How can D3 athletes feel successful knowing D1 exists?

Former D3. Beat plenty of D1 runners, on the track and cross country. Got beat by plenty of D3 runners. yeah yeah, my D3 AA effort wouldn't have gotten me past a regional meet at D1, but I think most runners in regions with one or two open meets a season know where they stand in the larger scheme of things.

If who you are is defined by your 5k time or place in conference... Yeah it will be hard to feel successful. But isn't the same is true for D1 runners? There is always someone better.

I don't know.

Why don't you ask Nick Symmonds

Why does everyone keep saying Nick Symmonds? Ok so they feel successful if they are the exception? Is that the implication?

I was able to go the school I wanted to for career reasons. It happened to be a D3 state school. Ran 8:42 3k Steeple and 13:52 5k, and 3:50 1500m. Was able to run in all 9 out of 12 of my national meets and graduate on time with a respectable GPA. I do not think my life would change at all if I went to a D1 school that I wasn't going to be offered a scholarship. worked well for me.

Virtual reality wrote:

How can D3 athletes feel successful knowing D1 exists? 1/31/2018 1:39PM

How can D1 athletes feel successful knowing Kenyan teenagers exist?

Because some people go to college to get an education, and a lot of people want a small school environment. If they enjoy running, or football, or soccer, or swimming, they might want to join the school's team.

Almost nobody from the US has a successful professional running career, so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to make that the primary reason for choosing a college.

D3 athletes generally don't pay much attention to D1 so I guess that they feel pretty successful. I understand the question posed though. D1 athletes are clearly a step above D3. The top all-time 5k times in D1 are in the range of 13-13:15 while the all-time D3 guys were in the range of 13:50-14:00. Athletes like Nick Symmonds were successful in D3 and went on to be even more successful after college. He had to improve in order to compete with the better Americans which he did by improving 3 seconds after college.

By beating DI athletes in a big meet

I ran on a D3 XC team that got to the podium at nattys a few times. We regularly stomped the DI boys across town, and we held our own against DI teams when we went to places like Stanford and Cowboy Jamboree. So it wasn't hard.

You didn't hold your own. That insinuates that you were not far behind Stanford or Ok State when your number 1 didn't beat their number 7 guys.

Being a big fish in a small pond can bring a great deal of satisfaction to many people. Please don't try to insinuate that D3 is anywhere as near as good as D1 though. There are currently 75 guys in D1 at 4:07 or better. There are 2 in D3.

d3 state schooler wrote:

I was able to go the school I wanted to for career reasons. It happened to be a D3 state school. Ran 8:42 3k Steeple and 13:52 5k, and 3:50 1500m. Was able to run in all 9 out of 12 of my national meets and graduate on time with a respectable GPA. I do not think my life would change at all if I went to a D1 school that I wasn't going to be offered a scholarship. worked well for me.

Here's the all-time best steeple times in DIII:

8:39.80 Jim Gathje St. John’s 1985

8:43.78 Peter Kosgei Hamilton 2008

8:45.77 Michael LeDuc Connecticut 2014

8:46.32 Dawson Miller UW-Whitewater 2015

8:48.33 Gordon Innes Humboldt State 1977

8:48.60 Pat Weiler Aquinas 1977

8:50.49 Jeff Hyman St. Thomas 1986

8:50.66 Jack Davies Middlebury 2013

8:50.70 David Patterson Tufts 2001

8:51.01 Nick Kramer Calvin 2012

Here's the all-time top Outdoor 5K times in DIII:

13:50.0 Dan Henderson Wheaton (IL) 1978

13:53.2 Dale Kramer Carleton 1977

13:56.76 Ian LaMere UW-Platteville 2016

13:57.02 Tim Nelson UW-Stout 2012

13:57.0 Arnie Schraeder UW-Stevens Point 1986

13:59.21 Jordan Schilit Haverford 2012

14:00.53 Ryan Bak Trinity (CT) 2003

14:00.63 Dan Mayer North Central 1994

14:01.62 Chris Stadler Haverford 2014

14:04.90 Seamus McElligott Haverford 1991

Here's the all-time Indoor 5K times in DIII:

13:53.17 Dan Mayer North Central 1994 NCAA Championships (1)

13:54.88 Ian LaMere UW-Platteville 2017 Iowa State Classic

14:06.73 John Crain North Central 2014 NCAA Championships (1)

14:06.6 Mark Beeman Brandeis 1985

14:07.14 William Kaul UW-Oshkosh 2009 ISU Classic

14:07.69 Seamus McElligott Haverford 1991 Terrier Classic

14:10.30 Michael Schmidt Middlebury 2012 Terrier Classic

14:10.99 Ben Sathre St. Thomas 2012 Iowa State Classic

14:11.49 Bijan Mazaheri Williams 2016 Valentine Invitational

14:11.54 Gary Wasserman Nebraska Wesleyan 1993 NCAA Championships (1)

Based on your PR's, you should be on the steeple and on one of the 5k lists, but as you can see, not a single top 10 steeplechaser appears on either the indoor or outdoor 5k lists.

Well done on the fact checking!

I guess some D3 guys exaggerate their accomplishments in order to feel successful.

As do 99% of letsrun users. By that logic, 99% of letsrun users are/were D3 athletes. See the problem with making broad assumptions?

Hilarious

Goals are goals you dumb !@#$%

I'll name a dozen d3 runners who could beat you. No one who's actually fast would need to go on LR and give d3 runners crap. $100 bucks says you're trash.