Coach Blackmore recommends that you have good running shoes before you start your training. Running shoes are your primary equipment for cross country. What are good running shoes? Good running shoes are shoes not more than 6 months old and/or have less than 400 miles of running. Running in old or inappropriate shoes will cause injury. I recommend that you visit a good running shoe store that has experienced sales people who will properly fit you into the right shoe. I have had very good experience with:
PR Running 18 Lyman St. Westboro, MA 01581 http://www.myprrun.com/ 508-366-8101 Owners: Jess & Rich Allen Mention you are on the team and they will give you a 10% discount. Do I need to buy Spikes? Not everyone needs to run out and buy spikes for cross country season. In fact you can not use spikes on many of the courses we run on. The Holliston home course is one of the courses you will not use spikes on because of the hard surfaces. Most spikes can be converted to racing flats by removing the spikes. The spikes screw into the shoe and are easily removed. However, spikes are not cheap. Incoming Freshmen may want to wait to see if they will stick with the sport before making this investment. ***However, if you are regularly running at the varsity level you will need spikes for the post season meets. In fact in most cases I will not enter you in the division or state meet if you do not have spikes available***. The reason for this is in past seasons the team has been compromised because the meet has been run in snow or mud and members of the team ran considerably slower without spikes. What kind of spikes should I buy? Spikes come in several types. There are spint spikes, jumping spikes and distance spikes. Distance/middle distance spikes have a good heel with plenty of structure. They look like light weight versions of your training shoes. This is the kind of spike you should buy. If you have questions please email me (coachblackmore@comcast.net) or you can talk to me after practice starts in August.