Bottom-tier DI runners, do you wish you'd gone DIII?

well yeah, because pete carroll (swat coach) is hot garbage who can't develop talent.

In hs, I was decent at xc - mid 15:xx and 1:57 for the 800m in track. Although I was smart and got offers from a lot of great d3 liberal arts schools, the only two criteria I had for choosing a college were cost and how goo the school was at running.

Walked on to a top 5 xc school, got pwnt, had a crisis of identity (running my life and I was getting obliterated all the time), developed a self-destructive drinking problem, and ultimately quit. Fast forward a couple years, I graduated law school, am into running again as a hobby, and am enjoying a better, more well-balanced life.

My advice to you is figure out your place in the world, work to achieve it, and allow running to play the part it should. I wish I would have either quit sooner, or gone somewhere more my speed.

a bro! wrote:

I ran 3:51 in the 1500m my senior year and I am pretty sure that gets you into D3 nationals.

You needed to run 3:49 or better to run at NCAAs this year. Maybe 1 guy was a hair over 3:50. Top time was 3:43.

Yeah, my DIII team did our laundry for us. Just like someone else said on here, it was a mesh bag that you would toss your stuff in. I used it once as a frosh and never used it again.

not a big deal wrote:

I went DIII and also had my laundry done for me. This is not a big deal at all.

We also got free shoes and gear. And beat the majority of the DI schools we competed against.

Don't act like you're a big shot just because you ran DI

Lol. I'm sure you beat all those D1 schools. Sounds like you have a small penis complex or something.

I walked on at an elite D1 program and have no regrets, though I was never top 7. My choice of school was completely independent of running. I was fortunate to have a coach who knew when to pull me out of workouts and great teammates who made the entire experience worthwhile themselves. I learned a tremendous amount and consider it a privilege to have run with others who went on to do amazing things.

Most likely I would have developed better as a runner in a different scenario, training and competing with runners closer to my level of talent. That said, I wouldn't trade my experience.

a bro! wrote:

I ran 3:51 in the 1500m my senior year and I am pretty sure that gets you into D3 nationals.

I'm not sure that's the case, I don't think D3 competition is quite as soft as D1 guys tend to think it is. The top D3 teams have at least a couple guys in the low-mid 14s so you would definitely have had guys to push you on tempos there too.

Big Fish in a Little Bond wrote:

Forget about academics or school location or scholarship money or anything like that.

I'm talking to bottom-tier DI runners (never made your conference XC roster, never scored at conference track, etc.), do you wish you had gone DIII?

Instead of being a little fish in a big pond, you'd have been a big fish in a little pond. Knowing how your career played out, do you wish you had gone to a DIII school, where you would have probably been competing at the NCAA Championships, winning races, and potentially setting school records and such?

I've hesitated chiming in because I'm not a bottom-tier D1 runner. But, your question piqued my interest because I almost didn't run in college at all. My HS track times sucked until I popped off a couple of really good spring track times as a HS senior.

To put this in perspective, my 3200 PR was about 9:50 as a junior. By Feb/March of my senior year, I had been admitted to several really good schools (top 25 in the country) via early action. So, I was thinking that I'm going to one of these schools and I'm not running.

I had passed on some excellent D3 opportunities (Wash U, Haverford, CMU and Hopkins).

But then, I ran some very good times in March/April and immediately contacted coaches and was basically told that I could walk on to two very good to elite D1 programs. So I walked on a team in a power 5 conference.

Got my arse kicked as a Freshman. I was a low mileage guy. I had to adjust to a significant increase in mileage (think 20 - 40 mpw to 85 - 100 mpw) and intensity (we were doing 4 mile tempos faster than my HS 5K PR pace).

But, by Soph year, I adjusted. My 5K indoor PR would put me in the top 4 in D3. I scored in every XC meet last year and almost made All Region in a very competitive region.

So, I'm saying this not to brag but to make a point. You really do get challenged in D1. I'm pretty sure that if I went to a Wash U (who has an amazing coach and progam, by the way) I wouldn't be one of the best D3 runners in the country by my Soph year.

The reason I ran that fast is because I had faster teammates pulling me along every day (the vast majority of my teammates were national caliber HS runners). And because the expectations were very high.

So, if you're on the bubble between D1 and D3, keep that in mind.

Also, I would say that D1 is pretty cut throat. You either perform or you don't. There's not a lot of coddling. It's very, very competitive. You need to understand that going in. I thrive on it, but some people don't.

Finally, I have a hard major and I run, so my personal life has suffered. Again, I'm OK with that. I've had some great experiences travelling with the team and competing against some sick athletes. But, if I was D3, I think I'd have a better balance between academics, athletics and social pursuits.

But, in the end, I'm very glad I went D1.