hardest x-c course you've ever run

Harwood Union High School in Duxbury, VT

there is a hill there that makes girls cry

The old course behind Chenango Valley High School near Binghamton, NY. There was a mountain of woods behind the high school with a railroad track at the top. You ran up a very steep and quite long hill twice. One time you ended up on the railroad track where spectators made it so that you had to run in the rocks on the side of the track.

The rest of the course was tough with gradual uphills, a long flat area in the middle a some steep downhills. It was 3 miles, later 3.1.

Agreed soldier, it may not be the toughest, however the year I ran it, it was about 95 degrees. So on that day I doubt there were many harder courses out there. Constant hills, no place to get into a rhythm, in other words a gread cross country course. They need to hold the NCAA's there again.

Brandywine creek state park in DE, for the second flatest state in the union it sure is a bitch. Plus hereford isn't really all that bad, it's just porrly designed. One of the worst bottle necks ever as soon as you cross the field, and then the roped off section before you enter the dip again. Those pads are definately for show, you'd have to be retarded to run into a tree.

Are you talking about the course at Ashtubla (spell?) Ohio? I ran that course twice. Definately the hardest course I ever ran on. You run through that river at about 4 miles and you get out feeling like an ice cube. Then you run a half mile stretch and are just warming back up when it's back through the river again. I made the mistake my first year of trying to dive under the water and swim.

You also forgot to mention the field that you run through right before the finish. Seven foot tall weeds that have to trail until the leader makes one. Also the trails in the woods are nothing, but tree roots. Ankles are turning all over the place.

Hardest race I ever ran, and also the most fun :)

If anyone has info about that course at Geneva-on-the-Lake "bahston" talked about, I'd love to hear it. That's a course I'd pay good money to run.

. wrote:

Parliament Hill, London, England.

I think the only flat bits on the course amounts to about half a mile on the whole course..

Esp the southerns champs which are 3 laps - so about 11-12k which is about 7-8 miles?

only soft shandy-drinking southerners think that Parliament Hill is the toughest cross country course around

Unfortunately, I think that they stopped running the race. It was an incredible experience, and I hope that they bring it back some day.

Washington & Lee 8k XC course in VA is pretty tough. At least one of the hills has a name which we all know is never a good sign.

I spent 90 hours this past summer rebuilding half of the Chenango Valley XC course.

The old hill wasn't part of my rebuilding. It is just totally ridiculously roots, rocks and nearly hand over hand steep.

Brian Clas holds the course record, he had to run about 4:40 pace to make up for the 8 minute pace on the hill.

Talked to Clas after we raced Penn Relays OD 10k one year, and he says, 'what was up with that freaking hill anyway?'

It was called "the legend"

LCC ALUM wrote:

Are you talking about the course at Ashtubla (spell?) Ohio? I ran that course twice. Definately the hardest course I ever ran on. You run through that river at about 4 miles and you get out feeling like an ice cube. Then you run a half mile stretch and are just warming back up when it's back through the river again. I made the mistake my first year of trying to dive under the water and swim.

You also forgot to mention the field that you run through right before the finish. Seven foot tall weeds that have to trail until the leader makes one. Also the trails in the woods are nothing, but tree roots. Ankles are turning all over the place.

Hardest race I ever ran, and also the most fun :)

Another vote for Parliament Hill. Unbelievably tough - the Southern is 9 miles and even in the driest winter will be guaranteed to be muddy. The winning time can vary on that course by about 7 minutes depending on the severity of the conditions. The only flat bit is the last 200m finishing straight. I love it though and I'll be there for the English National next February.

One that seemed hard when I was young was the northern schools at Lyme Park, Disley. Severe hills, mud, streams the lot. I remember one year doing the under 18s and John Nuttall won (Circa 1985)- I think he was the only one who didn't have to stop and walk up the big hill at the back of the course. I'm told they don't use that course anymore cos its National Trust land or something. Shame, beautiful scenery.

In my experience, it was the USATF Junior National course on Stanford's Golf Course in Palo Alto. I think I was almost forced to a walk at one point, while one of the Hausers won in close to 25-minutes. Amazing. I had run 26:17 during the year, but could only manage a 27:14 at that race to place in the 30's.

The Legend/Ashtabula/Geneva/whatever --

is there an open race on this course?

Brandywine Creek in Delaware is pretty damn hard. I remember seeing Webb run there his junior year. He ran 16:03 or 16:04. The course record is held by Sharif Karie in 15:58.

I have run that course at Kent before.. It is ashtabula i think . i won it once and only ran like 29:10 but it was a weird couse, through water and on the beach..davis and elkins was a wicked tough on to. prob the toughest ever i have run

Being from the tough north of England I have experienced my share of hardships on the country. Such hardships led me to create a list, known as the bastard courses list, which comprises the most brutal courses that myself or my team mates have run on. Courses merit inclusion for a whole host of different factors and on the toughest courses, even multiple factors. Such as the course in Uttoxeter which was contrived in the mind of a German sadist and includes the fording of 6 rivers and both an uphill start and finish.

Sunken Meadow State park on Long Island is the hardest thing I have ever seen. I thought Vancortdland was easy compared to this course. There was a mixture of sand and dirt and 2 or 3 monsterous hills. I am suprised I have not seen this yet on the boards. It was the regional champs my freshman year in the PSAC in 97.

Lyndon State College in Vermont has the hardest course I've ever seen. Been a few years since we raced there, but the only non uphill/downhill area is about 150m at the start. Notice I didn't say "the only flat area", because that area is kind of on a sidehill. Course is narrow, muddy in sections, rocks/roots in other sections. This course also has one of the sweetest sections I've ever seen-about 100m slight downhill through these huge parallel pines. The pines are close enough so that if you ran with your arms outstretched you could touch both sides.