Who was the slowest runner on your high school team ? Did they improve ?

I ran in the early 00s. We had one guy who was maybe 5:45 in the mile at the start of outdoor. He ended up being around 4:50 or so by the end.

I’m pretty sure I was. 5:47 mile and 12:36 2 mile PRs the one season I ran track in 10th grade. Started running again at 19 and ran 15:26 within a year then sub 15 two years later so yes I improved. I had absolutely no speed or vertical jump until I was about 16-17. My best 400 was 73 at the end of a workout, but could maybe have been 65-68 all out, then my only real 400m was a 53 in a meet I did for fun after college. I could only nick the backboard as a freshman in high school but could dunk by senior year. Have a video of me dunking at age 34 if you don’t believe me. Also didn’t have much upper body strength in HS but was a decent tennis player regardless. Did 3-5 pull-ups in 10th grade PE, then could easily do 25+ by my mid-30s, and basically doubled my bench press (I remember failing miserably at 135 in college and could do a couple reps at 225 a few years later). I guess I just developed late.

They almost always quit.

6:30 freshman who ran 6:12 2:47 and 24 min 5ks on my team went under my wing. I got him to run twice a day a bit and stick for as long as he could some days. He went under 20 min in his only race that season (covid year so it was a shortened schedule for non varsity guys) He went 5:12 that spring. Next year he went sub 19 then 4:53 and 2:10.

Found the video of probably my last ever dunk. Not super impressive but given my relatively advanced age I’ll take it.

Nice, do you have any vids of you tying your shoes? That would be really interesting.

We had a girl running around a 34-min 5k. She looked perfectly normal but I thought I had never seen anyone with such relaxed slow cadence. I think she got around to a 30-min 5k on a cross-country course by the end of the season. But the next year she was running 24s. So yes, you can def improve!

A few guys ran 25 minutes. They tried as hard as everyone else.

I couldn’t break 30 my freshman cross season, and I ended up being about a 16:00 flat guy by senior year which put me at our #3 spot, which isn’t the MVP but a pretty important scorer IMO.

What stopped me from giving up before I got good was a supportive team and a coach that was willing to work with me. Make sure to be that person instead of someone bad talking your teammate/athlete, it could seriously make a huge difference in their life and their progression.

nh.milesplit.com

Christie Rutledge - Stats

Link:nh.milesplit.com/athletes/476105-chris...

Slowest runner on the team in 2008

Second at NXN in 2010

Me, and no.

We had a lot of special needs kids who would join the team. We made sure never to call them retarded. But they were definitely super goofy... but in a really endearing way...

Those goofy pastards used to really spice up practice and bring a smile to everyone. When one of those wirling dirvishes went into berserko mode, it was a sight to see. I swear they could have ran for days, or even weeks, If coach didn't put on that ice cream man song and get them all running to him like a poor man to biscuits and gravy...

Anyway I guess the slowest guy was mongo. He had a forehead like a drive-in movie theater. But he was a good dude so we didn't bust his chops too much.

Anyway he couldn't be trusted to run wild, so the coach would just tie a big tether around his ankle and let him run around the football goal post till he tied himself up pretty good... and then he would have to reverse course...

Anyway by the end of the season the coach got him an even bigger tether... so he could run even farther around the goal posts before he tied himself all up...

Was a truly heartwarming moment