Should I run in College?

I had a similar situation out of High School, and luckily for me, I was completely ignorant of my suckiness. My times were far worse than yours:

1600-5:02

3200-10:12

5k-17's (Maybe Low)

However, I was certain I could make the team. I ended up heading to a good Pac-10 program thinking I could compete. Luckily, I got sidetracked and ended up competing with the Triathlon team my first year. I met a former Arkansas D1 runner who coached me the first year. I walked onto the XC team my Sophmore year and got my ass handed to me day in and day out. I kept it up, every day certain I would be cut.

That Track season I went sub 9:05 in the Steeple and went to Pac-10s. At the end of my career I had been to XC Nationals, two top 10 Pac-10 XC finishes, multiple sub 9 Steeples and a couple trips to Track Regionals. This was in addition to a Biochemistry major and on a full NROTC scholarship. Oh, and I really do not enjoy running, it was just a way to compete at something that didn't require hand-eye coordination.

If you want to do it, don't sit around telling people to do it. Sack it up and go for it. It will suck at times, but it is worth it. And if you join a Frat, congratulations, you just traded some fake friends for slower times.

Cheers.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

If you do rowing you will definitely gain 15 pounds. But, even worse it will all be muscle and you will no longer be a skinny little annoying twat of a runner

I disagree - I started (lightweight) rowing at 5-11, 140 lbs and finished my fourth year of rowing at 5-11, 142 lbs, weighing in at 137. One other guy was a runner and didn't gain anything either.

Distance runners make natural lightweights -your aerobic fitness will stun the coach and your teammates. They will be in awe, literally. At least for the first year. While they struggle to get fit, you can work on technique and get way way ahead of the curve.

And if you are in the light 140-150 weight range, your teammates will love to have you in the boat so they don't have to lose as much weight.

Of course, if there is no lightweight crew at your school, you haven't a chance.

The people saying "if you're not sure about it now then you should just give up" are stupid. Plain and simple.

Every athlete has times where they question whether they still want to be out there, I have had more workouts than I can remember that I contemplated walking off the track mid-interval and never coming back again.

If you think you want to run at all then give it a shot. It's much easier to decide that your other priorities are more important and go focus on those than it is to decide that you miss the competition and the training and try to get on the team as a soph or junior.

Another thing you may not realize is how much you will miss the competition, you said that you're not going to give up running, just competing, but do you understand what that fully entails? Are you just going to go out and run an easy 10 every day? Are you going to do workouts and intervals even though you're not peaking for anything? Once that happens how will you keep yourself running 6/7 days a week when you know it's not really that important?

There is nothing wrong with that, I just know that I wouldn't be able to do it. When I finish competing I'm going to go buy myself a bike and ride that and run sporadically. I train for the competitions and don't know exactly how the transition to post competitive running will go. Just take that into consideration, because if that happens to you then it will be infinitely more difficult to get back to training if you decide you want to.

I ran similar times in high school. I didn't even consider running in college. I felt a little burt out on competition and running and coaches, and I just wanted to have fun and party. I had a wonderful college experience and never once regreted the choice. Sometimes I'd ride past the track and think about how much things would be different if I was running, but I was having way too much fun.

Now 15 years later I sometimes wonder what it would have been like, but I still don't regret it.

The great thing about endurance sports is you can still compete in big events when you are older. It's not like team sports where you really need the organization that usually ends after college.

Don't run; just have fun!

I stand corrected, he will be a skinny little annoying twat of a rower. If he starts asking his usual questions though, the big lads might shove him in the water

This is the best answer. If after another year or two of high level training you are not a sub 4:20/14:45/31:00 guy you will know you didn't have the talent level to run DI competitively. Either way pick your school based on major and other stuff not running.

hippy wrote:

i'd suggest committing to it the first year - both xc and track. if you find that it's too much at the end of your freshman year, don't continue. but give it the whole year. the first year of college can be tough so give it time to adjust.

Go and try it. Your freshman and even sophomore years will be awkward anyway, so keep things simple and don't bite off more than you can chew. If you don't at least try college sports for a year, you'll regret it. Take few credits, don't get caught up with freedom and partying, keep your head screwed on, do the workouts, and you'll be fine.

Intramurals are overrated. You have the rest of your life to join club teams. Don't pass a chance to run D1 because you think crew might be cool.

Every half smart kid in HS is going to be an engineer. Don't get pigeon-holed in your academics, but don't take useless classes either. Take the basic core courses that will apply to engineering and any science major, but don't get crushed if you change career goals after a year or two.

Frats... why? You've already acknowledged that you don't have a huge social circle outside of your running friends, so why pay to hang with a bunch of preppy wanna-be alcoholics? You'll pull plenty of tail and have much cooler friends as a D1 athlete.

I ran similar times in high school, a tad slower, and I was on the brink of running or not. I ended up running for an NAIA school that has a very talented and dedicated team, and now I can't imagine not running now. I'm also a Bio major so it's no walk in the park. Like some others said, you may not contribute the way you would like to the first couple years, but stick with it and your time will come.

Yes. I was a walk-on at my DIII school and running instantly put me into a great social group. While other friends and acquaintances have come and gone, the men and women that I ran with will be my life-long friends. Of course this depends on the team that you join. If I were you, I'd sign up and give it 100%. If you find out later that you hate it or that your teammates are a bunch of imbeciles then you can always quit.

Yes you definitely should. Collegiate running only takes up 4-5 years of your life. Most people never get the chance to run in college...so you should DEFINITELY take advantage of it.

It can be stressful and time consuming but I promise you, it will be totally worth it in the end.

You high school prs:

800 1:59 (Junior Year)

1600 4:28 (Junior Year)

3200 9:54 (Junior Year)

5K XC: 16:11 (Senior Year)

My high school prs

800 - 2:02

1600 - 4:21

3200 - 9:29

5k xc - 16:07

My College prs:

mile -4:13 (i)

3k - 8:06

5k - 14:07

10k - 28:54

Point is that you can improve from modest prs to being competitive at the NCAA national level. As for the engineering... that might be more difficult. There are a lot of demands on an engineering student and an athlete. My best advice is to run on the team for your frosh year and see how things are going. If school and running seems to be too much of a stress cut the running. Good luck in whatever you choose.

yeah, running in college is sweet, but i'm at a d iii school which i bet is really different. Have you thought about a smaller school? If money's an issue some of them have awesome financial aid offices.

Run! Running in college is so much more fun than running in HS. If you have ANY talent you can go to most HS meets knowing you are only racing a handful of guys, in college it's a different world.

I also enjoyed the fact that in our sport even if you are at a small div 1 school you can still compete vs the top athletes.

Also you are at your physical best, this is a time to lay it down.

I never look back on my college running and wish I'd gone to "just one more frat party" instead.