OK. Somewhat obtuse East Coast snob here, but I'm trying to make sense of the ridiculous amount of talent on the NAU X-Country team. I've never been to that area, but I imagine it has the same hills, altitude, and beauty as a place like Boulder. But it isn't an impressive academic school, and I don't know why an 18-year-old who could write their own ticket would want to spend 4 years in Northern Arizona. What draws them there? Is there a great sense of community? Is it a cultural mecca of sorts? Do they have exceptional programs in certain areas? I just don't get it.
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Arizona has some really nice areas. Better weather than Boulder most of the year as well.
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Smart runners go to Stanford, ND, Michigan, Wisconsin. UVA and other good schools. The others go to NAU.
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Because Sedona is so close if you need to take a dump.
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Maybe the best training environment in North America, cool town, good weather.
They also fund the group with a good number of scholarships, have the WUE, and a low cost of attendance.
Flagstaff is known internationally as a training hub, add a great coach into the mix and it is a good situation. Hitting the jackpot on 3 of the greatest Arizona runners of all time in a 6 year span also helps.
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Northern AZ pines wrote:
Maybe the best training environment in North America, cool town, good weather.
They also fund the group with a good number of scholarships, have the WUE, and a low cost of attendance.
Flagstaff is known internationally as a training hub, add a great coach into the mix and it is a good situation. Hitting the jackpot on 3 of the greatest Arizona runners of all time in a 6 year span also helps.
THIS!!!!!!!!!!! Environment. If Barstow, CA was at 8,000' and had a Div. 1 college program, do you think it would attract the top American recruits?
Environment - it is why Eugene, Stanford & Boulder attract the top American recruits.
Ted Banks when asked why he recruited foreigners "good luck getting American kids to come to El Paso".
Again, environment!
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Because it's probably the only good college town in the US where you can live high, train low.
Flagstaff is about 7,000 ft. above sea level, and Sedona is at around 4,000-4,500 ft.
Park City, UT is expensive and is more of a ski resort, even though you can live high, train low while based there. It's generally for very well sponsored athletes, not for college students, who are generally at BYU.
The other live high, train low places in the US are all really remote.
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Smarty panty wrote:
Smart runners go to Stanford, ND, Michigan, Wisconsin. UVA and other good schools. The others go to NAU.
NAU attracts a lot of runners from disadvantaged backgrounds, sometimes with mediocre academic performance, but super good running talent.
To name a few:
- Luis Grijalva (a Guatemalan-born Dreamer kid)
- Abdihamid Nur (Somali-born, had some life problems but eventually overcame them)
- Lopez Lomong (South Sudanese Lost Boy)
NAU is pretty inclusive and gives these talented runners a real shot at success in life.
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I didn't know they only allowed distance runners into Northern Arizona. When did that restriction come into place?
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Letsrun also had a little part:
Letsrun.com wrote:
LetsRun.com was founded in the spring of 2000 by twin brothers Weldon (“Wejo”) and Robert Johnson (“Rojo”). Weldon had qualified for the 2000 Olympic Marathon Trials and decided to quit his job as an economic consultant to move to the mountains of Flagstaff, Arizona to pursue his long shot dream of the Olympics. Robert decided to move to Flagstaff to help Weldon with the arduous training weeks of up to 140 miles.75 -
High altitude, low latitude. That's the winning combination. There are places near the equator that are higher, but the area in question is in a first world country that is relatively safe. As in, you don't have to literally carry all valuables while running. In the US, Santa Fe and Flagstaff win the high altitude, low latitude contest.
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I don't understand your question. They have some athletes other than distance runners.
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You are correct. Futsum was another example.
NAU's average ACT score is 22 which is on par with NAIA and D2. Arkansas' is 27. Colorado's average is 28. Wisconsin's is 30. Stanford's is 33.
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NAU has built an environment like no other. The altitude, sports facilities, gorgeous natural beauty, top of the line coaching, university committed to support the sport, and being able to train with olympians are some of the reasons kids choose NAU. If you want to have a chance to become a professional runner you go to NAU. A lot of these threads throw hate at NAU out of jealousy. It’s understandable when you get your a$$ handed to you year after year after by a mid major uni, I’d probably start hating as well 😂😂
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Closest US training envitoment to Kenya/Uganda/Ethiopia, AKA lowest latitude US city over 7k feet.
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runfastrunslow wrote:
Letsrun also had a little part:
Letsrun.com wrote:
LetsRun.com was founded in the spring of 2000 by twin brothers Weldon (“Wejo”) and Robert Johnson (“Rojo”). Weldon had qualified for the 2000 Olympic Marathon Trials and decided to quit his job as an economic consultant to move to the mountains of Flagstaff, Arizona to pursue his long shot dream of the Olympics. Robert decided to move to Flagstaff to help Weldon with the arduous training weeks of up to 140 miles.Got a couple downvotes so far, but I'm not kidding. So, I probably need to add more context. At least for me, LR was how I first came to associate Flagstaff with running. Before that for me, Flagstaff was just a gateway to cool places like Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. In the early years of LR, wejo choosing to go to Flagstaff to train was a pretty big theme, and LR obviously had a pretty good reach with young aspiring runners.
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greatdiversion wrote:
OK. Somewhat obtuse East Coast snob here, but I'm trying to make sense of the ridiculous amount of talent on the NAU X-Country team. I've never been to that area, but I imagine it has the same hills, altitude, and beauty as a place like Boulder. But it isn't an impressive academic school, and I don't know why an 18-year-old who could write their own ticket would want to spend 4 years in Northern Arizona. What draws them there? Is there a great sense of community? Is it a cultural mecca of sorts? Do they have exceptional programs in certain areas? I just don't get it.
Good Weather, very easy to get admitted, low cost....next question
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greatdiversion wrote:
OK. Somewhat obtuse East Coast snob here, but I'm trying to make sense of the ridiculous amount of talent on the NAU X-Country team. I've never been to that area, but I imagine it has the same hills, altitude, and beauty as a place like Boulder. But it isn't an impressive academic school, and I don't know why an 18-year-old who could write their own ticket would want to spend 4 years in Northern Arizona. What draws them there? Is there a great sense of community? Is it a cultural mecca of sorts? Do they have exceptional programs in certain areas? I just don't get it.
Flagstaff is the best play to train in the country in my opinion.
Vs Boulder NAU isn't as good a school academically (Which actually might be a draw for some kids) but it's at 2,000 feet more of altitude and the trails are amazing and right out the door. Plus you can get to low altitude.
It's a superiour place to train than Boulder. Amazing how 20 years ago no one really trained there.
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Northern AZ is terrible in the summer. Lately is is full of fire.
There is only ONE reason it has gotten popular. Boulder & Mammoth are too expensive.
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NAU is a factory of championships. You want to win, become an elite runner, have a shot at being a pro runner? NAU is the best place to get all that. Can’t blame the talent for wanting to be a part of something so special.
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