If you were to read the poem, The Dragon-Fly by Alfred Lord Tennyson, it describes the beginning of the flying insect’s life, near a pond where they usually originate from, and how through various phases of their short life they morph into “a living flash of light” at the end.
And in one of the stanzas, it follows the dragonfly as it goes “thro’ crofts and pastures wet with dew.”
I don’t know if this poem was the motivation behind the reason Nike chose “Dragonfly” as the name for its renowned race day spike, but if you were to visit any high school cross country race on any Saturday morning in the fall in any state, before the competitors began their trek through crofts and pastures wet with dew and finished like living flashes of light, you’d mostly see the Nike Dragonfly, or its equivalent from another company, as the spike of choice amongst those racing.
And all of these foot cannons have the latest and greatest in foam and plate-technology to help you fast. At this point, most running footwear companies have a super-spike to race in that compliments the super shoe (See “The Case for Carbon”) that the athletes do their harder workouts in. These spikes have become the onus for the fast times we see dotting the American high school cross country landscape. And, yes, they are fast. In fact, so fast that footwear is usually the theory of choice when the question comes up, “why are high school distance times so fast right now?”.
Like the swimming super suits of the early 2000s or sticky receiving gloves on football players today, performance-enhancing equipment technology is constantly evolving. And it should be. Most areas of our life have seen enhancements, or intentions to enhance, due to technological development. And if people are willing to buy it, then companies are going to keep developing it.
However, my take on why distance running times on the high school level have decreased so much in past few years is more of an intangible than a tangible. And this intangible is social media.
Whether it’s an influencer on Instagram; a popular video on TikTok; a motivational quote on X; or a workout on Strava; our personal endeavors have become not so personal, and our peers are noticing it. And when it gets noticed, those peers share their thoughts and opinions. Good or bad, there’s recognition and notoriety to be gained or lost.
And as someone gets more recognized and notorious, others will follow. This slowly segues into those individuals interacting at cross country meets. That interaction leads to a post-race cooldown together and that cooldown may become a group run in the off-season amongst members of several different high schools.
And if the superstars of multiple high schools go on a run together and invite their fellow teammates, there’s an aura of optimism and belonging amongst everyone on that run. Your PR can be a minute off another athlete’s PR in that group. (And in a 5k, a minute is a long time!) But you’re there running with that athlete. You belong and you shared footsteps and heart rates and stories and cross country experiences with that individual that you put on such a high pedestal.
And you come to realize that they’re a kid just like you... not a superhero, not anyone who trains harder than you do, and not necessarily a freak talent. You can run with them, share racing stories with them, and even get “followed by” or be in a group text with them. So, all of a sudden, the playing field seems to get a bit more even. If I’m just like this kid, why don’t I start training and racing with the same determination and effort as this kid?
That’s the difference-maker.
Unbeknownst to it, high school cross country has taken a chapter from high school wrestling. Wrestling is my background and about 40 years ago when I was in high school, rival wrestlers from neighboring high schools used to call each other up on their land lines to set up off-season practices with each other. Move forward 40 years and today’s top-in-their-area wrestlers have been meeting in the off-season with each other, along with their teammates, a few times a week.
Whether it’s the iron sharpens iron theory or the "he/she sweated on me theory," for decades, wrestlers have gotten better by seeking out better workout partners from other schools. Distance running has slowly begun to do this. And, yes, you’re right, an easy run or hard workout is an easy run or hard workout regardless of who you’re doing it with.
Wrestling has physically aware metrics in that if I use a move to score on a more worthy opponent, that’s a measurable barometer of me getting better. But if I do a 6 x 1000m workout on the 5-minute interval and hold 3:15s for each, what’s the difference if I do that on my own or with a better athlete from another school? Fair enough.
The body is only going to know how it felt and what it did during those 6 by 1Ks, not who you did it with. But where’s your mind during that workout? Alone, it’s just another tough workout and one you feel good about because of what the watch says. With someone else, it's you keeping up with a faster runner and that runner encouraging you, or trash-talking you in a friendly way, to race together at the next meet they’ll see you at. That person is no longer a cross-town rival but is now a friend to sparingly train with as well as to race with.
As the swishing of a sports drink in your mouth before a race has very beneficial placebo effects, so does being “a guy” or “a girl” in the next race because you went on a run with “the guy” or “the girl” a few weeks before. And as that process all of a sudden shows up on Instagram, or TikTok, or X, or any other form of social media, it grows. And the expectations of performances grow with it. And that has HUGE benefits for your Saturday mornings.
So, the next time you ingest Nomio, beet juice, or bicarb, and slap on your Dragonfly spikes, half-tights, or split shorts, apply Bio-Freeze and your nose before strip your next race, know that you and the friends you made in this wonderful sport, who are those athletes all along that same starting line regardless of their uniform color, are the primary culprits of what the clock says a short time later.
And for God’s sake, keep that going and get more of your peers involved in it. Be infectious about it. Be inviting. Be the local running influencer, even if solely through your actions and how you carry yourself at competitions.
Alfred Lord Tennsyon also wrote a poem titled, The Charge of the Light Brigade. It starts off with 600 soldiers charging into battle. The final stanza reads, “honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!”
All who started, finished together, because of each other. Stay close Kansas and see you on the course.
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If you were to read the poem, The Dragon-Fly by Alfred Lord Tennyson, it describes the beginning of the flying insect’s life, near a pond where they usually originate from, and how through various phases of their short life they morph into “a living flash of light” at the end.
And in one of the stanzas, it follows the dragonfly as it goes “thro’ crofts and pastures wet with dew.”