West district will be at Stanford golf course, not Crystal Springs.
West district will be at Stanford golf course, not Crystal Springs.
hands down Slippery Rock that thing is compete death on a stick... i love it
Slippery Rock, PA is the hardest x-c course I've ever seen. NCAA's in '92 were there in the pouring rain. Worst day ever, until the regional there in '96. Franklin Park is a walk in the park compared to that place.
Derryfield Park in Manchester, NH is my vote for high school with a nod to the pre-groomed(mid 90's& earlier) Van Cortland Park.
The course at West Point is definitely pretty tough...for the men's 8K you have to run up part of the ski slope 3 times..at 1K, 4K, and 6K. There's also a pretty nasty downhill stretch that ends with a 90 degree turn...
...the patriot league championship race there is gonna be interesting. I heard that they are eliminating the small hill you go up around the mile mark (after the uphill).
another vote for the jersey state course -holmdel. personally i believe the old belmont course in philadelphia is hard as shit, untill they made it easy for the atlantic 10 meet taking out shirk and nursery hills plus parachute
The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Cross Country Course is a bitch!
the Sundodger course in seattle. Shit that's tough
MISSOULA. run that giant hill 2wice, its a brain drain. they ran US cross nationals one year there. steve scott has a pic of the uphill in his book "the miler."
hammer time, cant touch this
Yeah, NH derrfield is pretty crazy! It runs up a friggn' ski slope mountian and starts and ends up hills.
Well my Vote however goes to ESSEX VT INVITE course, it is crazily hard and hills outcha ass 4 real. Its in an open area too so it can get over 90 degrees and really kill you.
West Virginia has the hardest course on the East coast by far. The meet is heald in Elkins and used to be the state meet until this year. The first mile and 8 tenths is a hill that u run though pine trees were u have to watch your every step or ur dead. It's one nasty beast. Only once, I was told, 17 was ever broke on it. Then after the hill u run thought two creeks and in between the creeks there is a smaller hill with the same pine tress. I will never go back. It'a a hard mother .
vcp and franklin... site of the big east xc meets each year. vcp is tough, i did run 24:16 there and then 23:51 during the 98 xc season and my vcp effort is superior my franklin park best. then i ran on navy's golf course for the ncaa regional meet and that was tough. i the gun went off and steve bohan took off and we went thru the first 1 mile in 4:40 and the mile mark was at the top of a rather steep long hill, ended up running 31:00 for 3rd. navy is not fast and it has huge hills, not sure if they still use the same layout. ncaa were at rim rock that year. courses like rim rock and navy are NOT good courses 10 days before the NCAA D1 meet. going back to vcp, i always raced well there because it favored strength type runners.
vcp and franklin... site of the big east xc meets each year. vcp is tough, i did run 24:16 there and then 23:51 during the 98 xc season and my vcp effort is superior my franklin park best. then i ran on navy's golf course for the ncaa regional meet and that was tough. i the gun went off and steve bohan took off and we went thru the first 1 mile in 4:40 and the mile mark was at the top of a rather steep long hill, ended up running 31:00 for 3rd. navy is not fast and it has huge hills, not sure if they still use the same layout. ncaa were at rim rock that year. courses like rim rock and navy are NOT good courses 10 days before the NCAA D1 meet. going back to vcp, i always raced well there because it favored strength type runners.
rim rock is the toughest by far.... although vcp is a close second.... franklin park is a walk in the park compared to those two
Sorry to disagree, HS Runner, but the Essex (VT) High School Invy is held at Catamount Family Center, which is also my college's home course for our Invy, so I know the course intimately. I used to think Catamount was beastly hard, but now I think it's only the 3rd toughest in Vermont behind Thetford and Lyndon State. The 8k course does the 5k and then adds the upper section, including the open areas. I will give you that in hot sunny weather Catamount is a beast. The way those fields grow there is just no air movement up top when you're out in the sunshine. And the woods are practically all uphill so you're not going to get a break there either.
Why is Thetford harder than Catamount? Simple, "Morty's Monster". That hill is as steep as anything at Catamount and it goes from 3.5-4k. Plus you've already gained some altitude in the first 3.5k through all the rolling hills on the lower loop and the first part of the upper loop. Thetford and Catamount have a similar last 1k in that both courses are pretty fast downhills to finish. I think the start of Catamount is harder than Thetford, but if you run intelligently you get to the mile at Catamount in good shape to hammer the almost all uphill 2nd mile.
Why is Lyndon harder than Thetford or Catamount? See my post above. I wish they had the space and the resources to bring a big race to that course. It would seriously humble some good runners, but I think they'd love racing that course. I just did a comparison for my team today of times at our Invy earlier the beginning of September compared to times run at Lyndon last weekend. All 3 schools this weekend had raced our Invy, so 29 of 31 runners had times to compare. 26 of 29 men ran slower. Average for the top 10 was 66 seconds slower. Average for the 2nd 10 was 61 seconds slower. Average for the bottom 10 was 1:57 slower. Shouldn't we be getting faster at this point in the season :-)
throw in another one for Rim Rock. but here's a few others that may challenge....Oklahoma State's Course, Iowa State's Course(especially if it's covered by 8 inches of snow), and Arkansas' old course(i ran it in '95...it's not too shabby either).
Hardrock, Leadville, Cascade Crest, Wasatch, Angeles Crest, Western States, Old Dominion, Vermont,...sorry, just had to type 'em in. Those are 100-mile trail runs. Sure is interesting reading all the posts here. Thanks to all.
Brevard College's course at Dupont Park
Here\'s another vote for the old Belmont Collegiate course in Philadelphia. Schurkill was the best name for a hill I\'ve ever heard.
hereford...site of the bull run invitational and the md state meet. they have pads on the trees on one hill...that should describe it enough....and u run up and down that hill and many others.