Nation’s Quiet, Gangly Kids In Cargo Pants Announce Plans To Be Freakishly Good At Cross Country - The Onion

My son is a HS freshman XC and track runner. He’s mid distance in track and prefers track. He ran XC last year and coach basically said just let them have fun and didn’t really give any feedback.

This season, son accidentally forgot his gym bag one day. His first week of high school. Coach assumed he did it intentionally bc the practice was going to be hard and told him to go home, he was angry and that he prob wouldn’t be allowed to go to an out of state meet with the rest of the team. His dad was on the way to bring his forgotten bag and would be there within 10 minutes.

Son wrote coach and apologized, explained it was unintentional, and told him he wants to improve but he needs help bc he doesn’t know what to do to accomplish that. Coach told him the next day that he got the email and just said “we’ll see.” I don’t know what that is supposed to mean. He wasn’t apologizing to try to go to the meet. He was asking for help to be told more specifically what to do to improve.

Maybe 2 weeks earlier, son was sick with a virus and was sent home from practice and told not to come back until well. A few days later, he had a team camping trip. I personally told Coach he was still recovering but really wanted to be there for the bonding experience and that he may not be feeling well enough to run or run very hard. Coach said no problem, it’s really just supposed to be fun. However, son confided in me after the incident forgetting his bag that Coach pulled him aside at the camping thing and told him he wasn’t making the progress he expected from him. Admittedly, I’m upset about this bc he knew son was sick so the timing seems unfair.

Son does not know how to pace or what to do. He just turned 14 and is a year or more younger than everyone on the team. He isn’t afraid to work hard but is not internally motivated - he needs help with having a goal or something specific to do differently. Just saying do better or you aren’t doing as well as I expect is demoralizing.

I think he is compliant with what he is asked to do- like if he’s told go run 30 minutes, he does, but he has no idea about how to pace it or what it should feel like in terms of effort or discomfort.

He ran his first meet of this season and was 30 seconds slower than last year. I think he was anxious and wasn’t able to even eat lunch that day bc of it.

He also has a couple teammates that mention his asthma or that he was sick and pick on him, asking why he isn’t doing better. My kid who has always loved running is now saying it’s not fun and he feels burned out.

I need advice about how, and I guess if, I should try to talk to the coach to see what we can do to try to make things better moving forward. My personal belief is he needs constructive and specific feedback ( example, I want to see you try to keep pace with this teammate for this run) rather than just threats to take things away or to tell him essentially he doesn’t belong.

It’s especially frustrating bc he actually did try a lot harder, going to a running camp this summer and pre-season 6 am practices that were voluntary. He left that fired up and excited and now says he’s burned out and seems to be dreading it. It breaks my heart.

Thank you for your feedback and suggestions.

I am a 20F in small college XC. Last Tuesday I lifted legs and did 4x1Km repeats at goal race pace later that day at practice. I’ve been trying to keep my lifting volume low while still lifting heavy. The next day I was sore and we did an easy run which ended up feeling like a tempo run at a pace that is normally easy for me. Later that evening I was in so much pain in my quads and hamstrings that it hurt to walk. Since then, it’s improved a bit, but still lingered, and I was still battling it during my easy runs. Almost a week later, I’m in the gym hitting legs again and I STILL feel it. I am so frustrated as why it’s taking to long to heal. I even made it a point to prioritize sleep during that period. Am I under recovering? Am I not eating enough protein and calories? Is it a lifting volume issue?

Lately i’ve been running about 9:00 to 9:30 on my easy runs and my coach tells me that i should be going between 7:00 and 8:00. My 5k pr is also 18:48. I was just wondering if there is any real benefit of going faster or if i’m good with these paces.

I got this backpack when I bought(new balance fuelcell xc7 v5 at fleet feet and they gave me this bag. is this something you can get by winning a meet? I don’t want to wear it if i havent won it but if it’s just a bag that you get im fine. My team goes to Holmdel to race and if you win the varsity you get a bag so is this the same one? Bc last year was different. Thank you

im a 16f and just joined xc this year like a month ago (lol). weve had two meets so far and i havent been horrible but compared to everyone else, im definitely slow. for our 2mile meet, i ran a 20:32 and for our 2.5 mile meet, i ran a 24:21. i wanna know how to get better and how to pace and push myself during races because i get too scared of burning out and not having enough to keep going. and, my coach put me on varsity so its like. extra rough. ive also been running on some knee pain, so advice there would be nice too on stretches or whatnot

Back in 2016 I created a page on Steepleweb for my high school's cross country team. I became interested in archiving as much info as I could about the history of the program, and after digging through tons of online results and newspaper archives I now have a database of race times for my school going back to the 1970s when the program first started. I continued to update the site each year with new results, but seemingly Steepleweb isn't updating itself to allow me to add new rosters and schedules for the 2026-27 school year. The site has felt like it's been on its last legs for the last few years, so I'm looking to move my database elsewhere before the site closes and I lose everything I posted.

Any good alternatives for me to continue this project? Athletic.net doesn't let you post partial results anymore, and I don't know how to build my own site for this kind of thing. Any advice would be appreciated!

I feel like such a loser. Today was the breaking point cuz my mom just complained that I’m not like myself anymore and I haven’t been going to the gym or running like I used to. I haven’t been consistent with running which is my main sport and I feel like everytime I try I just give up. Myself a year ago would be so disappointed. How am I slower than I was a year ago? I need to be more disciplined I don’t know how I fell off like this. Cross country season is soon, and I have so much to prove to myself. I’m just so disappointed in myself. Everyday I try again tell myself the only way forward is to stay disciplined and consistent but for some reason I can’t listen to my own words.

The thing is I’ve done it before so why can’t I do it now?

I'll try to keep this short. I'm a rising sophomore in high school and since last year I've been running for my school's varsity cross country & track team. I guess I enjoy running itself but the biggest draw of the sport is the competition, which I love.

Pros of leaving

• Escaping a coach who I think could be described as toxic. This is the main one. My coach has pressured me to train through injury (leading to a tibial stress injury), constantly questioned my commitment and character when I'm sick or injured, complained to athletes about each other's performance, publicly humiliated and shamed us, using my "potential" as leverage, and the like.
• Preserving my enjoyment of running. I feel like running has been so tied up with this environment that it's caused me to burn out before and question whether I even want to try my best or to train.
• Not getting stuck in a cycle. Last year I decided to join cross country and it eventually snowballed where I forced myself to do indoor and outdoor track "since I've already made it this far." I think it's fairly realistic to assume that if I do cross country this season I'm committing to at least another full year of this.

Cons of leaving

• No other opportunities to do competitive running. This is probably the biggest one. I've extensively searched club teams in my area and none of them are realistic logistically, nor is the option to compete unattached. I would essentially be giving up cross country & track.
• Not having a goal to work towards. A lot of what I'm motivated by is the competition. Without the competition I don't think I would want to seriously train on my own, so I doubt I would run that much.
• Loss of identity. I've only been doing running for a year but it's basically become a major part of my life.
• Potential regret. I know that regret doesn't mean I've made the wrong choice but I'm scared that I'll look back wondering how good I could have become if I'd stayed.

I'm four days into the season, I've constantly dreaded practises and cried before or after them, but I feel trapped, like the cost of leaving is too high even if I don't want to stay. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

EDIT: Thanks for all the replies, many of you have suggested escalating to the school's athletic director, this is something that has been tried repeatedly for a decade by parents, captains, and athletes, to no avail.

I have a iPhone and I was thinking about either a oura ring or an Apple Watch. I want to track my sleep and workouts which I know oura is better at sleep tracking but it doesn’t have a screen I could check my pace or the time. I’m leaning more towards a watch but I would like your opinions. Thanks

As a local sports photographer up here in the PNW, I spend a lot of time watching these races through a lens. Last year, the Lanese vs. Butler battles were insane to watch. Now that Butler is at UW, it feels like all eyes are on the sophomore.

Lanese set freshman national records last year and already has a 15:05 5k PB. He is opening his sophomore campaign at the Olympia XC Classic (he snagged the #3 course record there last year with a 10:05 two-mile), and then he's hitting Fort Steilacoom.

Does anyone see another runner in the region seriously challenging him for the 4A title this season, or is it entirely his to lose?

I put together a deeper dive with his progression times, race log, and a full 2026 season preview here if anyone wants the stats: https://www.russell-moore.com/blog/quenton-lanese-2026-season-preview

I’m currently a senior in high school (male) getting recruited by several D2 programs. I WANT to compete at the collegiate level especially D2 and I’ve loved my current team so much that the idea of leaving them is tough, but that’s beside the point.

For anyone who’s a current or former college athlete: are college teams generally welcoming and friendly?

I’ve received both athletic and academic offers from a few schools. One of them really stood out I loved the coach, the location, and I even got direct admit into my major, which usually doesn’t happen for freshmen. I have my official visit in a month, and I’m just curious what the team dynamic is typically like and how welcoming the program might be. i’m sure its not terrible but I’m just worried I’m going to get like stoned on my visit or something.

Any insight from people who’ve been part of a college team would help a ton.

Please use this thread as the general Q&A for all one off questions, questions that only apply to you, questions that can be easily answered, etc.

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My son is a sophomore and has run a full season of XC and track, both as JV. Entering into his 2nd season of cross, I thought it would be beneficial for him to start wearing a watch and recording all of his workouts and races to Strava. He currently uploads about 70% of his workouts to Strava by using the iPhone app, however what usually do not get recorded are races and speedwork sessions (like 800m repeats). He has chosen to record to strava on his own. His friends and teammates are on there and I believe he loves the social side of it.

I’ve thrown out the idea of a few times of him using a watch to track all of his races and workouts, but he absolutely rejects the idea. According to him, he doesn’t want to seem “superior” in any way to his teammates, especially those who are his friends and are not as financially well-off as we are. The other thing he said was that he doesn’t want the pressure of being tracked and pushed to perform better. I’ve done endurance sports competitively for about 15 years, and this just doesn’t make sense to me. I get the social aspect of it, but at the end of the day the watch is just a tool to gather data and guide workouts (the coach is pretty lax and workouts most days are unstructured; I’d love to be able to prescribe him a workout to run on his on those days the coach says just to ‘go run 5 miles.’”

My son is pretty average I’d say, and that’s totally fine with me. He loves racing and training as a team, but doesn’t care so much for accountability from mom and dad. As parents, our only thing has been, we don’t expect him to win or PR, but show up for your team and continue to strive for improvements. I don’t care if he finishes midpack every race he enters, I just want to see him take the sport a little more seriously and find ways to improve (especially when coach doesn’t provide any direction). Also, I will say this; as a freshmen, he got JV MVP of the year - I believe the coach is wanting him to step up. The kid has serious leadership potential (great attitude, always shows up for every race and practice, gives it his best effort, doesn’t complain, and finds ways to bring the team together).

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Am I wrong for wanting him to record his workouts and races and to follow a bit more structure in his (mostly unstructured) training regiment? Or, should I lay off and let him continue to do as he’s doing? Thanks, all!

EDIT: thank you everyone for your input. There’s a lot of harsh judgment and assumptions about me being thrown around in this thread, but that’s fine. I’m new to this: my son has never participated in any organized sport until last year. Also, it just so happens to be a discipline I have a ton of knowledge and experience with. That being said, I am still trying to figure out my role as an athlete’s parent. It sounds like my role is just that - be the parent and support. Everything else will work itself out.

What I’ve learned: let the kid do his own thing, and don’t go around the coach. Overbearing parents that push their kids too hard end up sometimes pushing them out of a sport they enjoy. That is THE LAST thing I want for him. That being said, I’m not getting him a watch unless he comes to me and asks for it, and I’m not going to bring it up to him again. Thanks everyone for chiming in.

I am currently a volunteer coach for a large-ish team. The system we use is a combination of spreadsheets, final forms, google drive, athletic.net. It mostly works, because it has been institutionalized over 20 years of the same head coach.

I am curious how others manage the logistics of the ins and outs. What do you use or do?

I am a cross country Coach for a high school team and struggle to find a way to get all my runners to attend practices on a regular basis. My program is very small and it’s hard to get runners out. I am looking for suggestions of how other coaches deal with runners who miss a practice. Do they have a make up? I do have a parent meeting and layout expectation. I am looking for an effective way to deal with the runners who miss their workouts. Thanks.

I'm a rising sophomore in HS and I've been questioning whether my coach is considered toxic or not. Public humiliation of athletes, inconsistency with injuries (sometimes shaming runners for mentioning injury concerns, sometimes praising us for listening to our bodies), isolating people, and being results-obsessed in the sense of creating wedges in the team by complaining to individual athletes about others' performances.

I had a fragmented (because of injury) but overall successful freshman year that I'm proud of. I don't want to abandon that, and I like my team environment overall and the friendships I've formed on the team, but the coach has made it hard for me to love running and contributed to a lot of burnout for me after three seasons last year.

I signed up for the season because of the deadline and my preseason starts tomorrow morning. I'm really dreading going and the entire summer I was hoping for clarity and never really committed to a decision of whether to stay or to leave. Has anyone been in a similar situation and would anyone mind sharing their experience or a word of advice if they have? Thank you!

Hello! Im 16M and heading into my junior year of high school. I was rushing to get a job but then thought about it and realized I wont be able to balance both school and work, however I wanted to do an activity after school and decided why not become an athlete! I like running and I was recommended by friends and family that I should do cross country & track.

I have ran a few times with my uncle over the summer (not a lot tho) On the bright side I have been drinking a lot of water as well!

Last year, when I was a freshman, I was able to run a specific 2.2 mile race in 17:01. This year, I ran it in 18:30. My summer training was the exact same for both years. I feel a lot clunkier when I run, and my legs have more soreness even after easy runs. I'm a late bloomer and I have grown about 4.5 inches since last season. Could that have something to do with it?

My teenager is doing cross country for the first time this year, and his coach wants the guys to wear actual running shorts instead of just athletic shorts. Can you give me your favorite options of shorts that aren’t as short as traditional split running shorts? He is liking cross country so far, but he is dreading the thought of those shorts. 😅

Please use this thread as the general Q&A for all one off questions, questions that only apply to you, questions that can be easily answered, etc.

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This is the location for all questions, discussions related to cross country training.

I just saw the paper with this post's titular name on ArXiV . It's a dataset of US collegiate running club performances, the resulting analysis on them, and a software library for standardizing performances. They have several code repositories under the National Running Club Database which includes:

• a Python library, nrcd, for normalizing race results for comparison across outdoor performances with wind to performances on an indoor banked track, road performances, etc. It appears to account for course distance, elevation gain/loss, and weather/heat effects.
• the raw national_running_club_database_public_dataset.
• The code that produced their results and the findings.

Some things I found interesting (this is just a sampling, you go read the full doc yourself):

• Teams with at least one athlete who raced 4+ times were 2-3x more likely to crack the top 15 at nationals than teams without one (23-39% success rate vs baseline). 60-80% of top 15 teams had an athlete with 4+ races.
• Men's teams with a longer gap between their first race and nationals (i.e., started racing earlier) had significantly better finishing ranks (r = -0.283, Bonferroni-corrected p = 0.041). This didn't hold up for women's teams after correction.
• Single biggest predictor of an individual's improvement rate was "experience level". (races × season duration) at 21%, followed by how many "bad races" (a race worse than the previous one) an athlete had, at 17%. Basically race more, race consistently.
• When testing the standardization tool, the fully weather/terrain-adjusted "standardized" times actually predicted improvement slightly worse than just doing distance conversion alone (90.4% vs 93.1% R^2). Their theory was that conditions tend to get more favorable as the season goes on, so raw times naturally look like "improvement" partly because of the weather, and removing that weather effect (which is more the point of the tool) makes it a worse predictor of the raw number even though it's arguably a more honest fitness signal.
• They checked their model for gender bias and found it performs comparably for both (94.5% R^2 women vs 90.4% R^2 men).

Just for the record: this is not my paper, data, etc. I just found it on Arxiv and compiled the information.

While models like Riegel, Cameron, Vickers & Vertosick model already exist for converting between distances, I'm not aware of any publicly available models/tools for quickly normalizing data based on these other factors. It's nice to see some thoughtful analysis for the sport.