Average Cali kid trying to get a true XC meet onto easier courses. That is true XC. You want to do well in the mud train on mud(or sand). I would do strides just in the water on a beach. Gets you used to running in bad conditions.
Maybe California teams should be the ones to travel out of state instead of expecting everyone to come to them at Woodbridge?
I don't know what you have against the california region. You were in the thread trashing us now you are telling us to do stuff we already do. The California teams were the teams that traveled to compete out of region the most out of every region in the country. MANY teams went to Portland OR, and some went to Bob Firman, Hole in the Wall, Manhattan Invitational, Desert Twilight, and even more races.
Obviously XC is about running no matter what about the conditions (to a point), but at some point should something be done to prevent the course/weather conditions from becoming too much of a factor?
Maybe California teams should be the ones to travel out of state instead of expecting everyone to come to them at Woodbridge?
I don't know what you have against the california region. You were in the thread trashing us now you are telling us to do stuff we already do. The California teams were the teams that traveled to compete out of region the most out of every region in the country. MANY teams went to Portland OR, and some went to Bob Firman, Hole in the Wall, Manhattan Invitational, Desert Twilight, and even more races.
California basically gets awarded at larges every year because California.
And we all have to sit and wait to figure it out because of their ass backwards state meet process.
It doesn't help that the most influential person on the committee is a California homer.
Maybe California teams should be the ones to travel out of state instead of expecting everyone to come to them at Woodbridge?
I don't know what you have against the california region. You were in the thread trashing us now you are telling us to do stuff we already do. The California teams were the teams that traveled to compete out of region the most out of every region in the country. MANY teams went to Portland OR, and some went to Bob Firman, Hole in the Wall, Manhattan Invitational, Desert Twilight, and even more races.
I'm not done.
Lol at out of state travel citing Desert twilight. That is 5.5 hours from LA.
Our closest out of state meet worth a damn is 11 hours by bus.
Can someone please tell me why Eagle Island is a bad XC course?
NXR just raced there and I don’t see how it could’ve hurt top runners like Owen Powell, Vincent Recupero, and Tayvon Kitchen. Not to mention, teams like Coeur d’Alene Idaho and Jesuit. Last year, Firman was a great course that helped JoJo Jordan in his XC country season.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
For all the downvotes - why is the NXN course (with weather conditions) considerably more difficult than the ncaa courses. At the NCAA championships most of the top 10 rated athletes finish top ten. You can’t say the same thing for this course. Back to back male winners who were huge upsets. I’d prefer a more fair course like any course that has been used for ncaa championships the past few decades.
For all the downvotes - why is the NXN course (with weather conditions) considerably more difficult than the ncaa courses. At the NCAA championships most of the top 10 rated athletes finish top ten. You can’t say the same thing for this course. Back to back male winners who were huge upsets. I’d prefer a more fair course like any course that has been used for ncaa championships the past few decades.
While this race was fun to watch for us, it might be hard for the athletes to help them quantify and measure fitness and improvement.
in conditions like this, it's only possible if you run first like the girls did. also hedegengren was completely unobstructed and unaffected by other people and the mud given she had so much space. not a great argument
Nico Young used same front running strategy to also win in the slop and set a then record. Boys were first that day.
in conditions like this, it's only possible if you run first like the girls did. also hedegengren was completely unobstructed and unaffected by other people and the mud given she had so much space. not a great argument
Nico Young used same front running strategy to also win in the slop and set a then record. Boys were first that day.
Again, I liked watching the 2024 race, but this is a poor argument because runners who ran within 10 seconds of Nico Young’s Woodward Park time (Eyan Turk, Landon Pretre, Eli Fitchen-young) all ran 52-90 seconds slower than he did. Pretre’s 3200m mile pace was only 3 seconds slower than Nico’s that year and yet he ran 30 second PER MILE slower this year. AGAIN, not the same. The conditions were especially worse today compared to 2019.
Can someone please tell me why Eagle Island is a bad XC course?
NXR just raced there and I don’t see how it could’ve hurt top runners like Owen Powell, Vincent Recupero, and Tayvon Kitchen. Not to mention, teams like Coeur d’Alene Idaho and Jesuit. Last year, Firman was a great course that helped JoJo Jordan in his XC country season.
Hairpin turn within the first kilometer. The ground for the start and finish is horribly uneven, bumpy and full of filled up mole holes
Funny you mention Owen Powell and Recupero, both of those athletes fell flat on their faces going down the monster downhill
It could be a great course with some tweaking and TLC that Nike, the RD or the park are not willing to do
No. About 1/3 of the time it is dry Fall weather and the rest of the time it is cold, wet, Winter weather. That unpredictability is good.
Kids need to learn how to really race on courses that aren't about flat, fast PR courses.
Plus it makes the race about racing. It isn't supposed to be just another version of Arcadia where everyone shows up to run a big PR in a pack, getting pulled along by the top stars.
While this race was fun to watch for us, it might be hard for the athletes to help them quantify and measure fitness and improvement.
This is not a "find out my fitness" type of race. It is a true championship. You are, by definition, peaking for this race and you are in the best shape possible.
You have all off-season to run fast time trials and "measure fitness."
Three laps is kinda ridiculus for that caliber of race, feels like a slightly up graded version of middle school xc when we would run around the school twice then do an out and back
All teams run the same course, so nobody really has an advantage. At the end of the day, the SW schools are simply better. The sport is popular there. If you go to NXR SW, the finish area is six layers deep with people trying to watch the race. There are fifteen different high school sections of races plus two citizens races. Heck, the Southwest states (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and Colorado) are some of the driest states in the country and hardly have any rain or mud, especially in the fall. But they run just fine in the mud in Oregon (top girls and boys teams, 15 of the top 50 in the girl’s race, 14 boys in the top 40). Heck, Rio Rancho, Provo, Niwot and Highlands Ranch are all well below the US average when it comes to precipitation. If any regions should have an advantage, it’s the S, the SE, the NW, the NE, the MW, NY, etc.
All teams run the same course, so nobody really has an advantage. At the end of the day, the SW schools are simply better. The sport is popular there. If you go to NXR SW, the finish area is six layers deep with people trying to watch the race. There are fifteen different high school sections of races plus two citizens races. Heck, the Southwest states (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and Colorado) are some of the driest states in the country and hardly have any rain or mud, especially in the fall. But they run just fine in the mud in Oregon (top girls and boys teams, 15 of the top 50 in the girl’s race, 14 boys in the top 40). Heck, Rio Rancho, Provo, Niwot and Highlands Ranch are all well below the US average when it comes to precipitation. If any regions should have an advantage, it’s the S, the SE, the NW, the NE, the MW, NY, etc.
Tbh, I don't think the team component is much of an issues as the individual-qualifier aspect of the NXN races. But given the fact that many of the individual qualifiers this year did terrible, I think the issue still stands.
While this race was fun to watch for us, it might be hard for the athletes to help them quantify and measure fitness and improvement.
This is not a "find out my fitness" type of race. It is a true championship. You are, by definition, peaking for this race and you are in the best shape possible.
You have all off-season to run fast time trials and "measure fitness."
The whole point of the race is to compare the fitness of the best to other national-level runners. This race prevents that by making it super hard to move up and run well when half the competition trips and when every runner is working twice as hard to maintain balance.
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