Running in Medical School- Possibility and NCAA Rules

Martin Hehir

You can run unattached with no problem, you cannot run for a college team as it would lead to you missing class and they would kick you out.

Like a Cyclone wrote:

You can run unattached with no problem, you cannot run for a college team as it would lead to you missing class and they would kick you out.

Kick you out of med school for missing class? Hardly. I had classmates that I only saw during test block weeks. No one makes you go to lecture. Many like to learn on their own. To answer, it’d be possible to train; but I feel like your ability to have enough energy to cover all the materials that first year (microanatomy, neuroanatomy, anatomy, history of present illness, etc) would be compromised. If you’re ok with just getting by, that’s one thing; but if you’re trying for AOA, that’s an entirely different level of commitment.

You would be eligible, but I wouldn't advise it unless the track program is super laid back. You could definitely have time to train, but there's going to be schedule conflicts with exams, anatomy lab and practice/races. Med school will obviously win out on those every time - it's just a matter of whether or not the coach is okay with that.

Personally, I stopped training seriously and ran with friends casually. Replaced my practice time with study time. (quick 30 min run over lunch vs. 2-3 hour practice). Even though the USMLE is P/F I'd still go hard on studying, as this is the base of knowledge you're laying down for your career. I would also assume your grades are going to be a lot more important now.

Medschoolhopeful wrote:

I'm worried about time management. Are 75 mile weeks feasible with medical school curriculum?

Hard to predict. Some people can crush med school while basically treating it like a 9-5 job. Other people have to study every waking hour just to pass. You won't know where you fall on the spectrum until you have an exam or two under your belt, so it's tough to make a big time commitment upfront.

thisguy wrote:

You could definitely have time to train, but there's going to be schedule conflicts with exams, anatomy lab and practice/races.

My teammate became a doctor, and there is no way he would do it. We went to a good program in a great conference (i.e. we celebrated a 2nd place finish more than the team that beat us then finished top 2 at nationals). He could have beaten everyone at his prestigious med school, but no way he would have worried about going halfway across the country for a qualifier.

Either put med school off and get a master's, or give up on running. Seriously.

USMLEs are going P/F? How will residency spots be determined without scores?

thisguy wrote:

You would be eligible, but I wouldn't advise it unless the track program is super laid back. You could definitely have time to train, but there's going to be schedule conflicts with exams, anatomy lab and practice/races. Med school will obviously win out on those every time - it's just a matter of whether or not the coach is okay with that.

Personally, I stopped training seriously and ran with friends casually. Replaced my practice time with study time. (quick 30 min run over lunch vs. 2-3 hour practice). Even though the USMLE is P/F I'd still go hard on studying, as this is the base of knowledge you're laying down for your career. I would also assume your grades are going to be a lot more important now.

I didn't have to come to that decision since I didn't get accepted into medical school, until after I used up my track/x-c eligibility--guys on the team were asking me to train with them but hard to do when I had used up eligibility, and thus motivation to do training (and not racing) with team was less than my prior 4 years. That being said, I probably could have done it in my 1st year of med-i managed to have some good road races and keep in decent shape training on my own--but it was less pressure making it "2nd fiddle" to my studies/anatomy labs etc that you cannot skip out on for practice and I was pretty efficient with training time due to the classwork..I would not recommend it though after your 1st 2 years of med where you have hospital work and on-call rotations where the running really has to take a back-seat! Good luck!

Bob Kempainen did it in the early 90's...I think once he did his hospital work , he managed to get a year's leave of absence in order to qualify for the Olympic marathon team--amazing that he did it twice especially given a high-milage demands of the 'thon as opposed an 800/1500m runner (Roger Bannister who ran the 4 minute mile on very low milage-high quality work as a med student)

Find Erin Finn on Twitter or her blog and ask her as she's in medical school (and not running competitvely)

Current M2 here. I was very competitive in college and while I had exhausted my eligibility I wasn't quite ready to give up competitive running just yet. Trained for a marathon trials qualifier during M1 year and, after a very disappointing performance, realized that doing well in school and running at a high level was not going to be sustainable for me. Doing both was significantly more tiring than I had anticipated.

You will definitely have enough time for serious training during M1 and M2 years, but you will need to be very highly motivated and might need to forgo things like research, etc. Unless the school has a very flexible track program I would advise against joining the team if that were to be an option.