I was a 4'10" 80 lb middle schooler when I walked to the athletic fields for fall sports tryout/interest day. I walked to the bleachers for football and a coach laughed and pointed me in the direction of the XC coach.
Let's face it, not one of us grew up wanting to be a distance geek.
I liked baseball but had no skills. I had some speed and good hands for football, but so size. I could shoot a basketball but had no height.
By default I ended up running cross country and becoming a lifelong runner.
I wanted to be a field goal kicker. We had a tree in our townhouse complex that was a y shape. I used to practice on it every day. I was pretty accurate for a nine year old kid. My mom didn't let me play Pop Warner so I didn't know how to kick for longer distance. When I tried out for kicker in JV, I went 1 of 4 at short distance and didn't get to be kicker .. understandably. I learned later to not pick my head up until after the kick. Recreationally, my longest kick is 46 yards years later. I still did play JV football that year as a WR
I chose cross country because a friend wanted to try it and my friend was my friend.
But between cross country and the hills and hell week suicides....I think cross country was so much better.
Let's face it, not one of us grew up wanting to be a distance geek.
I liked baseball but had no skills. I had some speed and good hands for football, but so size. I could shoot a basketball but had no height.
By default I ended up running cross country and becoming a lifelong runner.
I wanted to be a field goal kicker. We had a tree in our townhouse complex that was a y shape. I used to practice on it every day. I was pretty accurate for a nine year old kid. My mom didn't let me play Pop Warner so I didn't know how to kick for longer distance. When I tried out for kicker in JV, I went 1 of 4 at short distance and didn't get to be kicker .. understandably. I learned later to not pick my head up until after the kick. Recreationally, my longest kick is 46 yards years later. I still did play JV football that year as a WR
I chose cross country because a friend wanted to try it and my friend was my friend.
But between cross country and the hills and hell week suicides....I think cross country was so much better.
Some of you know the runs as running lines or intervals to be clear...
10 x 100 in 16 seconds with 16 seconds rest in between each
Football. Played through 9th grade before switching to CC. Loved it, but running was the best decision I could have made. I can still walk. My Dad, who played football in HS and college, can hobble at best.
I liked lots of sports as a kid but by high school there was nowhere I’d rather be than at our combined boys/girls xc and track practices. No other sport had that.
Let's face it, not one of us grew up wanting to be a distance geek.
I liked baseball but had no skills. I had some speed and good hands for football, but so size. I could shoot a basketball but had no height.
By default I ended up running cross country and becoming a lifelong runner.
None. I hated all sports. I hated the outdoors. I was a total nerd. Skinny, lanky, clumsy.
Wasn’t until PE in middle school that I realized running the mile was almost… fun? And when I joined cross country in HS, I found the team support to be awesome, later fell in love with track, and become surprisingly athletic. Now in my 40s, still far more athletic than my friends who played basketball or football back then.
I grew up in Indiana, so, of course, basketball. Too short, too slow, couldn't jump, so that hope didn't last long. I was astonished when I went out for cross country and found I was good at it.
I grew up in Indiana, so, of course, basketball. Too short, too slow, couldn't jump, so that hope didn't last long. I was astonished when I went out for cross country and found I was good at it.
I was a pretty good soccer player growing up, but I was never super passionate about it. If I'd stuck with it maybe I'd gotten to the D3 level in the NCAA, but odds are I would've quit long before that. My obsession with running is leaps and bounds greater than with soccer.
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Baseball first, then soccer. I was able to hack it in baseball until about sixth grade. Soccer lasted a bit longer and I even made the varsity squad in 10th grade. In 11th grade XC though I went from back of the pack to 17:00 in just a few months and figured I'd go run track instead of playing soccer, and I've been a full-timer ever since.
Oddly enough, I wanted to be a distance runner. I played baseball for 9 years, Pop Warner football for three years. I was a second baseman early on, and a catcher later; I was MVP one year in baseball, and routinely made the league All-Star team.
I have no memory ofthe inciting event, but I was completely enthralled by Coe and Ovett (and unfortunately bought into the Coe = good guy, Ovett = bad guy thing when I was very young). I used to pore over my copy of the Guinness Book of Olympic Records. I had to beg my father to let me run my first 10k in 6th grade, and the following year I was allowed to run with the high school cross country and track teams (maybe "behind," rather than "with"). My father, who was also my baseball coach in middle school, really wanted me to "play a real sport," and I think he was always a bit disappointed in what I chose. Blame it on Coe.