Anonymous wrote:It's a misnomer. You'll be outside a lot for meets and 100% outside for practice.

We had 2 meets inside and that was all the way in Alexandria on a Friday night to boot. Tell me how much that sucked to drive, find parking, and then pay $7 entry fee to watch my kid run for 90 sec.

I think there is a Friday night meet on the schedule this year too. And my child seems to participate in the first event and one of the last events

It's a misnomer. You'll be outside a lot for meets and 100% outside for practice.

We had 2 meets inside and that was all the way in Alexandria on a Friday night to boot. Tell me how much that sucked to drive, find parking, and then pay $7 entry fee to watch my kid run for 90 sec.

8 min mile is not competitive.

I am in Arlington and our winter track has cuts. So a lot of freshman try out but get cut by second week.

My freshman has a good chance to make it, over 50% I would say but runs a mile under 6 min.

Woodson definitely had two "polar bear" meets- one at Fairfax and one at Robinson last year. It was for varsity and some additional runners and field events.

PG County facility opened back up in late January 2024 and I think there is a meet there in December.

Any suggestions for winter track for a fast 8th grader? Are there any non-school-based winter track programs? Her middle school doesn't have winter track, only fall cross-country and spring track.

DD has run winter track for three seasons and has never had an outdoor meet. The practices are always outdoor but the meets are always indoor. Facilities include the TJ rec center, PG indoor track, St. Andrew’s Episcopal and some away meets. Does anyone know if the PG track is still under construction? TJ Rec center is a terrible venue.

The issue is that Fairfax county has no regulation size indoor track that is available to any high school. Winter track is competing outdoors for practices, some varsity invitational in the Virginia area that are out of the county (Va beach, vmi, etc), and then district regionals and states are all at PG county sports Plex in Maryland, near fed ex field.

It gets better in the spring.

Thats not fast enough to get put in most events, but of she likes running she should try. I think she could definitely hang and will get faster during the season.

OP, few quick adds to the great advice up above.

Indoor track is a misnomer in FCPS - it's really winter track. There are outdoor practices and likely outdoor weekend meets.

We are in the Liberty District, so our in-district meets are held at the TJ Rec Center in Arlington. Which leaves a lot to be desired.

That said, our track coach does manage to get all the kids competing over the course of the season. They won't run every meet/every event, but they should get some running time.

Indoor track is my least favorite of the seasons (and my runner's least favorite as well). The meets are VERY long, often far away, and the facilities are always stuffy and hot.

THAT BEING SAID, track is fun, and I think your kid should give it a shot! The first couple of weeks of practice are usually used for building a base and trying different events. All kids improve. The kids are usually nice.

Indoor track does have capacity limits, but what a lot of coaches do is rotate kids in and out of meets. Or maybe they'll save the fastest kids for the most competitive meets, and put the newer kids in less competitive ones.

If your kid likes it, they'll be raring to go for spring track.

If your kid is interested, they should tryout but don't be fooled that this is an easy sport or team spot.

They should figure out if they want sprints or distance- the practices will look much different depending on the choice. There is not a lot of crossover between sprints and distance- unless there is real talent for both.

I would give it a try for a season. If she’s motivated, I bet she’ll shave a ton of time off of that mile through practice, even if she doesn’t always compete.

It is not indoor.

And it depends on the HS. Look at va.milesplut.com and find your Hs times from last year.

As a freshman- my daughter was running a mid-5 minute mile and she was being beat by several girls

Sure, especially as a freshman. Where we live, runners are restricted to two events per meet, so coach has to put in many runners to fill out the meet. Go for it. My dc had never run before freshman year and now loves it and wants to continue in college.

Does anyone have insight on what an indoor track season looks like? Freshman wants to give it a go but we don't know what to expect. Can an average runner expect to get invited to compete? 8 or 9 min/mile.