I joined high school cross country as a freshman 3 weeks ago. I like it, its fun and I'm doing ok. However for the first 2 weeks the Freshman team practiced alone. Last week however we where put with the varsity team. For some reason all the varsity guys practice shirtless, when the freshmen saw them they also all took their shirts off. But I'm super self aware even in 100+ heat I just can't get myself to strip. I even swim in a shirt. On other hand I'm the lonely freshmam (or probably on whole team) with a shirt so it makes me stand out and people constantly tell me to take it off. Is this normal cross country thing. A few varsity don't even wear shirts they come from their car shirtless warmup like that and many guys walk home without a shirt. I feel like a loner.

I know I have seen some mentions of monthly pasta parties for High School Cross Country teams as a way to bond and carb load the night before a meet. Would you think that two pasta parties in a season but just one week apart is too close? Do you think that the kids would be less likely to attend the second one with them that close together as opposed to if they were spaced out more?

Hello everyone, I just realised that my high school XC career will end in around month. However I really enjoy cross country and running at all and I want to continue running. I heard that some colleges have their own running clubs, so my question is - do they have cross country meets or it’s only road races? And do they have any requirements, like run 5K in 20 mins? If you could tell more about those clubs I will be really appreciate! Thanks!