What does my mile time need to be for cross country?

8:45-9:00 is not too slow, in fact, it's likely some others will be slower. Initial ability is not critical, just a plus, as training has remarkable effects, if done consistently. A coach can work with a 9:00 miler.

If you wanted to run some till the season starts, just use your 9 minute per mile pace as a guide and run four and a half minute half miles when you have a chance once or twice a day. Then, when it's easy do a little faster, such as 4:15, till that becomes easy, etc.

I remember the summer before high school. I used to run places for practical reasons, to see friends, to get home by a certain time when out, to get chores done my parents gave me. I even ran my paper route, which I had walked before that. When I knew I was going out for cross country, I made a route in my neighborhood that I could run with some effort, in four minutes. I would run it several times per week, in addition to other running. Before long, 3:30 was as easy as 4:00 had been before that.

Good luck.

Thanks :) Your information was really helpful.

Yup what the first guy said is pretty much spot on and definitely don't let yourself miss out on the best sport there is just because you don't think you're good enough

For you, and for other prospective runners who may be considering the sport, the postings here are often from unusually good runners, or discussions of famous runners' careers or training. The experience of becoming a freshman high school runner is much like many other things that happened in elementary school along the way starting in first grade. You show up. You try. You get better, learning to read, learning math, etc. Running makes you faster, just as going to school helped turn you into someone who could read and do math. Those who train consistently get faster and faster in comparison to those who don't train, regardless of where they start.

I know a recurring large school state championship team very well, that some years are among the nation's best teams, in which at least two of their top five runners each year were just another kid way back in the early practices freshman year. You get better day by day, week by week. Mid-August of Freshman year to mid October of Junior year is 26 months. Runners who train conistently those 26 months are very good by then, maybe not stars, but strong contributors to their teams.

Cross country scoring is done by adding the places of the team's top five runners together in a meet, for a total, which is the team score. The lowest team score wins, second lowest comes in second, etc. Since the highest number to be added to any team's score is that that of the fifth place runner, that runner is very important to the team's overall place, so is the fourth runner. If your runners come in 4, 14, 24, 80 and 120, your team score is 242, and likely pretty far down in the standings. If your runners come in 4, 14, 24, 28, 31, your team score is 101 and your team is pretty good.

Coaches are always looking for improvements in the team score, which are more easily found for the fourth and fifth runners than the first. This team's best runner can only move up from 4th to 1st, three places, but a runner in 120th has lots more room to move up places. So does every runner behind that fifth runner on the team. It might take till Sophomore year, or Junior year, but steady training gets you to that #5 position, then moving up places, and helping your team by finishing closer and closer to your #4, #3, #2 and #1 runners.

It's an excellent team sport. Most teams train together most every day and whatever pace you show up running will be the pace you ran yesterday, not next week, after a week's worth of workouts, then a month's. Training transforms ordinary people into runners. It's was one of the most fun and rewarding things I ever did. Years later I still remember the first time I broke away from our #5 runner and became the new fifth runner, and lowered our team score and helped us move up in the team standings. It felt like I won the race for the team. Of course, then I started chasing #4 and so on. I never became a star, but from that day on always was in the top 5 somewhere, and helped our team improve. It's like getting a hit in baseball, or making shots in basketball. You really feel as though you are helping your team win. Before that point, you are getting in shape so you can help the team win. It's the rare person who gets there the first cross country season, but 14 or 26 months later, you are a real runner and have long since been a part of the team, as you get closer and closer to being the #5 runner. For most freshmen, that's the goal, getting in shape in 14 months.

Some really good responses. Just stay positive and put in the work. It might suck at first but over time you'll improve and be happy that you stuck with it. Good luck.