First and foremost, you will need to make sure you have uploaded all current physical and clearance forms to Dragonfly, which is the site Forsyth County uses to view and manage physical forms. The physical is good for one year. The necessary forms and instructions on how to upload them can be found on Lambert’s Athletics Page: Lambert Athletic Forms
A GOOD pair of RUNNING SHOES! It is imperative that runners train in running shoes and not cross-trainers, soccer shoes, or any other type of athletic shoe. A pair of running shoes usually last 2-3 months or 300-400 miles, whichever comes first. Running shoes should only be used for running and not to wear around as your everyday shoes. We recommend that if you are buying your first pair of running shoes that you visit a running specialty store such as Totally Running, Big Peach Running Co., Fleet Feet Sports or Phidippides.
Many running-related injuries are due to inadequate or worn-out running shoes!
A digital watch with a chronograph/lap stopwatch feature. Often, we will base our training on the time spent running rather than mileage, so it is important that you have a watch that will do that for you. Also, we prefer that our athletes do not run with their phone in their hand because this causes poor running mechanics.
Do not feel like you must buy the most expensive model, or a GPS or Smartwatch for that matter. While watches that can track your pace, mileage, and heart rate are incredibly helpful, they are more expensive. We suggest that new runners hold off on spending that much money on a watch until they fully commit to the sport.
Proper clothing. During the summer months you will need lightweight and light-colored clothing. Shorts and a T-shirt are fine.
A reusable water bottle with your name labeled on it. While we encourage our runners to keep themselves hydrated throughout practice, it is not always practical to have over fifty runners share one or two water fountains.
Athletes will be expected to track their mileage. This year athletes will have two ways to log their mileage. First, using the team running log found on our website, www.LonghornDistance.com Runners can also join the Longhorn Distance Strava club at www.strava.com/clubs/521687.
To stay informed about everything related to Lambert Cross Country, please refer to our website, www.LonghornDistance.com often. In addition, please make sure you are on the email distribution list to stay informed from week to week throughout the season. The sign-up form to be on the distribution list can be found on the website.
All questions, concerns, requests, or notifications should be directed to Coach Tigue at [email protected].
There are no “try-outs” to make our team, but the expectation is that every runner is fully committed to making our team stronger. Runners make the team stronger by:
To receive a Varsity Letter, a runner must do one of the following:
Cross Country is "long distance" running where competitors race as a team over a predetermined course. The terrain of that course can vary but they typically include grass, crushed gravel, and/or wooded trails. Most courses also include a few hills.
High school cross country races are approximately 5 kilometers or about 3.1 miles in length, but occasionally they can be as short as two miles. Cross country competitions are known as "meets" and they can range from small dual meets where only two teams compete against one another to huge Invitationals that can feature over 30 teams competing against one another.
Most cross country races are comprised of two divisions -- Varsity and Junior Varsity -- though some may also have divisions for specific grade-levels. In a varsity cross country race, each team is consists of 7-10 runners while junior varsity competitions usually do not limit the number of competitors from each team.
In cross country races the team with the lowest point total wins. To determine a team winner, the finishing places of the first five runners from each team are added together to get the point total for that team. The 6th and 7th runner of each team serve to displace scorers from other teams. In the event of a tie, the finishing place of the 6th runner is added to determine the winner.
The official Cross Country season begins August 1st and concludes at the state meet which will be held in Carrollton on Saturday, November 4th. However, only seven athletes can represent Lambert at the state meet so the season will conclude for most of our runners on Saturday, October 21st, after competing in the Region 6 Championship meet.
Though the official season does not start until nearly August, most successful cross country runners train throughout the summer to prepare for the upcoming season!
Once the season begins on Monday, July 31st, practices become mandatory. We will typically practice every Monday through Friday but may occasionally hold a practice on a Saturday when we don’t have meet.
Due to the extreme heat, we typically deal with in August, practices may be held before school or in the early evening during the first several weeks of the season. In the past we have held practices at 6:30 am before school up until Labor Day and then transitioned to having practices after school beginning in September. We will most likely do that again this year or try to hold our practices later in the afternoons.
Athletes are expected to be at practice every day. The only exception is when school is missed due to illness or any other excused absence. If an athlete must miss practice or a race for any reason, it is the responsibility of that athlete to communicate the absence to the coach. If practice must be missed for academic reasons (tutoring, making up an assignment), the athlete should get a pass or get the teacher to email the coach. Upon completion of the academic work, you will be expected to make up the workout. Try to schedule doctor or dental appointments around practice but if it is impossible to do so, a note signed by a parent will be required. If attendance is taken and we do not know where you are — it will count as an unexcused absence.
Missing practice for non-academic clubs or because you have a job does not count as an excused absence. Any runner who has two unexcused absences will be suspended from a race; any runner with three unexcused absences will be dismissed from the team.
The 2023 meet schedule has not been finalized yet because we are still waiting on several hosts to declare when and where they plan on hosting their meets. Once those dates are established, we will seek input from our veteran runners and then finalize our meet schedule.
For planning purposes, most meets will occur each Saturday during the season.
We will travel to just about every race by bus – which our Booster Club must pay for. Under NO circumstances is an athlete allowed to drive themselves or another student to a meet. For most meets of the year, we will depart from the stadium parking lot.
Athletes do not have to ride the bus back to Lambert, but they will only be released to go home with a parent AFTER the tent area has been cleaned up and after the awards ceremony. Athletes not riding the bus back to Lambert must check out with one of the coaches.
The summer running program will run from May 14th through August 5th which gives runners 12 weeks to meet their summer duration goals. The goals are based on the number of years an athlete has run rather than their grade in school.
All mileage must be logged into the team running log found at www.LonghornDistance.com or on our Strava Team Page. Mileage must be added weekly, or it will not count.
Athletes will be required to keep track of their training by using either the team running log at www.LonghornDistance.com/running-log or by uploading/logging their runs on Strava.
You will have to register and create a username on the website in order to access the team running log.
Runners should update their logs at least two times a week.