NXN has jumped the shark

Personally, I hope high school teams are never combined with the National Championships.

Having a separate race for teams is fine, but it would suck to have a bunch of teams and individuals combined. It would be like dumbing down the WCCC into the NCAA meet, only worse.

I hope Footlocker keeps on doing what they're doing and doesn't change a bit.

My son was a competitor. He has run hundreds of trainin miles with the NXN championship as his main goal. To Nike's credit, they treat the kids (outside of race day) like royalty. He knew he would be running on a wet field and was perfectly fine with that, but Saturday's conditions was beyond mud. Get real. That was not a race. Like running in a slough bottom where cattle have been kept for months. Why not put up some concertina wire and a few climbing walls, if you are looking to see how "tough" these kids can be.

I agree with pretty much everything you say, except that this course or the conditions on that day favor one style of runner over another. As a fan, who wants to watch that mess? Why not hold the Super Bowl in Chicago or the PGA Championship on a public course? When you go to an event to see the "best" I personally do not want the facility to dominate the performance. Hats off to Nike for doing this. However, if they are going to continue to sponsor a high school national championship, then hold it on a course that is an even playing field for all styles of runners. As great as Nike treats the kids in the days leading up to the race, I was shocked at what an egg they laid on race day. By the time the boys championship was run, the course had degraded to the point of looking like no-mans land in world war I.

Well then, they should find a course that has some mud, some hills, some flat, some dirt, some concrete and maybe some altitude so that everyone has a chance and no one type of runner is favored.

I, too, am frustrated that Nike didn't stop the rain on Friday night. They certainly dropped the ball ("laid an egg") in that respect.

FWIW, from year 1 they stated they wanted a "European style" race (ie, mud). Prior to Friday night's rain the course was in similar conditions to most years, but after the heavy rain it became a mudfest (the only other year with conditions that bad were '05 and there has only been 1 dry year).

Not sure if the current Nike people running the show share the same philosophy as the founders of the meet, but I'd personally rather see a course that rewards strength runners than the typical course we find at most meets that benefits the fastest runners and not the best XC types.

You'd think that Nike could afford to create their own XC course. A super course containing mud, dirt, grass, hills, and pavement.

Either that, or throw in a rock wall and some army crawling into the NXN course.