A typical mile time would be between 7 and 6 minutes. A decent mile time would be about 6 minutes, with a goal of breaking into the upper 5 minute range. In middle school, anything faster than 5:30 is good enough to finish in the top 5 or even first place.
In terms of scoring, a good middle school mile time is around 350 points. You can score around 400 points by hitting all the flags and staying under the wire. You can score up to 500 points if you get one flag runner per team member (each flag bearer counts as one person).
In order to win, you need to beat the other teams by at least 10 points. If there is a tie, then whoever has scored more points over the course of the race will win.
Here are some middle school track & field teams that have finished high in distance races throughout the country:
Earlham School - Indiana University of Pennsylvania - Earlham, Indiana 4:44.00
Frost Valley Middle School - University of Nevada, Las Vegas - Las Vegas, Nevada 4:11.49
Garfield High School - Sacramento City College - Garfield, California 4:16.19
Greenwood Middle School - Louisville Metro Schools - Louisville, Kentucky 4:17.54
A reasonable benchmark of time to assess a decent mile for a middle school track runner, 8:40 is the average time and sits in the 50% percentile of those around the age of 12. Anything quicker than this time is regarded above average. To run a stellar race you need to train hard and focus on technique rather than trying to beat your previous best time.
The middle school season starts in early spring when schools start holding open houses and registration periods for new students begin. This is also the time when teams are formed for sports such as track and field, soccer, basketball, etc. Practices then follow during the summer months until the beginning of the school year in the fall.
During the winter break many young athletes withdraw from sports because they can't afford the expensive fees or lack of interest from their parents. In order to keep players interested and involved, some coaches will hold "open houses" where possible meets are held against local high schools who have forfeited their rights to their athletes. These meetings allow younger athletes an opportunity to show what they've got while giving coaches an idea of who might be worth recruiting next year.
In late January or early February depending on when schools start offering sports, national championships are held for all divisions (including open) across the country. States with more than one team in a division will determine their own champion via separate events for each group.
In general, for 6th grade, ladies should run sub-9 minute miles while boys should run 7-9 minute miles. Good timings for 7th and 8th grade females would be 8:30–6:00 and 7:00–5:00 for boys. 9th grade males and older should be able to run under 8 minutes per mile.
This is based on research conducted by Dr. Kenneth Cooper at North Carolina State University who concluded that 90% of all chronic disease can be attributed to how we live our lives. He developed this conclusion after studying thousands of people for more than two decades. His work has been adopted by health professionals as they try to improve their patients' lives by preventing illness in the first place.
According to Dr. Cooper, people who exercise regularly are less likely to get sick or die early. They're also more likely to live longer and feel better throughout most of their lives. The study showed that if you exercise vigorously for 20 minutes daily, it will add three years to your life.
So the question is not just how fast should she run but for how long should she run? Research shows that the more you exercise, the more benefits you'll get from each session. In other words, running faster for shorter periods of time may provide some benefits but it won't give you much opportunity for improvement.
A good middle school cross country time for a 5K (3.1 mile) is 20–21 minutes. A 3K (1.8 mile) race should take between 10 and 11 minutes. If you run a 3K in under 10 minutes, you will most likely be among the top runners. If you run a 5K in over 21 minutes, you will probably not make it very far in the race.
The best age to start running is any age but especially before puberty when your bones are still growing and can handle the stress of running. During puberty, your bone growth stops and you begin to add weight to muscles and organs which changes how things work inside your body. This makes during puberty periods when you are not running a high risk of being injured. After puberty, your body's main concern is muscle growth and training hard enough to improve your endurance so you can live longer with all those muscles.
You do not have to be a "runner" to run. Anyone who has ever taken even one step is capable of running. The more you run, the better you get at it. And the more you see your doctor so you don't run into any problems related to your activity level, the better.
In terms of gender, men tend to be faster than women. The average male cross-country runner runs 15–20 seconds per foot more than the average female runner.
You might be able to win several races if you can go under 24 seconds. Yes, a timing of 25 seconds for a high school freshman guy in the 200m dash is acceptable. Several people have done it.
The best predictor of future performance has always been past results. If someone ran a fast time as a freshman, they're likely to continue running fast times. However, if what they run as a freshman is too slow compared to other freshmen, then they might want to rethink their strategy because it could mean that they're injured or lack training experience.
In general, athletes who start out faster than others tend to keep improving their times as they gain experience while those who are slower usually stay about the same regardless of how much practice they get. There are exceptions to this rule, but it's safe to say that most athletes will improve their times over time.
It's also important to remember that college track and field seasons only last for two years. Even if an athlete starts out running fast, others soon enough will come along and beat them at their own game. That's when you know that you need to keep working hard if you want to remain at the top of your event.
A solid 5000 meter time on a track is in the 15's, which is in the 5 minute plus mile mark, while some 'hot' runners may be in the 4's at that distance. To be safe, look up high school 5,000 meter cross country timings and continue from there, assuming that top speeds might be a minute faster for the distance than the typical high school competitor. A 10th grade runner could realistically run 15 minutes per mile, which would put them around 5700 meters or 1 lap at 500 meters, or just under half a mile.
Time trials are held annually at many high schools across the country. These are usually one-mile runs, but they can be any length as long as they are measured in yards or meters rather than miles or kilometers. The fastest time recorded during these events is 8 minutes, 59 seconds. The average speed over the one-mile course is about 1500 feet per minute.
So, using those numbers as a guide, an 11th grade runner could finish a 5K in about 29 minutes and change every day if they trained hard enough. An 18th grade runner would need to reduce that time by more than three minutes to have a chance of winning. There are high school runners who can beat this time, but they are already fast enough to potentially compete at the college level if they choose to do so.
A 5K is also called a "fun run" because it is done as a race but it is not competitive.
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