Daniel Practicing for High School Competition

Daniel Tulloch, the Jamacian Flash is at CD East Middle School preparing for his hilly 5K runs (3.1 Miles) coming in September and October. In these races, his competition ages between 17 years and 7 years. Daniel  must stay competitive with the local Cross Country teams in the area. The hardest race is coming up on Sept. 14th with the Sasquatch 5K Run in Mount Wolf, Pa. in North York. Here Daniel will compete against North York High School Students.

Below is one of the workouts that Daniel performs on a weekly bases. He also runs on the treadmill at 12 miles per hour for 5 minutes for 5 sessions when he is not out on the track. He gets two days off per week.

The Flash runs 5 session per practice at CD East Middle School. He is expected to sprint these sessions. He is not expected to pace himself like many local people would do. Daniel trains for world class competition not local competition. This is why at age 8, he runs against high school students. These sessions includes running up the hill, running backwards up the hill, running 200 feet around the track, leaving the track and running a 1/4 mile to the middle school gym door then running back to the track and then running 200 feet back to where he started. That would complete one session. He must complete 4 more without rest to end that days practice.

His mother Stephanie Tulloch (Williams) and Silver Olympic Medalist Hyleas Fountain trained on this same track but their practices were never this hard.

Why Daniel is not playing football.

I agree with most people that come out to see Daniel train. Daniel would make a good End, Wide Receiver, Running Back, and Kick Off Return Specialist. However, Daniel is in Basketball, Soccer, and Track. Plus with all the media attention on football injuries, Daniel's mother feels that playing football is too risky for the benefits that he would receive from playing the sport.

I hope that all of you will join me in wishing success to Daniel in his 5K runs as well as his USATF competition that he hopes will land him a spot in the USATF Cross Country 2K Nationals in Sanantonio Texas in December 2013. That will be his last competition in the "8 and Under" Class. Next year he moves up into the "9 and 10" year old class.