The fastest 1600/3200 guys at my school aren't on the track or XC team. How common is this?

I'm not sure from your post whether you are an athlete or a coach, or what. If coach, though, recruit them harder. It's always worth a shot to talk to kids, even multiple times within reason (i.e., don't cross the line of being a pest to them), to try and convince them they've got talent and could contribute to the team. Success obviously nowhere near guaranteed, both in actually recruiting them or in them blossoming into a star runner if they do join the team, but always worth a shot, especially if they obviously have natural talent. Especially since it sounds like you actually aren't facing the most common issue, i.e. the kid that loves soccer even though he isn't good at it, and would rather ride the pine there than lead the team in XC or track, whichever one lines up with the season your state holds soccer in. It sounds like they are available in-season, they just don't want to compete. You can always give it a shot to convince them otherwise.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Good one!

Yep. This is a thing- albeit in rare circumstances. If you are a coach, this likely means you have a highly obnoxious as well as non-talented distance runners that make being on the team a Scarlett Letter. Fix the culture on your team

Or

This is just a group that purely runs for enjoyment and does not want to compete- no different than the XC kid that shoots around a basketball court but has no desire to sign up for even rec league as an adult.

2/10

It's probably some mixture of the above. It's like seeing a group of tall kids with excellent agility and coordination who consistently show up to the basketball courts. Many of them can dunk and consistently nail 3-pointers, but none of them are interested in playing for the school team.

I'm sure there are similar stories out there, not just for running but for all sports.

Groups are rare, but I often see lone high-school aged runners on the track (after the school practice is over) and in the local parks and streets. They're not on any team that I know of, but many of them are familiar faces who train consistently and do both workouts and mileage. Some of them occasionally show up to our all-comers meets and do reasonably well but aren't mega-talents or anything.

This post is a truly hilarious example of how badly runners want running to be cool

The night roamers?

C’mon…..

I really do wish there were packs of feral distance runners afoot - running for the purity of the sport and robbing banks in the daytime with Ritz, Webb and Hall masks Point Break style.

It's fairly common and happens all the time.

We're talking about high school sports here, not pro or college-level sports. Unless you're in a powerhouse school, it's not hard for moderately-talented guys to be the best in the school without being on the team. All it takes is some enthusiasm and consistent training.

Let me tell you a story here. In my area, there's a pretty large group of Hispanic immigrants who often play soccer at the local park. The games are informal, no one keeps track of time, and the goal and field sizes are definitely not even close to regulation-size. One day, a few friends who had quite a bit of AYSO soccer experience challenged them to a friendly match. The rule was that after a goal was scored, a player who was on the goal-scoring team would have to sit out the rest of the match. This would hopefully keep the skill-level balanced and add in some excitement.

Long story short, we started out as 9 of us vs. 8 of them. They scored rather quickly, so it became 9 of us vs. 7 of them. And then 9 of us vs. 6 of them. It got to the point where it was an 8 vs. 3 game, and they were still having control of the ball and passing effectively. Now they wouldn't have a chance if they were playing the worst MLS team, but they would have absolutely annihilated our high school team.

It's the same in track. There are lots of schools where the fastest 1600m male runner on the team has a PR of something like 4:55 or even worse. It's not unusual to see a guy with some talent who also leads an active lifestyle (whether it's cycling, soccer, hiking, or something else) pull off a 4:50 in the gym class mile and have no interest in joining the team.

i think you may have messed up some math

if they did 1 lap in each lane and there was 9 lanes it would be like 2.27 miles and in 12 mins that is around 5:16 still not bad but significantly different

The OP's story is iffy, but I could see something like this happening if the school is big enough. In any large group, you're going to have nonconformists, renegades, weirdos, and misfits. Many of them will have niche and unusual hobbies. Just think of the boys who try out for the cheerleading squad.

My high school had an astrophotography club (how this existed in a large suburban area with plenty of light pollution is beyond me), a knitting club (that surprisingly had some male students), and a Rubik's cube club. A small group of friends running around the neighborhood at night is pretty tame by comparison.

This varies by track, but lane 9 is often 450+m while lane 1 is 400m. At my school:

1 - 400m

2 - 406m

3 - 412m

4 - 419m

5 - 426m

6 - 433m

7 - 441m

8 - 449m

9 - 457m

Total - 3843m = 2.388 miles