Should there be a distance race in high school track?

I don't think anyone realizes how much most high school athletes would despise a 5k on the track. That is a miserable, miserable event, and most of them already hate the 3200 and only do that if their coach makes them. Maybe the most serious 5% of runners would do it, but they still wouldn't like it.

Moreover, there is already an entire season of running nothing but 5ks. Some athletes would then have another season of only 5ks. That would make distance running, one of the most innately boring sports, even more boring as the athletes would have less variety.

Who gives a sh!t about getting ready for college? That is relevant for less than 1% of the athletes. Who cares about doing more aerobic training to get ready for later in life? Only a few people of the top athletes in the country need to worry about that, and they can take care of themselves. Most kids don't want their training to be even more long, slow, repetitive miles.

Furthermore, the 5k is extremely boring to watch, and with one 5k for each gender it could easily take 50 minutes to get it over with, boring all of the spectators.

Also, why does it matter that distance is less important to team scoring? By that logic should there be many more throws and jumps events, with all sorts of different implements and techniques? There are an equal number of individual sprint and distance individual events, three apiece. There are more sprint relays because: 1. They are way more exciting to watch, 2. They take up much less time, 3. On most high school teams, there are significantly more sprinters than distance runners.

Our state used to have a 4x1, 4x4, and 4x8 for the guys. Since the did not have girl pole vault, the girls also had a 4x2

When they added girls pole vault, they added boys 4x2. I hated that.

If any track event was added, I'd want a steeplechase. Maybe 2k with barrier regular season and 2k with water jump for championships. Most high schools don't have pits but enough colleges in each state do.

This guy gets it. Completely.

Nice post.

+1

True DAT!

The only people that'd want another whole season of 5ks are those too slow for track. There's a season called XC where you can do all the 5ks you want.

In the late 1990's my state still had the 5000 in dual meets and state meets. It was the first event. Seemed fine to me. They later replaced it with the 4x800.

I agree, I love distance running, but even I try to watch distance races on fast forward when given the chance.

Your gunna gain no extra benefit age 27 having trained for 5k age 17 , at that age it's much better to focus on 1500/3k get quick whilst you can then gradually move up. Avoiding burn out and injuries.

I think the 3200m is enough. There are already enough programs that probably run kids into the ground. Dual meets during the week and an invite on a weekend. Doubles and triples each meet 32/16/8. The 5k into the mix outside of a select few meets like now would be a disaster on all ends.

Focus on development and growth. 3200m and steeple types training as 5k runners. 1600. And 400/800. Get to know the athletes and help them grow, develop and enjoy it.

Everbody would hate it, and it would slow up everything. What a terrible idea.

Some states had the 5000 in dual meets up until about 1998

no tracck meet should ever have anything over 2 miles

probably not a great idea.

For most youth, 2 miles/3200 is a distance race.

5K on the track is 12.5 laps. There are concerns with counting laps properly and lapped runners, (I have been in collegiate races where they miscounted the laps...we expect high school officials to do better?).

It will take some HS runners a long time to finish. Some already take a long time to run 3200M. Will slow down the meet.

Very likely the same people that do well in track 3200M will do just as well in 5K on the track. A cross country 5K is very different than track 5K, Different surface; different terrain; different crowd and coach interaction; different exposure; different vibe.

The training for 3200 is just about the same as the training for 5K. Back in the 60's and 70's some states still ran 2 miles on the track and 2 miles XC. The top HS guys were running 70-90 miles a week then. That is distance running training.

Mid distance speed (1500-3200M) is the foundation for being successful at 5 and 10K. You are not going to be that successful in college at 5-10K unless you can crank out quick 1500-3200s. Easier to move up in distance than to move down.

I've always thought 3k/2M is the perfect distance race.

Drop the 200, 800, and 1600.

Race the 100, 400, and 3200.

u blade brah wrote:

Queen4DaDey wrote:

Do you think the guy that wins the 3200m wouldn't also win the 5000m?

In a lot of cases, no. Every year there are kids who crush it in XC, but don't have the same success in the 3200/3k. That extra 1.1 miles makes a big difference.

Track and Xc also two different beast, look at Reed brown for example

Gotta bee wrote:

u blade brah wrote:

In a lot of cases, no. Every year there are kids who crush it in XC, but don't have the same success in the 3200/3k. That extra 1.1 miles makes a big difference.

Track and Xc also two different beast, look at Reed brown for example

Track and xc are a different beast because high school kids are physically maturing at a rapid rate.

100 percent on the mark.

Sara Palin wrote:

If any track event was added, I'd want a steeplechase. Maybe 2k with barrier regular season and 2k with water jump for championships. Most high schools don't have pits but enough colleges in each state do.

Strongly disagree. Even the best high school runners of alltime are barely carrying enough speed to properly get over the barriers. Better for them to wait until they become better runners before the start the steeplechase. Besides, the number of coaches who actually understand the event are few and far between.

All high school track meets should have:

4x800

4x1600

4x3200

Distance medley

Marathon relay

5000

10000

5K racewalk

10K racewalk

These events would counteract the liberal bias of high school track meets. Small, poorer, and ahem "darker" schools can win state meets without the benefit of running camps, alter G treadmills, and TUEs. Never mind that the founding fathers of high school track field associations were mostly white. They could not have foreseen the changing demographics of America. The fact that they have not added more events is a liberal bias! Our slower, skinnier, and whiter children the chance to feel important twice a school year! I hate the fact a team like Long Beach Poly or Carson can simply win a state title because they have a few good sprinters. How many of those parents donate thousands of dollars a year to their ADs and drive Lexus hybrid? It makes me sick to my stomach that these schools can spend and run less yet outscore our harder working and more affluent children. Not fair!

My son, Connor, who was able to vote for Trump as a senior because we held him back a year in elementary school so he could have a competitive advantage, cried after the Arcadia meet because no girls wanted to add him on Snapchat or IG because he could only run a 9:19 3200m. He even sacrificed his spring break trip to Cabo to with his buddy Thurston to run in this meet! Do the kids from Carson forgo a chance to vacation at an all inclusive, exclusive, five star hotel to attend Arcadia? The unfair meet director would only allow him to run in the seeded race, not the invitational! Not nice! Meanwhile, a sprinter from one of those "bad schools" who only runs a 10.67 gets all the love from girls there. My son runs 70-90 mpw and has his own nutritionist yet this sprinter downs a double cheeseburger and Mountain Dew 10 mins after his race. I know this because I couldn't take my eyes off of him.

If Connor had the chance to run a 10K Arcadia, I'm sure he would be able to run in the invitational section because he can run all day long. He can't break 60 seconds in the 400 but one day he took my black AmEx card and ran off with his friends to Southcoast Plaza. He didn't come back for 8 hours! And he hardly broke a sweat! Can you believe that?

Please do what I've been doing. Call and write Fox/Breitbart News and complain how the liberal state athletics federations unfairly discriminate against slower, whiter, and more affluent runners in track and field. The CIF Championships are fake! Don't believe what you read in the news.

MTAFJAGACC

Make Track Field Just As Great As Cross Country!