I'm working on a piece of fiction that isn't running-centered, but in which an important character was a decent XC college runner who landed in graduate school in the Boston area roughly 1965-1970. By "decent" I mean that at a D1 school he would have contributed to the team but wouldn't have been considered one of the top runners.
The character's running isn't hugely important to the story, but when I reference it I'd like to reference it accurately.
I lived there then, but wasn't a runner, so I have no first-hand information.
Here are some general questions:
-- would there have been at least occasional XC races that an unattached runner could jump into?
-- what would a likely venue have been? (Franklin Park? Blue Hills?)
-- assuming there were events like that, about how big would they have been? A few dozen runners?
-- would the XC scene have been strongly club-based, or would there have been room for a guy who just liked to jump into a race if he could find one?
-- were there areas where a runner could count on finding other runners training? Fresh Pond? Along the Charles?
Thanks in advance. Anything about the "feel" of those times would be helpful.