Moving for Daughter's Oppurtunities

So you want to uproot your whole family, because your daughter may or may not become a pro runner. How does she even view running? Does she want to be a runner? Is it her dream or daddies? You only talk about yourself and your feelings and not your daughter's.

She should continue running just for the college scholarships and decide for herself if running is really all that important to her.

Maybe take her to some bigger 5k,10k, half, marathon races so she can lose if you're so worried about her competitive spirit.

"She's fairly against this idea"

Everything else is fluff. Don't move to Cali.

This seems fairly cut and dried from my perspective. YOU are the father, YOU make the rules. You should not be concerned with what your daughter 'wants', it is all about what YOU want (I repeat, YOU are the father). I highly support you packing up your 4 children and moving to a more competitive area. YOU must chase YOUR dreams so don't let this little princess stand in the way of your parental glory. Who cares if she likes her current environment, or even is she likes running. YOU must live vicariously through your child and soak up your well earned praise/athletic glory.

Most runners like to win rather than get beat. Off 5:15 you are both in for a shock

Even if that was not the case i would not move

I can't tell if this is serious or not.

In any event, why don't you try taking a couple of trips to race in more competitive meets? Running isn't like team sports, where you need to be up against top competition all the time. Fly out to Cali for a weekend. Run in an open collegiate meet if you have to.

High school girls with a lot of god given running talent run 5:15 on a fraction of that mileage. Your daughter is better than average and may get herself a scholarship, but only an idiot would move his family for that possibility.

"We live in a small community, in a mostly rural state in the south."

Can you explain how/why you live there in the first place?

No way would I move. Just keep running fun and interesting for her at this point. Note to yourself and to her - Allie O's family didn't move from Alaska even though she was winning state titles as a freshman (with quicker times).

Sounds like she will need to train with the boys which is reasonably common for HS females too fast for their teammates. She needs to break 5:00, and really needs to be low 4:50s by her junior year to get on D1 radars. She can also get on D1 radars by doing well at NXN and FL regionals in XC.

Can't she find good competition at state-wide meets? If not, or if that is not enough, then find some high quality 5Ks within a reasonable drive to focus on. Could also sign her up for USATF races this summer. If she eventually puts up good times she will get noticed - no worries!

Good luck!

Given what we have seen with talented HS runners over the years, I'd suggest letting her be bored until she gets to college. If she really loves the sport, she will stick with it and she will likely be more successful in the long run. When I was 20, it would have really sucked to be chasing my PRs from HS cause i'd already peaked.

do NOT move wrote:Sounds like she will need to train with the boys which is reasonably common for HS females too fast for their teammates. She needs to break 5:00, and really needs to be low 4:50s by her junior year to get on D1 radars. She can also get on D1 radars by doing well at NXN and FL regionals in XC.

I will never understand these sorts of posts.... No, you do NOT need to run low 4:50s by junior year to get on D1 radars.... You need to run low 4:50s by junior year to get on the radar of top notch programs in D1, but the VAST MAJORITY would love to get a girl running 5:00-5:05. She might not be the best freshman coming in that year but very few D1 schools would pass up on grabbing someone like that, especially if they came from an area that wasn't very fast.

dad

I, like you am a dad of 2 fast girls.

This June we are taking 2 short road trips in search of faster fields (2-3 hour drive)

time for these kids to see how badass they are or are not and to see if they still love racing when they don't win.

tough love before a move my friend.

but also don't waste talent.

balance is key.

my girls are bored with running with Daddy

That's Great! Thanks for posting!

95% chance a troll post but don't uproot your family unless you hate your job or living situation. Some good advice here like training w/the boys, traveling out of the region to compete, or running longer, atypical high school races.

70 mpw is a lot by the way. What is her upside really? She going to be running 90 by senior year? You will most likely be disappointed. Get her swimming to mix it up a bit.

If you have a good reason for living where you do to start with and your daughter doesn't want to move, her running is not a reason to change anything.

Now, if you don't have a good reason to live where you do and intend to move anyway, I certainly would ask around on here before I moved into just any HS...

Ok, if this is a troll thread, then 10/10, because I'm going to answer as if this is real.

1) Do NOT have your daughter swim as was suggested. Only do that if she is working through an injury. Swimming only makes you better at swimming.

2) 5:15 is not even close to good enough to consider moving. I live in a very competitive state, and you can throw a rock and hit a 5:00 HS girl here these days. She may be the big fish in your small pond, but 5:15 is just good not great. Besides, with how accommodating her coach sounds, you can register her in some more competitive meets if you are willing to take her there. Do that.

As someone else mentioned, 70 MPW is a LOT especially for a HS girl. I would watch that...injury or burn out could happen. I'm not generally a fan of HS girls doing more than 60 MPW in HS, and that would be only in senior year if all other years went well with no injuries. F- 35, Soph - 45, J - 55, Senior - 60 -- that's how I would structure the big mileage weeks per HS year.

HS girls have a bigger chance of getting slower rather than faster. Stay put.

I would agree with those who have said to get her in some more competitive races in your region, such as USATF meets. Maybe she can qualify for regional/national USATF meets where she will certainly face some better competition.

Have you even seen results from different states???? 5:15 ain't S*** !!

Anything to get her out of the rural south. Not only will she have better running competition but she will also have better educational opportunities, both in HS and college.

You can also check out sites like Athletic.net to see how your daughters times compare. Does she run anything other than the 1600?