Hi, In Ohio, the meets are 5K for HS, for Junior HIgh they are 3K. You should probably post this in one of the other forums, since most of us are newbies and didn't run in high school. There are lots of people out there in the other sections who have though and I'm sure they can give you advice. With that said, I suggest you do the C25K program and build up your running to a 5K. You have plenty of time to do it before XC season starts next Aug. I also don't recommend running every day until you get built up in some mileage, but you are young so it probably doesn't hurt as much as it would if you were older. I know that our HS XC team (I taught HS - now retired), would have long runs 3 - 5 miles every other day, called "long slow distance". They didn't really push the tempo, but just got out to run and then on opposite days, they would work speed drills, doing fartlecks ( 100, 200, 300, 400, 400, 300, 200, 100 or something like that) and repeated 400's, trying to achieve a certain time. Certainly not everyone on the team was a fast runner. Many ran just because they enjoyed it, even if they came in near the end of the group. At most meets, there is no limit on the number of entrants, so that is what is nice about it. Everyone can participate. I hope this helps.

Rae

I started C25K after I was running for a little while. I also started at week 3 and had no problems at all completing the program. Get with a thread here that is also doing C25K in the same week as you. This can be great motivation and by the end of the program you will have a group of online fellow runner to continue with.

Mike