My parents not letting me run in college

Just go to a public junior college. Pick one with a running team. Look at the team's performances, to make sure guys are running times in your range. (There are plenty of JCs for which this is true.)

A public JC won't be expensive. You'll get to run on the school's team. You'll find out whether you've become more mature about your schoolwork--if no, you'll only have used two years of your life and only two years' worth of relatively low tuition; if yes, you'll have many choices after you finish your AA.

I had a student who followed exactly this path. She was a screw-off in HS: 2.6 GPA. She went to a JC, got her act together, improved as a runner, and got a 3.8 (this was 30+ years ago, *before* the worst grade inflation). She then attended one of the country's top urban universities, ran on its team--and graduated with considerably less debt than many of her teammates who were there for four years.

xperirunner wrote:

Or you can go to community college and rebuild yourself. It’s a lot cheaper.

+1

You can still run open meets and open XC races.

Close your eyes and speak to the Lord, whatever He tells you, do.

Good luck!

#1 who in their right mind would give an 18:30 guy a scholarship, even NAIA, literally tens of thousands of high schoolers can do that.

#2 colleges can not make a formal offer of scholarship to juniors from my recollection. It's been over a decade since I was being recruited so if I'm mistaken, my bad. Unless that is only an NCAA rule.

jesseduplantas wrote:

Close your eyes and speak to the Lord, whatever He tells you, do.

Well, unless he tells you to invade Iraq. Don't do that--it won't turn out well. That one turns out to be wrong.

But maybe you'll get lucky and he'll tell you to use your brain--you know, the thing that differentiates you from other animals: Maybe to write down different considerations, maybe to try to prioritize things to give more weight to what's most important to you, maybe to ask your parents' or guidance counselor's thoughts, and so on.

go to a D1 state school that is cheaper, most likely much better in terms of academics and overall resources, and run club there

jesseduplantas wrote:

Close your eyes and speak to the Lord, whatever He tells you, do.

Good luck!

+1

Do this my child, and you shall become the next American to run 2:06 in the thon.

I also recommend the community college route. I was a 17:45 5k guy myself with a 3.2 GPA and I remember grappling with some of these questions myself when I was trying to pick a college 10+ years ago. As someone that really liked high school running I feel qualified to say that you will discover a good life beyond running if you give yourself a chance. The rational thing to do would be to quit competitive running after high school, focus on school, get a job so you can actually learn some skills, and start working on figuring out a good community college you can transfer to UT from.

You need to start thinking of things in terms of return on investment. Currently, your return on investment sucks.

I went to community college and then transferred to the state flagship university. I saved money, still went to a good college, graduated debt free, got a good job, and now I own a home. As someone else pointed out, don’t sacrifice what really matters in life to be a fake athlete for four years.

ExDegenerate wrote:

The rational thing to do would be to quit competitive running after high school

...

As someone else pointed out, don’t sacrifice what really matters in life to be a fake athlete for four years.

I disagree. Keep running and training hard as long as you enjoy it and have a realistic hope of setting PRs.

You won't be able to walk on if you're slow. But you still can train with some friends, with a running club, or on your own. As far as races go, you can either do road races or compete on the track in all-comers meets.

Lots of good advice so far. I'll chime in with my experiences and hindsight:

Only ran under 18' for 5k xc a few times senior year. I was generally a 17:30 guy.

Ran NAIA from 01-04 and did quite well, had zero scholarship at first and finished with half athletic scholarship. My tuition was much lower than it is today, and was paid by grandparents, parents and my personal summer and winter construction work.

Both my wife and I coached college athletic teams for several years, and have many friends who are top D-1 coaches in various sports from Softball to Track, to Baseball. One thing we all agree on is the astronomical debt that is occurring today, and the value of a good community college education.

Try your community college and look for one that has entry plans to the local state school or University (here in CA it's a CSU or UC). Also, your community college will offer WAAAY more classes that any NAIA school would. Try taking a screen printing class where you can make your own t-shirts or race singlets! Try taking a wood shop or welding class. Something different than English, History and Math. Try looking for a night job at Costco if you can, and earn some money and get real work experience.

Good luck man, and pump up the mileage and post-run strides!

ExDegenerate wrote:

As someone that really liked high school running I feel qualified to say that you will discover a good life beyond running if you give yourself a chance. The rational thing to do would be to quit competitive running after high school, focus on school, get a job so you can actually learn some skills, and start working on figuring out a good community college you can transfer to UT from.

You need to start thinking of things in terms of return on investment. Currently, your return on investment sucks.

I went to community college and then transferred to the state flagship university. I saved money, still went to a good college, graduated debt free, got a good job, and now I own a home. As someone else pointed out, don’t sacrifice what really matters in life to be a fake athlete for four years.

Being an avid runner and "discovering a good life beyond running" are not mutually exclusive. I ran in HS and competed unattached after that. Since I wasn't fast enough to walk onto my D1 school, I trained on my own in college, continued training after college graduation, and eventually ran my PR of 16:30 in the 5K at age 28.

Outside of running, I also have a 90K/year job, no debts besides mortgage debt, and even own a vacation home that I use or rent out. I've been to a dozen countries, 20+ states, and picked up quite a few non-running hobbies as well. The key to it is time management and staying single.

Ok people. Here's a list of NAIA XC Teams in Arkansas, and what their 1-5 average was around last year for an 8k as well as roster size

School1-5avgRoster size

Central Baptist 33.xx 7-8

Crowley's Ridge 33-34 barely 5

John Brown Low 27.xx 10-15 Had a guy run 26 flat at nats

Lyon College 32.xx 6

Philander Smith ??? barely 5 Had a guy run 27:15, however didn't consistently have 5 guys in races

Williams Baptist High 29.xx 8

So John Brown is respectable. Williams Baptist isn't good but they could be worse. At least they have some guys under 30 minutes.

The other programs? Hah. My garbage D3 team could run our 6-10 and still beat all of them (And we get absolutely hosed at regionals every year)

So I think it's very possible these schools would give money to an 18.xx high school kid, given that they fvcking blow.

To each their own, man. I enjoy running to an extent obviously because I wouldn’t be here otherwise, but I think you have to appreciate that this kid has his or her priorities out of whack with the back story they’ve provided. I think telling someone who is not that fast to keep at it cause they might run a 16:30 5k someday isn’t helpful considering what’s at stake.

If this person loves running as a hobby, great. I just like to offer up my experience going from a runner who loved the sport, but sucked before moving on and finding more enjoyment with other things while continuing to run with a more fitness minded approach. That might not be what this kid experiences, but that’s okay. I just know from my experience and from the experience of faster friends of mine I still hang with today (guys who ran 4:10 to 4:20 miles in high school) that we all were happy to leave our competitive running days behind.

your wife wrote:

Ok people. Here's a list of NAIA XC Teams in Arkansas, and what their 1-5 average was around last year for an 8k as well as roster size

School1-5avgRoster size

Central Baptist 33.xx 7-8

Crowley's Ridge 33-34 barely 5

John Brown Low 27.xx 10-15 Had a guy run 26 flat at nats

Lyon College 32.xx 6

Philander Smith ??? barely 5 Had a guy run 27:15, however didn't consistently have 5 guys in races

Williams Baptist High 29.xx 8

So John Brown is respectable. Williams Baptist isn't good but they could be worse. At least they have some guys under 30 minutes.

The other programs? Hah. My garbage D3 team could run our 6-10 and still beat all of them (And we get absolutely hosed at regionals every year)

So I think it's very possible these schools would give money to an 18.xx high school kid, given that they fvcking blow.

my d3 school could have beat all those teams. Maybe we'd have been challenged by John Brown and we were usually towards the back of our conference. I just assumed teams like that had no scholarship money to offer.

Anyways, it doesn't have to be either give up competitive running or not focus on a career/school. I worked 60+ hours a week for most of my 20s and still ran >100mpw. If you are happy with running 40 mpw, 0 miles per week, or 170 miles per week, thats up to you, but saying you can't run and work is false.

This is absolutely the best advice so far.

This summer carefully average 70 miles per week. With one tempo effort every week and a long run of at least 10 miles. Take some days off here and there. If you can drop two minutes youll get some better scholarships even in your senior year. I got some offers my senior year.

You need to look at what kind of job you will be working.

College XC isn't for you, and if your grade are crap then college itself might not be for you.

The world needs plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, IT professionals...

If you love running so much, focus on keeping your grades up and getting faster!!! I would consider reevaluating after next Fall when things are a little more tangible.

But, I think you are putting the cart in front of the horse a wee bit if you (as an 18:30 guy) are already making plans about where you want to attend, more specifically run, in college. You can improve exponentially in the next year so I'd just see how fast you can get in HS and see what happens! I'd try not to focus on on a "scholarship", in the end the $ is probably going to be minimal. No need to limit yourself and your choices.

If it helps to hear some anecdotal evidence....I ran 18:31 (XC) as a Junior and ended up 16:20 as a senior before heading off to D1 and having a solid career that I can proudly hang my hat on. Point is....when I ran 4:56 and 10:31 as a Junior in track, I never thought I'd end up where I did. I'm not saying you'll run D1 or have my experience but I am saying, get after it in training and in the classroom and figure it out next year. I think its too early to mental or physically commit to a University, even if a "scholarship" looks enticing!

And if you love running, get after it dude and see how fast you can get! D1, D2, D3, NAIA, Club.....who cares, you'll find a way to keep competing if its important to you.

If you can't walk on to schools you want to attend then work your tail off and give it a shot by listening to your coach, training like an animal and believing that what you want is possible!!!! I promise you'll be able to find a university that meshes what you want to study and your running. I'd just recommend keeping an open mind to all possibilities and focus on your remaining HS running career in the interim!

Best of luck!!!

+1 Junior/Community Colleges are also great for students for a new start for students with less than stellar high school grades and are very affordable.