I remember the days when high school running was about pure grit and equal opportunities for many people to compete against each other. When I look at high school right now after the pandemic, it’s just not the same. To even run fast anymore, you have to run at these select meets and be flown across the country like the NP boys. Super shoes and less serious school make it just so much easier to run faster. Some call it evolution in sport, but evolution is gradual and it is so noticeably scary how good these kids are getting. It’s almost suspicious to me, but I really do think that the pandemic just made everyone better. There really aren’t such thing as dual meets anymore, local meets aren’t hosted as often, and kids are realizing they don’t need to waste time competing in them so they’ll fly to elite meets and get good marks. It was a rarity to do that back then. Now it’s a norm and it’s not very fair to a lot of kids. School is now just becoming a joke so kids can train even better than some collegiate teams can. When people are just running these ridiculous times in high school, it’s hard for me to legitimize all of it nowadays. I just don’t think this would’ve been the case of the pandemic didn’t happen. Life is just so much different and easier now for runners