by Dan Kearney
 

Abstract
Some states are consistently faster than others at high school cross country running. To use a recent example, in 2011, a New Jersey boy won the individual title at nationals in San Diego and a team from the same state won the team competition in Oregon. People often speculate that reasons ranging from climate to tradition affect running speeds above all else. Moreover, some suspect that the states that excel at running are simply the wealthiest ones. This paper aims to find if wealthier states are, in fact, faster than poor ones.

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