are you a girl or guy?  either way, that's not exactly SLOW but it might make a difference in whether or not you win any races ....


middle school boys, at my daughter's division I middle school (small school for the biggest school division in Ohio) were running between 5:00-5:30 the last couple years for the top runners ... top girls were between 6:00 - 6:30 ...


way back when I ran I know I didn't break 6:00 in middle school but placed top 3 in most races ...

I had some school records by the time I was in High School and since I coach and also attend my kids' sporting events I check out current school records whenever I have a chance ... many schools around central Ohio have girls records in HS between 5:10 - 5:30 and boys records in the 4:40-5:00 range ... I think a lot has to do with quality of coaching, on-team challenges (is anybody there to push the top runner?), and genetics, of course ...


It's more likely to see huge improvements in the first couple years of running and then things will generally slow down and require much more focus to get more efficient and faster in races  ...

xcrunner97  ... 

first off ... about your times and those in your area ... that's exactly why I brought up the in-team competition thing ... if there isn't anybody there pushing you on a daily basis it is harder (not impossible) to meet your potential ...


I am in Central Ohio ... I looked up RockyRiver and it is in the center of Ohio, but all the way up on Lake Erie       ... between Cleveland and Toledo somewhere!    About 100 miles or so away ...


Rhode Island is pretty small compared to Ohio and Ohio is pretty small compared to states out west ... I think Rhode Island would fit into one of Ohio's counties ...


I think the best way young runners can give themselves an edge is to run on their own to build up base milage in the off seasons (summer and winter if you do XC and track) ... most kids I know don't run on their own (much) and don't nearly reach their potentials because of that ... trying to increase milage a bunch on your own during track or XC wouldn't be such a good thing, though, you'd probably end up very tired and overtrained and see race times get worse rather than better ... work on your form and speed and do your workouts to the best of your ability and then be sure to keep running on your own and gradually increase the number of miles per run and per week you are doing and you'll see improvements in all your race times ...


Good luck!

what does your training look like? because when i was in jr. high i ran a 7:47 mile in gym (8th grade) and that was while i was training for the 400 in jr. high track...the 400 runners on my team now (in high school) run 7:47 miles as a warmup.  once i changed my training to more distance-oriented stuff, i cut off time drastically...a year later i was running a 1500 in 5:25, under a 5:50 mile, and the next spring my best was a 5:04 1500, abouta 5:25 mile.

once you get into high school your training will probably be a lot more intense in general and you'll cut off a LOT of time. that's the way it works at my school anyway.

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. - Confucius

hey i'm in 7th grader and i'm a boy my mile time is 5:20 but i'll get under 5:10 before track is over i ran the 2mile the other day and got 11:11 and won the race but our #1 runner wasn't there so i won lol i also run XC

hey wel i jsut ran a 10:56 in the 2 mile i finally broke 11

Im a girl. In eighth grade I had a 6 minute mile. But you cant just base your time on others, everybody is built different.  But you sound like you are doing pretty good. Good Luck!