I only really know Van Cortlandt and Franklin Park. I'm always reading, in relation to those two courses, that whiel storied and traditional courses, etc., they are not the most challenging XC courses.
Which courses ARE the most challenging, then? I'm not even sure which other courses are even as well-known or noteworthy.
RIM ROCK in Lawrence, KS
another vote for Rim Rock!
rim rock as well. that terrain there is gnarly. tough to get a good rhythm going.
- uc santa cruz xc challenge (santa cruz, ca)
- any course on the wazzu golf course (god-awful course)
Rim Rock, bro. The hill on the backside will chew you up and spit you out. plus, the soft ground sucks all the energy out of your stride out on the big field.
last years d2 national championship course in slippery rock, pennsylvania....i know there are some guys out there that have my back on this one.
rim rock is pretty tough, i cant say ive ran it in college, it was pretty tough in high school though.
West Point's course looks like a bear, it includes 2 or 3 times part of the way up a ski slope. There is no flat ground at all. The footing is pretty good most of the way.
Brian
University of Illinois - Champaign on the blue golf course.
Sunken Meadow in Long island, at least for high school.
I have to give it up to Rim Rock!
No doubts on Slippery Rock. It seems to me that all the Pennsylvania courses I've seen (championship courses) are a bear. D2 regionals 1985 were held in East Stroudsburg and that course just punished me. Think I ran 41:00 or something ungodly glacially slow to finish about 10 places behind last place. At least it felt that way. Honestly, I felt like I was on that race course for about a month between the time the gun went off and the time I found my way back to the finish line.
Hardest course I've seen since I started coaching last year is the one we ran last weekend at Lyndon State College in Northeast Vermont. There are a few "easy" sections through the woods, but nothing flat other than the section around the start/finish line. That area is about 200 meters long, but it's on a sidehill. Total elevation gain isn't tremendous, but this course never stops coming at you. Footing is ok, roots and rocks but nothing outrageously dangerous. The lower loop goes through a mud bog with a couple of wooden footbridges that are partially gone. Lots of changes in direction for the whole 8k. It's a tough course physically, and also mentally because there's a lot of single track sections.
Real XC...real Vermont XC :-)
Lyndon's a top 20 NAIA school. Their coach told me that they've had 1 guy run sub 30:00 on the course the last few years. He's a 26:00, maybe slightly faster, runner, and holds the course record of 29:something. That says it all.
Sunken Meadow for College at 5m & 10km is even worse. The 10km best on that course is like 34:30.
West virginia has a pretty nasty home course, The teams that decide to come to the meet only come for one year than never come agian becasue the course is so hard, hell we never went back and I'm happy my legs were dead for a week after that race.
By far the most challenging is the Yarker Classic!
i ran on sunken meadow in high school and it's gotta be the toughest hs course in the state they should have the state meet there every year. franklin park and van cortlandt are tuff but not overly tuff. west virginia's course is a bitch as well. a huuuuuuge uphill in the first half-mile takes the juice out of you. a real tough one also is belmont plateau in philly. as well as the course at thetford academy in vermont. morty's monster is a bitch. there's even a sign at the topof this hill that says you've successfully completed the hill!!!!
will be held at the Crystal Springs XC course in Belmont, Calif. You'll be hearing a lot of belly-aching on this board after folks run that course. A brutal, cloverleafed, clusterf*** of non-stop hills and no shade. Run a hard 10K there nine days before NCAAs? Ouch! Anyone qualifying out of that region who runs balls out could still be sore when they toe the line at Indiana State at NCAAs in late November. It's probably unfair to Stanford for them have to run there, that's how bad it is.
I ran there last week. It ain't that bad. The hills are small and the footing is good.
It is just a 3 miler, but it is more than tough! Four knee deep river crossings, many hills including a half mile climb. The downhills are nuts and the mud sucks your shoes off.
If it rains, you need 3/4 inch to 1 inch spikes to get up the clay ground.
By far the toughest course in Oregon, and I have run a few...
From what I remember way back in HS, Holmdel Park in NJ was pretty tough, known for 'the bowl' - site of the annual state meet.