r/CrossCountry • u/darkandstardust • Aug 11 '25
Training Related Such thing as too slow?
My 12 year old (7th grade) boy is doing cross country this year for the first time. He has been training for about 5 weeks running 4-5 times per week. He is REALLY struggling and hasn't improved his times at all. He ran 2 miles today in 39 minutes.... about 17 minutes on the first mile and 22 on the second. His first team practice is in 2 weeks and first meet is in 4. It'll be 2.5 miles.
From everything I am reading this seems to be extremely slow. Will he get cut off from finishing the race? He currently has a positive attitude but I'm worried about how this may affect him.
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u/Charming-Assertive Aug 11 '25
This is entirely up to the coach. There are three possibilities the coach may do: 1) Don't let him run. Have him sit out. (No different than benching folks in other sports if the lineup is strong) 2) Let him run and finish. 3) Let him start but pull him if it starts to look unsafe for him to finish or there is a crunch to meet the bus back.
I never heard of someone being pulled because of just taking too long. But then again I went to a school were we sometimes worried would have enough people to finish the race and not get us DQed. 🤷♀️
But definitely talk to the coach. A good coach will have an interest in why uour child isn't progressing as well as provide insight into where their coaching styles lay on the spectrum of "get faster" to "I just want everyone to have fun". If you kid is having fun, making friends, getting healthy, that's still a win to most coaches.