Why is Texas so Bad at NXN?

Unfortunately, we don't make the rules.

I mean, the girl's didn't even start running 5Ks until several years ago. Would you believe a state that didn't run 5Ks at the state meet actually had some surprisingly decent finished at NTN previously?

Not just that, but actually, it's only the biggest classifications (5A/6A) of girl's that run 5K.

2004 NY CO SD

2005 NY NY TX

2006 NY NY TX

2007 NY CA NY

2008 NY CA DE

2009 NY NY CO

2010 NY NY CA

2011 NY NY DE

2012 NY TX IND

2013 MN NY UT

2014 NY CA IND

2015 NY CA CA

2016 NY CA CA

2017 NY IL CO

2018 OR IL MN

2019 NY OR CO

NY 21

ca 8

co 4

tx 3

il 2

ind 2

de 2

or 2

mn 2

ut 1

sd 1

girls data

Texans love football and sprinting and BBQ. We don't care much for Kum Ba Ya soy eating girly distance runners.

A couple of things that hinder Texas runners

1) XC training between June-Sept (even into Oct) can be brutal due to weather

2) The major metro areas of DFW and Houston have limited "good" running spots. While there may be pockets of decent places to run, most HS teams are training on sidewalks/streets and in neighborhoods. Access to trails, dirt, and parks is very limited compared to say CA or CO.

3) As mentioned, the timing of the state meet is not ideal for a peak performance 3-4 weeks later.

4) IMO and most importantly, outside of say Carroll or Woodlands, most HS are more focused on track than XC.

Torchy Tacos wrote:

Texans love football and sprinting and BBQ. We don't care much for Kum Ba Ya soy eating girly distance runners.

This bears some truth. There simply isn't a culture for it in TX. Beyond any climate issue, TX has more in common with the deep South than with anywhere else. That means football is king, lots of fried food, not much family outdoor activity aside from hunting. Colorado has a lot of appropriated culture from CA because seemingly half the Front Range population is CA transplants. Football, etc. simply aren't that important in CO.

Trending wrote:

Texas has to deal with brutal heat and humidity all the way through September and October. While the rest of the country can do 8 mile tempos at a quality pace, Texans suffer through it.

How is it that Texas is the only state in the country that has heat and humidity?

Everything's bigger in Texas

hadnoclue wrote:

Trending wrote:

Texas has to deal with brutal heat and humidity all the way through September and October. While the rest of the country can do 8 mile tempos at a quality pace, Texans suffer through it.

How is it that Texas is the only state in the country that has heat and humidity?

What other states have it as bad in terms of humidity / heat?

*That are extremely competitive, in XC?

hadnoclue wrote:

Trending wrote:

Texas has to deal with brutal heat and humidity all the way through September and October. While the rest of the country can do 8 mile tempos at a quality pace, Texans suffer through it.

How is it that Texas is the only state in the country that has heat and humidity?

Do you see any other states at the top of the list from the south? It surely gets hot and humid in the summer in the midwest, northern midwest and northeast, but much shorter periods. It's not even close.

That makes perfect sense, given their population. California pretty much performs up to par, along with all the other big states, with the exception of Texas.

number of misery days is way less wrote:

hadnoclue wrote:

How is it that Texas is the only state in the country that has heat and humidity?

Do you see any other states at the top of the list from the south? It surely gets hot and humid in the summer in the midwest, northern midwest and northeast, but much shorter periods. It's not even close.

How many more days with a dew point over 70 does Texas have vs these other states in the Midwest and Northeast?

Hadnoclue wrote:

number of misery days is way less wrote:

Do you see any other states at the top of the list from the south? It surely gets hot and humid in the summer in the midwest, northern midwest and northeast, but much shorter periods. It's not even close.

How many more days with a dew point over 70 does Texas have vs these other states in the Midwest and Northeast?

Having lived in Hawaii I agree that high dewpoints are horrible for training. All things considered I think Texas does excellent.

So Texas boys just went 4 and 5 at Footlocker nationals.

It's quite apparent that NXN is just more difficult for Texas in general. All that mud, cold weather, and course difficult is just not Texas style.

No doubt in my mind Schoppe would have been up there with Methner.

So... wrote:

So Texas boys just went 4 and 5 at Footlocker nationals.

It's quite apparent that NXN is just more difficult for Texas in general. All that mud, cold weather, and course difficult is just not Texas style.

No doubt in my mind Schoppe would have been up there with Methner.

NXN had way more depth than FL on the boys side.

Maybe they are not used to running hilly courses?

Southlake Carroll underperformed today

Unfortunately Southlake Carroll’s entire boys team came down with the flu in between NXR and NXN. They were all still struggling to even run normal training paces last week, let alone race paces. Just crappy timing.

Oh and btw this is not the first time a tx team underperformed

I have seen that a lot

Eastwood bombed in 2018 and 2019

What happened to Jesuit La besides Desroches dropping out?

This post is two years old, but to clarify, the dew point in Houston is over 70 degrees 24 hours a day, every day for 5 to 6 months straight, from late spring to mid fall. This coming week is forecasted with dew points in the upper 60s all week.

Absolutely nothing in the midwest or northeast comes anywhere close to the humidity on the gulf coast.