As a kid, I was a star runner in my school district (#2!) in California, but I did it for fun. For example, as I went through three coaches in four years, I became the team’s de facto coach and came up with the pool run, where runners had to see how many condominium pools we could swim through (it involved leaping a fence, swimming through pools with shoes on, leaping the opposite side fence, and continuing on - we kept a record of the amount of pools swum year-to-year; the record when I left was 17). I had hoped for a similar experience for my son at Kumamoto’s Kyushu Gakuin, one of the premier distance running schools in Japan, but I guess there’s a reason why they’re premier: it is not fun (note: it is otherwise a wonderful school, and I highly recommend it to children of international background). So, to my disappointment, he quit the team - but I understood why: they’re militant. Take care to understand the training regime of your kids in schools and how they truly feel about it. If they’re receiving more stress than joy, let them leave. - William