CROSS COUNTRY FUN BEGINS NEXT SUNDAY
Aficionados of cross country racing have been watching the high school reports and next weekend the adult members of our fraternity will have a go at the sport. Cross country racing is not everyone’s choice. Nearly all cross country racers also run road races, but only the select few cross over to cross country.
This aversion, let’s call it what it is, fear, of cross country is unfortunate. Cross country is so much more fun than road racing. Where else can you splash through puddles and mud like a four-year-old and not be looked at as though you are two dimes short of a quarter?
Cross country takes you over fields and onto trails through woods, but it is not to be confused with trail racing, which is a much more difficult sport. The Holmdel Park course, which is famous in the east is a classic example of American cross country. The course begins on a wide field at the bottom of a fairy serious hill. At the top the field narrows into a path that goes through a wooded area for a short period before hitting open fields. Of course the Holmdel Bowl is infamous because you run, down, down, down, to the bottom of the bowl and then breathlessly climb back out.
In Europe, where cross country is revered, the courses can be much tougher. In high level competition though, the courses are often contrived so as to allow spectators several viewpoints of the racers. In order to do that, the course is laid out so that the runners repeat various similar loops over the same ground. If the terrain chosen isn’t rugged enough, a pile of straw bales are strategically placed in the runner’s path to create artificial hills.
At the Nike high school cross country invitational last December in Portland, the Roxbury high school girl’s team got a taste of artificial hill, when they had to run repeat loops on a horse track course with dirt hummocks creating roller coaster hills on each loop.
New Jersey road racers have had plenty of difficult courses to conquer. Think of the Indian Trails 15K, the Midland Run 15K, the 5K in Mt. Tabor. All have challenging hills that are on a par with some cross country courses.
What I think keeps the road racers from trying cross country is intimidation. Since it is mostly the seasoned runners and the elites, who run cross country, the average road racer stays away. Because he and his brethrens and sisters stay away, only the seasoned runners and the elites run cross country. It is a vicious circle.
There are two incentives for New Jersey road racers to go to cross country races. The first is team competition. This is always strong. In the Open divisions, the scoring is not done by time, as is done in road racing, but by place. The teams count their top five placers and their combined place is their score. The lowest score is the winner. On top of that, their three non scoring members, sixth, seventh, eighth, displace other teams members.
In Masters competitions the time is counted so the lowest combined times of the top scoring runners determines the winners.
In the Liberty Waterfront Club and Team Grand Prix, a two point bonus is added to each scoring team’s score. So team captains plead, cajole and perhaps bribe their members to come to the cross country races.
The second incentive applies to the back-of-the-pack racers, who are usually in the senior masters age divisions. In cross country they are given a boost in the New Balance Grand Prix scoring. The floor is raised from 200 to 300.
That means that even the senior who finishes last will have one hundred more points than at a road race championship.
HOLMDEL NEXT SUNDAY
The USATF-New Jersey 5K Cross Country Championship for all divisions is at Holmdel Park next Sunday. Men will run at 9:00 a.m. and women at 9:45 a.m.
Deer Path Park in Readington will be the site of the 8K Championship. Men will start at 10:30 a.m. and women at 11:30 a.m.
More information can be found at www.usatfnj.org.
Originally Published in the DAILY RECORD of Morris County on Sunday, October 16, 2005
Copyright MADELINE BOST, 2005