All The Miles Mattered

Lou Snelling was a standout runner for Seminole High School and the University of Central Florida.  This Q&A goes back to his running roots, to elementary school field day, running in middle schoo…

Come along for the run! This episode, one of three being released today, includes Q&As with several Seminole High runners and the words of their coach, Bruce Calhoun.

Calhoun built the boys and…

At last, the story of the 1994 Largo Invitational. The Largo boys and Lakewood girls won the races, but that's not what people recall about the day, Oct. 12, at Taylor Park.

"About as bad …

In early 1979, Mark Altimari didn't know much about Largo cross country. His family had moved recently from suburban Philadelphia to Tampa, and he was a confessed "wrestling dummy" at his new school,…

Belen Jesuit in Miami has won more FHSAA boys cross country state championships than any program. This weekend, Belen goes for the 15th title in program history. Coach Frankie Ruiz's team has its sig…

This episode of All The Miles Mattered, the third of Season 2 and the 22nd if you count the trailer, has a lot of familiar voices in the story of Largo, Leto and the challengers to those programs’ …

Chris Palmer, a 1984 Largo graduate, was part of three cross country state titles for the Packers in the early 1980s. This episode features Palmer's talk at the start of the Sept. 15 reunion of Largo…

Welcome to the start of Season 2 of All The Miles Mattered. This is as close to a news episode as you’re going to get for a story 50 years in the making. Last month, at halftime of a Largo High Schoo…

Leto's cross country program in the 1980s was on par with Largo's. The Long Red Row won five 4A state titles in the decade, just ahead of the Packers' four championships. Leto had a disadvantage the…

The formal structure of All The Miles Mattered concluded with the end of the Largo-Leto rivalry in the late 1980s. But the lessons from those programs and other runners carry on today. In the second …

The formal structure of All The Miles Mattered concluded with the end of the Largo-Leto rivalry in the late 1980s. But the lessons from those programs and other runners carry on today. Here is the f…

On May 10, 1986, at Showalter Field in Winter Park, neither of the two favorites in the state meet 2-mile race won. The race was supposed to be another LeValle-Letchworth showdown. It’s tough to say …

Michael LeValle didn’t run for Leto or Largo, but he’s an important part of the story in the mid-1980s. He expected to have Roger Letchworth and Pat McDonough right on his shoulder. That didn’t happe…

Countryside’s 1986 team was loaded: It had Roger Letchworth and Chip Backus, both major Division I college prospects, along with a bevy of talented runners just behind them. This is the story of the …

The legend of Roger Letchworth started with his second-place finish in the state cross country meet as a sophomore, and it continued with his national age-group records for 10K and 15K. Letchworth wa…

In sports, perfection is rarely reached. The nature of competition is that it is messy: Shots are missed, interceptions thrown. In cross country, perfection is possible in team scoring: the perfect …

"We try harder" wasn't just the slogan of rental car company Avis. It was adopted by the Leto cross country program as it tried to break through against Largo. In the early 1980s, the stage was set …

Basil Magee ran a nation-leading time in the mile his senior year at Largo. Two years earlier, he had never even run the mile in a track meet. Magee's rapid rise, his rivalry with a future Olympian, …