James Fox '24 Recruiting Profile

Hi, I'm James. I was a swimmer in middle school, and I was fairly successful. I had a bright future in the sport until I got into high school and realized there was no team. My sophomore year I tried track where I mostly did shot put, but I did the 1600m, too. At regionals I ran a 5:34 which I though was pretty good because I started the season off with a 6:08. I tried cross country next and ended up running a 19:52 5k. That's when I knew I had the genetics for it, because I did no off-season work, it was only on season work. I didn't run that well for regionals because I was injured, but I was still varsity, and the team made it to state. I started training in the offseason, but I didn't know anything about VO2 Max and how to train it, so I was mostly just running a set distance on the treadmill. That training barely helped me at all. First meet I ran a 5:28 1600m and a 12:23 3200m, and ended off the season with a 5:24 1600m PR and a 11:42 3200m PR. Those numbers weren't bad, but I wasn't happy. I wasn't winning anything. So, in the off season between Track and Cross Country I worked. I did the grueling track workouts, ran the hard tempo runs, and did the long, ten miles to half-marathon, runs. The hard work from my work ethic, combined with the fact that I finally understood how to train, with people telling me I can't improve that much in 2 months as icing on the cake I trained hard and smart. I started at a 19:59 5k on the track. I worked through the off season and when Cross Country started, and it started to look like I was the fastest on the team. Our fastest runner from last year wasn't keeping up with me in some practices. The first meet rolled (Valdez Invite) around, and I ran a 18:27 5k, taking second place only getting beat for first by a second. And it's important to note that the guy in first was a region champion.  As of the day I'm writing this it is the Monday after Valdez Invitational. We have 5 more meets; I'll update at the end of the season. 

My goal is to be a state champ 1600m and 3200m this year for my senior year. I also want to go to New Balance Nationals and be in the top 10. For college I want national titles, and I want to break 4 minutes in the mile and 8:30 in the 2 mile.