A Parent’s Guide to Surviving The World’s Greatest Sport

Welcome to Cross Country

So you're new to this sport, are you? You're in for a ride.

I remember about five years ago, during pre-season time trials, I was running around (like one does at a meet) and ended up at a point on the course where the athletes cross a parking lot into a gated field.

As a runner approached, I yelled, "come on, Gunner!!!"

From behind me, Gunner's mom unrolled the window to her minivan, poked her head out, and asked why I was yelling. I told her that her son was-a-comin'. She asked me, absolutely astonished, "why is he running?!?"

I pivoted slowly, mouth open, to stare at her. Her son had been a member of my team for a month and a half, and his mom had no clue what his new sport actually entailed.

But this momma is certainly not alone.

The first meet for most parents is an absolute shock. Questions and concerns that I've heard raised include: "Wait, parents can just go anywhere to spectate?"... "Will my child be okay?"... and -- my personal favorite -- "Running for [x] time seems too hard."

To address that first question: Yes. When that gun goes off, everyone runs... not just the competitors. Spectators may go anywhere, provided they do not stand in the starting boxes pre-race, don't cross the course without making sure the coast is completely clear, don't block the finish line, and stay behind the flagging on the course.

If you're feeling intimidated by the fluid nature of spectating our sport, try to follow parents of kids who ran last season. Just like the athletes, parents tend to move in packs.

Now for that second question about your child's well-being. The answer is also yes. This race is the moment for which your child has trained. His or her coach has most likely prepared them well to run their distance, be it a whole mile or ... gasp... even a whole 5K.

And as for running seeming hard... it is! But that's okay. In fact, that's kind of the point.

This article will give those new to the sport a breakdown of cross country as a sport. The second part to this series will focus on navigating the wonderful world of MileSplit.

More Than Just Running

In brief -- cross-country runners, well, they run. But it is not a simple sport. The strategies that the top runners employ are constantly shifting.

Flexibility in both muscles and planning needs to be a strength in a cross-country runner. A race never goes exactly as planned, even when it goes extremely well. The splits rarely fall perfectly, and the competition won't play out as predicted.

Specific racing strategies will be detailed in a future article. So for now, we will begin with the logistics.

Seven Runners. Five Score.

A coach may have an unlimited number of athletes on their roster -- and in most cases, cross country is a no-cut sport. At a large school, there may be A, B, and, in some rare cases, a C team. There may be varsity as well as sub-varsity or junior varsity teams.

The athletes selected for varsity are subject to the coach's discretion, but typically, they will pick their seven varsity competitors based on practice and meet performance, as well as attitude and practice attendance.

Of those seven runners -- or more, in some JV competitions -- the first five to cross the finish line earn points. This certainly does not negate the importance of the remaining athletes; their main job is to finish before the top five athletes from another team, thus giving the other team a higher score. And you don't want a high team score in cross country.

For a team to be eligible for team scoring, it must have at least five runners who finish the race. The first finisher from a full team earns one point, the second earns two points, the third athlete to finish earns three... and so on.

Thus, if a meet contains 512 athletes from complete teams, one runner may earn 512 points, which are added up with the points scored by their four scoring teammates. On the flipside, a perfect score is 15 points. Scoring 15 points means that athletes from the same team finished in places 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

What If Your Team Is Small?

Suppose your kiddo runs for a small school and there are fewer than five members of a team.

This runner does not earn points but rather may place individually.

So a female runner -- from a team of say, three -- who busts out an 18:25 5K might be the meet champion, but the second runner to cross at 18:43 will earn the first point, because her team has at least five runners.

The Real Prize? The T-Shirt.

What is the prize?

Most meets offer medals for top runners (top 3, top 10, or top 25 are all common) and team trophies for champion and runner-up.

The T-shirt, however, is the coveted, wearable trophy.

A cross country runner recognizes meet T-shirts from top placers, and a silent nod of respect is exchanged as the two pass as strangers on a street.

The Course and the Equipment? That's the Beauty.

Cross-country runners traverse the low-cut grass of fairways on a golf course, bound over gravely root-filled trails in the woods, and sometimes even grit out an awe-inspiring final lap on the synthetic track. On a crisp fall morning, strolling around environs like these sure beats being stuck cheering on your kid in a stuffy school gymnasium.

Runners wear their spikes (please do not call them cleats), flats, super-shoes, and "spikeless" spikes for competition and don their uniforms with shorts that are just a tiny bit too short. That's it. You could hardly come up with a simpler set of equipment needs.

Some Lingo You Should Know

Your child will come home spouting words and phrases such as "PR," "SB," and "carb-loading."

They might say strange terms such as "fartlek" and "threshold."

You might even hear whole sentences that are completely foreign, such as:

"Dad, during 400 repeats, coach wanted a progressive performance, and I was good until number eight, when that lactic kicked in and my legs were shot."

Let's break a few of these down for you.

PR -- Personal Record

This means this is the fastest time a runner has achieved over a given distance in a lifetime.

The first two years are the years of PBs... expect to hear that term often. After those golden years, chasing the PB becomes a bit of an obsession, but it also becomes harder.

SB -- Seasonal Best

This is the term given for the fastest performance over a given distance within a single season of competition.

The feeling of running an SB is pretty great, but not quite at the level of a PB.

Spikes -- Caretakers, Learn This Term

Spikes can mean two things.

In the sentence "I can't find my spikes!" the word likely refers to the shoes with sharp implements in them, and that your baby is about to run and cannot find his or her crucial racing shoes.

However, in the phrase "some of my spikes came out in the mud," "spikes" refers to the sharp little implements that screw into the bottom of the shoe.

Most courses allow ¼-inch pyramid spikes. You should copy and paste that exact phrase into your Amazon search bar if you're concerned about getting the right kind.

Negative Split

This is a concept that is considered ideal for racers and coaches.

A negative split means that each split (in this case, the mile lap times) is faster than the one that preceded it. Or, more commonly, that the second half of the race was faster than the first.

400s

These are repeated laps around the track, run briskly, with varied periods of rest (or recovery) in between.

My high school coach, legendary Andy Thiel, loved assigning us these more than most things in life.

Pack Running

This is a strategy used by teams that have a very small time gap (the time between their first runner and runners number five, six, or seven).

This means those runners can hold a quick pace together as a group and overtake competitors as a whole pack, whittling down their team point total and burdening every other team with five more points for each runner passed.

It's an excellent racing strategy and always is exciting to watch.

Lactate Threshold

Basically the fastest pace you can sustain for an extended period of time.

Coaches work to increase this threshold using shorter repeat workouts or broken up tempo efforts.

VO₂ Max

In its extremely simple definition, this is how much oxygen the body can use efficiently during hard exercise.

Fartlek

And fartlek. A funny name for a hard exercise.

This work translates in Swedish to "speed play," and it mixes fast and slow paces during a run.

This is a tricky workout to master, for unseasoned runners will usually take the first set too hard and struggle through the rest.

Coming Soon...

This series will continue next week with a look at the tips and tricks of the magical world of MileSplit.

Coming Soon: Future Stars: Underclassmen On The Rise.