your response to the HS cross country runners who were dry heaving during their races

Question
You mentioned the possible reasons for dry heaving during the races but is there anything that can be done to prevent or lessen the eeffects of this. I have this problem continually after my first mile and not only does it slow me down but I often have to stop - dry heave and then go on which makes me loose momentum and of course time/placemet in the race. I have been running Cross Country since 7th grade and am now in 12th. This problem developed this year. I train daily in season and start my base training in June. I run track in the Spring. This is getting very frustrating for me. Thanks for any help you can give!!!!

Answer
Hey, I think you might have sent this question to the wrong person, I never helped you out before on this, but here's what I have.

Does this happen during training? I find it very odd that this happens just the way it sounds. If this only happens during your races, then you obviously have a training flaw: not training as fast as your racing. If this happens only when you are pushing yourself at race pace, then the only way to stop it is to teach your body to not do it, simply by training at race pace. I cannot think of a possible reason this only happens on races, it would happen whenever you run. That is just common sense. Unless you do something on your race days that you don't do on training days, such as eating habits. And stopping, if you are a serious runner, you don't even think about stopping during an XC race.