Sunday, October 25, 2009

10.25.09 - Long treadmill run & a short, snowy run outside with my daughter

Today's Training (10.25.09):


AM - Running 22M treadmill (2:25:54), i=1, AHR123/MHR131. Watched "Casino Royale" (James Bond).  The run pretty much went smoothly - I didn't feel great, but I felt solid and the time went by relatively quickly.
PM - Running 3M outside w/ RG (31:46). We ran from the house to Thomas Res, did 2 loops, and ran back home, which is conveniently exactly 3M.  I think we chose the perfect moment to run, as the snow appeared to be at its peak while we were out.  We both got a bit wet and cold, but by mid-way through I think we were both enjoying it.  RG was excited about the hot chocolate and a Smores Pop-Tart waiting for her at home after the run.  By the end of the run, she was really haulin' down the road. 


Running Totals: 25M day / 123M week (*most ever*) / 388M month


So, GZ were talking earlier, and I started ranting about how they have the state championships set up in Colorado.  I don't know the history of it, but there our FOUR classes at the Colorado State XC Meet.  Over the years of following the results from afar (I've yet to make it to the meet - I'd like to), I've always had the feeling that EVERYONE gets to run at the State Meet.  I realize that's not true.  GZ and I kicked it around, and he apparently was from a similar state (Connecticut) that leaned towards just opening up the State Meet to anyone who could drive to the meet.  I grew up in Illinois, and we had a State Meet system that leaned more towards the elitist setup.  We had 2 classes back then (I graduated in '87, like GZ), and just last year they expanded it to 3 classes.  Here's a quick breakdown between CO & IL using the 2008 boys meets as examples:
  • Illinois
  • Population = 12.9 million
  • 1A State Meet - 20 schools, 167 finishers, top 10 range: 15:03-15:38 (3M for all divisions)
  • 2A State Meet - 21 schools, 175 finishers, top 10 range: 14:56-15:22
  • 3A State Meet - 25 schools, 210 finishers, top 10 range: 14:18-14:38
  • 66 total schools / 552 total finishers

  • Colorado
  • Population = 4.9 million
  • 1A/2A State Meet (combined?) - 11 schools, 68 finishers, top 10 range: 16:01-17:44 (5K for all divisions)
  • 3A State Meet - 18 schools, 122 finishers, top 10 range: 15:28-16:47
  • 4A State Meet - 25 schools, 196 finishers, top 10 range: 15:08-16:07
  • 5A State Meet - 24 schools, 186 finishers, top 10 range: 15:20-16:19
  • 79 total schools / 572 total finishers
 So Colorado has roughly 40% of the population of Illinois, and yet they have more schools, a few more runners, and more championships awarded.  And while I realize it's a team sport, and I could probably figure out some way to compare the differences/depth of the top teams between classes and states, etc - having watched the results over the years in CO, it always seems like someone in a lower class runs a faster winning time than a higher class.  And if you look at the '08 results, you can see that the 4A winner is 12 seconds faster than the 5A winner, and the same goes for the 10th place finisher.  Very rarely would you see that in IL - although it will probably happen more now that they've opened it up to 3 classes. 

Discuss amongst yourselves...

5 comments:

GZ said...

You had to qualify in CT via sectionals. Not quite just drive up.

123 miles? Jeez.

TGeldean said...

Yeah, I need to dig in a little more in my CO vs IL comparison and look at how the qualification process works (how many schools compete in each qualifier meet, how many meets, how many non-team individuals qualify, etc.). But just looking at the state populations and other data makes me think that CO is much closer to "everyone competes" on the elite vs. everyone's a winner continuum.

Justin Mock said...

I grew up in Ohio and didn't run in HS, but went to the state meet two years after HS to spectate.

I then went to the CO state meet last year to spectate.

Kind of like what you said, the OH meet was way better. OH meet would have people lining the course the entire way, maybe 3-5 deep in most spots, along with a ton of folks in the grandstand that the runners would go through twice. 3 divisions and all very competitive to get into the state meet.

At the CO meet last year, there were people lining the course in most spots, but only because you could run from one spot to another. On the farthest reaches, there was no one lining the course. Didn't have the same excitement that the OH meet did at all.

Also have long thought that it seemed entirely too easy to qualify for the CO meet.

In general, CO HS sports have nothing on the OH sports. There are HS football games in OH that regularly pull in 10K crowds and they'll have big double-header type games at the Bengals stadium with 50K people. Bball state finals are at the OSU gym and it fills up with some 25K people. Here in CO, the smaller school division bball finals are somewhere like Pueblo I think.

GZ said...

Generally, HS sports are "lighter" on all fronts in CO when compared to what is going on east of the Mississippi. West Coast and Texas excepted there. I think it is just the population density ...

HS Matt said...

I think everyone believes things is better where "you" came from.

Mock- Your comparison (based on one year) is a bit flawed. FoCo is not ideal for huge crowds. Neither is the Springs or Pueblo-other common host sites. Ohio has have the same venue for 20+ years with a grandstand and seating. In other news, Red Rocks outdraws the Fillmore.

CHSSA has experimented with a variety of divisions in the past with as little as 3 and as many as 6. Currently the top 15 individuals qualify (It was 10 when I was young) and 40% of the teams which seems soft. Small schools have 4 regional/ Big schools have 5.

So CO does qualify more but who cares. It's high school, the good runners still run and win.