lol I managed to find this thread by looking at the PS! quote database and checking JTD783's signature.
Well anyway I am currently in 8th grade and am an aspiring Cross Country and Track runner. I'm very impressed by some of the PRs here, I haven't gotten anywhere close to that so far ^.^
One thing I've been testing out is the art of barefoot running. This interest stemmed from a book called Born To Run by the way, I would definitely recommend that book to anyone, not just runners. Well anyway, I've just kind of been running around 1.7-2.0 miles in my yard each night. My yard is very hilly but is also pretty big, so it does just fine for training and such. The first time I ran barefoot I was actually surprised at how good it felt and how much my running shoes actually held me back. It's turned into kind of a daily thing; whether it's after XC practice or on the weekends, I always do it. I won't go too into detail about the whole idea of barefoot running versus "regular" running, but basically the idea is that we were actually meant to run barefoot or with very little footwear, the exact opposite of what running shoe companies want you to think. When you run barefoot, you don't have any support on your heel, so your foot is forced to adjust and you end up landing more on the fat in the middle of your foot. You straighten up your back and your legs now fall squarely under your hips. It's an interesting concept and I would certainly consider adding barefoot running to their workouts, if not primarily running barefoot.
As for how I'm doing with the actual running, I think improving a lot. I've gotten a lot better at the mental part of running, just waiting for the physical part to catch up ^.^ It's steadily improving though. Right now I'm the 3rd best runner on my team (again it's a small team though) and we just started practice on the 15th. We've had one meet so far and I placed 24th overall (I think there were about 5 teams overall and the course was 2 miles long). Not good lol but it's a start. Our coaches say we haven't gotten our times yet for some reason, but they'll receive them by Monday. I'm currently working on running longer distances and improving my mile and 2 mile times.
So yeah, just thought I would just point my thoughts and stuff. I'm glad to see that other people on this forum run, I'll definitely be checking this thread and maybe posting updates about times and such. Distance running is an amazing sport and I'm definitely going to be sticking with it for a while!