Jonathan Commentor wrote:
A huge portion of runnning fans in the US are in highschool, most of whom stop running competitivpy after HS and almost all of whom stop running competitively after college. Most of us still love the collegiate and professional side of the sport, but have a little bit of a deeper connection to the HS scene because a) many of us race against these guys or at least can compare our own times to thirs and b) because its interesting to see how far unpaid, and mostly non-adult runners can push themselves
Like I said, my original post wasn't to troll or judge anyone... it's just odd to me and I ran in HS, college, and post collegiately. I can understand current HS kids focusing on HS because that is their current reality but after that I have a hard time understanding it because HS is not the peak of performance in distance running.
Again, I am not trolling but why not talk about who the best middle school runner was or the best elementary school runner. It's just an age category and like I said earlier, the great ones went on to become better in their later years. Many HS runners are just more mature at that point in their life so they are simply better at that point in time.
The fixation with HS seems very unique to distance running. Is there a "Let's hoop" out there where people post about how great guys were as HS basketball players? Or a "Let's Putt" ? A "Let's Swing (baseball)? To my knowledge there isn't anything like this in other sports because HS level isn't important.
Anyway, I am not judging it ... all I am saying is it seems odd to me.