Cross Country Course with Finish on Track

Kazaam says "absolutely allowable" in his state, but supposes it might vary based on state organizations.

There's likely no state governing body in your state for middle school competition, so if you wanted to have the whole thing on the track that'd probably be fine too (but counting laps would get old).

#IAMKAZAAM out!

Why would it be illegal to include a portion of the race (or finish of the race) on a track?

You could probably have the entire race on the track if you really wanted - I don't see how that would break any rules.

Not a fan of XC races that end on a track.

If you have a track available, then you also have a nice wide flat stretch of grass in the middle of the track that makes more sense for the finish of an XC race.

Though I'm happy with just keeping the race finish outside of a stadium altogether.

Its fine to finish the last part of an xc race on a track.

The last 200m of the 2008 Olympic Marathon was on the track

The Footlocker Western Regional 5K course at Mt. Sac! For spectators, I think it's awesome to have the race finish on the track inside the stadium.

Dana Hills Invite. Orange County, CA. Very flat, very fast. Finishes on the oval. Barely CC.

rexthebex wrote:

Not a fan of XC races that end on a track.

If you have a track available, then you also have a nice wide flat stretch of grass in the middle of the track...

.

or field turf

A real Cross Country Course shouldn't finish on a track. Especially with today's synthetic tracks. Runners can't wear the larger spikes if the finish is on the track and a real cross country course requires mud and hills, which runners should be using 3/8" spikes at the smallest.

Unless your school is still old school and has a cinder track, I say no to track finishes for cross country. ( the marathon analogy is not applicable as marathons are road races to begin with, so a track finish isn't a big deal as they don't need longer spikes to help get traction on the course.)

I did have one interesting high school course that ran around the track, not on it. The track was a large bermed bowl track stadium. There was a 5' wide patch of grass between the track and the start of the concrete stadium, which was imbedded into the berm on both the front and back straightaways. We would run the last 800+ around the track. The first in the grass lane 9, then when you reached the end of the back straight go up the berm to the top of the stadia and run another 3/4 of a lap around the outside and finish behind the press box. This was on grass the whole way with 2 or 3 segments which crossed concrete sidewalks. But I never finished on a track that was not cinder in my career and called it a cross country race. That's a road race in my opinion.

Cross country by definition is supposed to have varied surfaces. Nothing wrong with having last 300-400 meters on track . If course is on school campus and stadium has elevated stands track finish can allow spectators to watch most of race from distance and cheer on the finish.

At my HS about 3/4 of a mile of our 2.1 mile home course was on the track. Granted it was dirt track, so depending on the football field watering and how many tire ruts were on it, it could be non-Rupp certified surface.