Any body have regrets about not competing in college

If having a team is truly important to you, transfer to a D3 school. I ran D3 my first year of college and then transferred to a bigger school where I still run, but am not on the team. Having a group of guys to run and compete with is definitely the biggest thing I miss about my former school. While I enjoy where I am now and still run races, there are times I wish I would have stayed.

I was a 4:20/9:20 type, walked on to a pretty competitive D1 program, got burned out and quit after a year. I have often wished that I had given it another go sophomore year or gone to a school where I would have been more competitive. It is certainly nice to be on a team in college, but I wouldn't interfere with career plans or rack up big student loan debt to get it (if you are considering either). Running by yourself can be fun, and you can have an opportunity to learn about training and what type of training you like/respond to best. Best of luck whatever you decide to do.

It seems you are pretty certain that you would not be able to walk-on to your school's D1 program. Consider why this is...Are you (a) not fast enough and/or (b) not able/willing to put in the mileage and hours any xc/tf program would require. If you answered (b) then no, you shouldn't transfer. You do have to realize that a decent collegiate program with a decent coach will require at the bare minimum 65mpw in addition to daily core and strength training. Having done only 45mpw thus far, have you run since the injury? Tried to adapt to higher mileage in the past 6 months? If not, dedicated xc/tf collegiate programs are not far you.

If what I've described above does not apply then by all means pursue your dream. However consider academic caliber and price affordability.

Best of luck.

I appreciate the feedback. I ran a bit over the summer and within the first couple weeks of college I emailed the coach and he emailed right away and had a meeting. The coach told me to build up my mileage throughout the fall to where I was last winter, and I have I'm up to around 40 now. By the way, I compare to the frosh xc recruits pretty evenly, their track times are a bit faster but I beat them at the state xc meet. I'm willing to dedicate time, I've been doing about a 40 minute plyo/core workout 4 times a week after my runs and my grades are solid, I'm looking at a 3.7-3.8 in the honors college of my university. However, I've tried to contact the coach again through email and he hasn't responded which has thrown me for a loop

When I was in college I could have competed for a small Div 3 school. My first notion was that it was something I really wanted to pursue, but I realized my heart wasn't that into it. I kind of searched my soul and found that basically I had been there and done that with organized athletics. I went through a transition where it was hard to be active without having a goal and achieving something in organized athletics. But after awhile I found it more fun and satisfying to just do what was fun with athletics and maybe have friendly competition through intramural sports and whatnot. Yet it left me time to pursue new interests and activities. But for me, I kind of got the most I could get out of myself athletically at 18. I could have gotten marginally better but I just didn't have the talent to be that good. If you feel there is something to achieve athletically definitely pursue it. But I think doing it just for the camaraderie of a team is a bad idea.

I graduated early from high school, working out with the college swim team starting in my junior year. I red-shirted by freshman year and was state champion two events in club swimming, which at the time was competitive with high school.

My sophomore year, which would have been my true freshman year I was hit by a diver in practice and missed the rest of the season. Never came back.

Odds are if you bag it like I did you'll regret it. Yes it will be a stretch to walk on but if you don't give it a go you'll wonder for the rest of your life.

Kid you sound like you have a lot of talent. You could probably walk on the some D1 programs as it is, just not the top ones.

I ran d3 and I improved my 5k to 16min and recently ran 27:10 for 8k - perhaps not great but significant improvement over my HS years where I didn't even go sub-11min for 3200m.

Regretful runner wrote:

I ran a bit over the summer and within the first couple weeks of college I emailed the coach and he emailed right away and had a meeting. The coach told me to build up my mileage throughout the fall to where I was last winter, and I have I'm up to around 40 now...I'm willing to dedicate time, I've been doing about a 40 minute plyo/core workout 4 times a week after my runs...

It doesn't sound like you've really put "that" much work into it. 40mpw is less than 6mi/day and you are spending almost the same amount of time running as you are plyo/core. You need to UP your mileage if you want the coach to consider letting you on the team. Frankly 40mpw is what the avg. extra-excercise-oriented college hobby jogger does and would not cut it on most teams. It seems difficult to envision that you truly "built up" to 6mi runs/day if you already had prior experience with such mileage. Did you start out at 1mi/day? In the 6month period since track season has ended you very well and easily could have been at at least 55-65mpw by now.

It seems apparent to me, and I'm not disparaging your commitment in any way, that you're more looking for training partners and team-type atmosphere rather than the intense, driven legitimate xc program with workouts, tempos, and hard efforts. I suggest you look into your university's intramurals and specifically a running club where you will find individuals much like yourself.

I don't know what Divison 1 team would turn down a 16:09 guy. I was running 90mpw my freshman year, and was accepted on by the coach and team because I was willing to work hard.

You have the talent to be successful at the D1, but be prepared for a massive amount of work. I'm not going to sugar coat it, it was a lot of work, and it was very stressful yet rewarding. You cannot second guess yourself, or the work you have to do. If you are unsure, I think you should join a club team.

The poster above said it was intense and that is the perfect word to describe the experience. You will not have the typical college experience.

Believe it or not, I did start out at about 10 minutes a day in September because I sprained my ankle in late July and couldn't run until September. The coach wanted me to be careful building up because I have had a slight history of injuries; 2 stress fractures,a fractured growth plate and achilles tendonitis. Thanks again for responding letsrunner, I'm going to give it another shot.

Yeah, I definitely regret not running for my college team. I was a solid high school runner - 1:55 in the 800 - and couldn't decide if I wanted to continue running in college. Freshman year I worked out with the team for a month or two and then just stopped showing up because my heart wasn't into it. I got sidetracked by girls and parties and my new college friends and I guess that's what I needed at the time.

I took up competitive running again in my mid-20's, and now at age 30 I'm even faster than I was in high school but man, I always, always wonder what might have been if I'd stuck it out in my prime running years. My recuperative abilities at 21 must have been awesome. And the free gear, medical attention, transportation to and from meets, coaching, team atmosphere, and good competition. I really missed my window to squeeze the most out of my potential. Don't get me wrong, I think I can still retire with some decent pr's, but I will always wonder what might have been.

Evil Man wrote:

I don't know what Divison 1 team would turn down a 16:09 guy.

LOL

In response to the OP, it doesnt sound like you did a lot of training in hs. you may have a shot at your current DI school. based on the info you gave, you have a lot of potential. try building up a decent base, maybe 60 mpw. try talking to the coach if you can. if the coach is impossible to reach or flat out says no without seeing your actual potential, then you dont want to run in that program anyway