmup to the track i didnt see him for about an hour and fifteen. He finally comes rolling in the gate at the track. He explained that he stopped someone for directions and got lost. Keep in mind there was 70 kids on the team. That means he was so far behind 69 that he go lost in a mile. Id say that the 3rd quarter of that mile was a straight line with unobstructed views. Coincidentally, i had the fastest kid in the state on the team as well. Made for some interesting major BS between the two on the team as well.

HS: don't remember. it was 15 years ago! if i had to guess i'd say about 25 minutes for the 5K.

college: probably around 37 or 38 minutes for 8K. really bad d3 team with no cuts. the guy had school spirit, i'll say that. the time might be wrong here but he was consistently in the bottom 10 at most meets and there are some slow dudes back there in D3 world i tell you hwat

Hey my freshman year PR was 30:36. I only beat 4 girls and a special needs kid on a 60 person roster.

My current PR is 15:48 as a freshman in college. Running is a beautiful sport like that. Always room to grow.

I’m surprised a collegiate 400m hurdler would wanna run XC tho. Power to him!

I don't recall slowest time because high school was 40 years ago, but I do recall that everyone, both boys and girls (we trained together, competed separately), were accepted as part of the team, attended the weekly team parties, participated in team high jinx, and had a sense of belonging and purpose. They were, regardless of talent, high school athletes.

This isn't really something to worry about. Running is for everyone. If you're a slow guy, with consistent daily training and mileage, you can improve. I went from 25s to 15s in the 5k, dropping over 10 minutes.

I still remember running a race at Sunkin Meadows Park. I think it was the Suffolk County Community College team. They all took off rockets into the straight away as the gun went off (maybe 250 meters) and then everyone passed them. Their whole team was made of their sprinters. Wrong sports but those guys were fit. They were all jacked.

There was an incident which became notorious where he ate a cheeseburger while the rest of the JV squad was warming up for a dual meet.

It is understood that the slower/slowest runners on XC team on college teams are either sprinters or multi-event athletes. If an all-american &/or all-conference sprinter or multi-event athlete participates in XC in college, great. On h.s. team, some of the slowest runners were cancers on the team. Three different groups: 1) varsity athletes from other sports and their coach told them to join h.s. XC team, 2) Danny Zuko-types who think if they cut down from two packs of cigarettes a day to one pack, XC would be an Easy Letter Sport, 3) guys who race 1/2 Marathons & Marathons all year, even during XC season but only race 5K XC in 18:xx to 20:xx range. I have no idea in h.s. XC how slow or how not so slow JV guys were actually racing.

I thought we applauded the non-naturally gifted who made the effort? Good for these guys getting out and being active.

why the hate? wrote:

I thought we applauded the non-naturally gifted who made the effort? Good for these guys getting out and being active.

No, LRC is all about worshipping genetically gifted individuals (except if they are from a certain continent) and proving that it is mathematically impossible for everyone else to succeed past a certain level.

The slowest ki on my high school team ran like 30 minutes and would always battle for DFL. He is now a personal trainer and MMA fighter and could whup any cross country kid. He has lost at least 100 pounds and fit, cut and a badass.

My college team forced the 400/800 kids to run the 8k's early in the season and they would run like 29 minutes in trainers. I knew they could run faster but why ?

13 YO freshman at 30:20. Kid is barely 5' tall. He will improve. Next slowest is 25:xx

Suzie the Floozy wrote:

why the hate? wrote:

I thought we applauded the non-naturally gifted who made the effort? Good for these guys getting out and being active.

No, LRC is all about worshipping genetically gifted individuals (except if they are from a certain continent) and proving that it is mathematically impossible for everyone else to succeed past a certain level.

On LRC, everyone faster than you is genetically gifted, and everyone slower than you is lazy.

You are always the least gifted runner who works the hardest.

My high school team had cuts for anyone over 21 minutes which normally left about 50 guys. My college team had about 12 guys. The slowest was about 25:20.

You are incorrect. I was the most gifted but worked the least. I ran 23:30.

I wasn't on cross country but on our track team there was one guy who tried out for seemingly every sport. He wasn't particularly good at anything. But he was a positive guy who asked a ton of questions and legitimately wanted to improve. Consequently the coaches loved him. He never got cut, even though he seldom played. I remember when the yearbook came out it looked like he was the star athlete in the entire school. He had listings for one sport after another and he appeared in so many pictures, often standing alongside the coach or being instructed by the coach.

I have much fonder and stronger memories of him, than kids who were the stars.

I was the slowest guy my sophomore year, couldn't break 6:30 for the mile (a wrestler kid was the only one who ever finished behind me). Spring track and first race I led a mile wire-to-wire 4:59 FTW to become our #2. I helped coach our #1 to all the school distance records and a 4:17.