USATF National Club XC Championships 2022 - Golden Gate Park surface?

Uhhh, probably grass with used syringes and human feces. Probably put 1/4 inch pins in your spikes and get tested for HIV right afterwards. Hardy har har derp derp derp!!!

Thank you for the very insightful comment.

It's grass with the exception of the section that runs alongside JFK drive, which is an asphalt path.

And the polo field t portion is dirt.

The start is on a medium-length grass field, you go through that for a little bit before getting onto the polo field track loop, which is about 3/4 mile and hard-packed dirt with patches of asphalt here and there, completely flat. After the track loop the meat of the race is 2 laps of a ~2.6 mile loop - you go back onto the grass and up a little hill to a hairpin turn onto a dirt path, which gradually descends for the next 1.2ish miles (about 130 feet of loss) then goes up again back to the polo field. Once you're on the polo field again you do a half lap on the track and do another 2.6 mile loop, at the end of that instead of leaving the track you go another 400 meters on it to the finish line. Overall probably 70 percent trail/30 percent grass. Some of the dirt could be too hard to wear spikes on, when I've raced here I always wore Vaporflys.

Thank you! Great insight

So asphalt here and there or or along an asphalt path as Ray suggested? Are dragonfly to be avoided?

Wear spikes, you will regret it if you don't (especially if it's wet or you're in open race and course is chewed up). I don't remember pavement in polo field, just dirt. The path along JFK is hard with rocks (and one or two short pavement crossings, small service roads, only pavement on course) so back in the day of thin midsole spikes I'd run along the edge (right) in the grass. Be careful not to go too far right as there used to be many holes in the grass to turn an ankle in...

Thanks. I'll be bringing multiple options to race in and plan to preview the course, but it's nice to narrow down what I'm packing.

Came here to try and find this thread, thanks for posting

still totally undecided on what shoes to wear. I see the person who wears VF’s… scared of breaking my ankle in the grass hah. Not personally sold on spikes.. and waffles don’t seem perfect either. Hmmm

somebody please tell me the perfect shoe so I can get out of decision paralysis, thx

It's hard to say what is the best shoe. Probably there is no "perfect" shoe. The terrain is mixed including some hard surfaces which make spikes tricky. I'd guess trail shoes or waffles would work well.

Will there be hay bails? they have been on this course in the past.

You have a course map. Now go to Google Maps and figure it out.

i ran there in spikes 2015--i don't recall any long stretches of pavement, only a couple of crossings. the part i didn't like with the spikes was the long stretch along JFK, which you do twice--it was rocky (though mostly flat rocks, not jutting ones), but still dirt overall, so i found myself worrying more about my line (to avoid rocks) than just running fast on this downhill portion.

my position for this year: i'll bring both light racing flats and spikes. if it's a little wet/soft, i'll wear spikes; if it's fairly dry, i may wear flats.

hope this helps,

cush

Not for a national champs, especially with 80+ age group runners on the course.

Also ran this course in 2015 in Saucony spikes and don’t recall any difficulty. If I were running it this year, I’d say cush has the right idea.

Cush, thanks for your previous insight. But which shoes will be best for the first 400 meters? That's all that really matters isn't it? :)

i will likely spike up for the first 400 or so, up until the dirt polo track, then just like on various stages of the tour de france where they switch bikes, i'll switch shoes to flats, leaving my spikes where i can don them again with around 200m to go...