do people really think the south (mainly Florida) can't produce good runners?

floridian*

I also failed to mention about some college...oh yea FSU, they finished pretty well this year at NCAA's...2nd I believe, ahead of Oregon, stanford, Wisconsin, name any college except OK state and they have you beat.

Florida has produced many quality runners. The quality of their letsrun posters is another thing entirely.

Whats wrong with my post? you seem to agree with it...

Okay, first of all, Florida is NOT the South. I don't care where it is located on the map... it is NOT the South.

tyui...your and idiot wrote:

I also failed to mention about some college...oh yea FSU, they finished pretty well this year at NCAA's...2nd I believe, ahead of Oregon, stanford, Wisconsin, name any college except OK state and they have you beat.

Getting a bunch of foreigners to go to some school in the shithole that is Florida and then having them run well in one race doesn't really say much for the entire state.

Hey Idiots wrote:

Okay, first of all, Florida is NOT the South. I don't care where it is located on the map... it is NOT the South.

Yes it is.

An Historian wrote:

Yes it is.

No, it is not.

Another Vote wrote:

An Historian wrote:

Yes it is.

No, it is not.

As a native Floridian I will chime in on this.

Florida is an odd mish-mash of Old South meets Northeast meets South America meets the Carribbean.

Almost anything above Orlando or around Lake Okeechobee is very much still the South proper. Farms, ranches, conservative values, lots o' rednecks and confederate battle flags. I have personally seen a sign in Cross City very prominently posted on Hwy 98 entering town from the north that read "N***ERS LEAVE NOW!" That sign stayed there for over two months based on the two times I saw it. This is not something you expect from "Florida" if your impression of the state is based on Orlando, Miami, or Tampa. But northern Florida is very much just like Georgia and Alabama.

The panhandle is known for its beaches and resorts, but go inland just 15-20 miles and it becomes very obvious you're just south of Georgia or Alabama. The accent over in the panhandle is even the Gulf South accent.

The coasts are generally much more modern places and offer a wide variety of people. Even Jacksonville, my hometown and a very traditionally southern city, is changing rapidly in demographics and socioeconomic structure. Orlando, the Tampa area, Naples and of course the entire West Palm Beach-to-Miami stretch of SE Florida is a highly mixed collection of urban areas full of people from all over the world. Just like any big city really.

Voting-wise, I can go county by county and tell you how each will vote. Big cities = blue (with the possible exception of Jax, because it's fairly well balanced there), small towns and rural area = red. Pretty simple really.

So, is Florida the South or not? Depends on where you are in the state.

I think the main reason that people think Florida can't produce good distance runners is because the state is so flat. A killer hill to us in Florida would probably not be worth mentioning in other parts of the country, and so it seems like Floridians are unable to handle tough cross country courses. I noticed in the dyestat (I think) pre race athlete descriptions, the Florida (and the South runners, except for Ahmed Bile) runners were pretty much discounted, despite the fact that Clark won the South region in a race in north carolina (not exactly a flat old Jacksonville). And Clark and Pickering both made top ten.

I guess I just had to speak up for my state or something...GO FLORIDA!

Jenny Barringer (Simpson) is from Florida

An Historian wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_South

Hey dumb ass, it has nothing to do with the map. There are more yankees in Florida than Southerners. It is new new jersey.

It sure ain't the south.

tyui...your and idiot wrote:

I also failed to mention about some college...oh yea FSU, they finished pretty well this year at NCAA's...2nd I believe, ahead of Oregon, stanford, Wisconsin, name any college except OK state and they have you beat.

Florida State has very few americans on its team, let alone natice floridians.

hi, it's me.

While I already gave sort of an apology on the other thread, and I can see that this thread is quickly heading off in the direction of race relations/confederacy, here's a simple fact that sounds damning to me.

In all the years of NCAA D1 XC, this year is the ONLY year a school with the word 'Florida' in its name finished in the top 3.

( I used the IE search function for "Florida" - could have missed something that way)

The only year. So maybe we should dismiss 2010 as a fluke and go with 60+ yrs of history - Florida has been a wasteland for collegiate distance running.

Arkansas sure has done well tho - is that place hilly or something?

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/special-articles/398

sorry - should have said 'top 2' instead of 'top 3'

And its me...the original poster, I was more saying how no one gives enough credit to the highschool kids from my state. Although I was refering the University of Florida to back up my point, saying how they landed two of the top distance runners in the country the last two years, my original point is that the highschool kids here dont get enough credit, and how the rest of the country thinks we dont have much talent because of our lack of hills and or altitude.

Having lived in Florida for 5 years now (after moving from the much hillier midwest) I think this state has its training speedbumps. Florida runners (h.s. or otherwise) may not garnish the strength from hill running like many other places, but remember how ridiculously hot it gets here in the summer with nasty humidity. I barely survived my first two summers, which isn't to say much but it may result in some form of attrition for kids who could be great but don't find a way to stick it out.

Honestly though, if I was talking to someone of Lukas's caliber about choosing a college where training was important, I would not point to UF or FSU. I support both programs and was stoked when FSU got second last month, but Florida is just not the place to spend 48 months trying to be one of the best runners in the world. especially compared to other places mentioned.

betty joe springs, keith brantley, herb willls, larry greene were from there, jack bachelor, jeff galloway, marty liquori, frank shorter and more trained there, a mostly older russian female group trained there, including one lady, i think her name is tatyana pozdnyakova who has tons of age records about 2:30 at age 50.