The attendance at today's PAC-10 Cross Country Championships was huge. The races were well run. The weather was perfect. Long Beach Airport was directly across the street from the Skylinks Gold Course parking lot entrance. Many people made it a day trip. This is the best planned cross country meet I have ever been to anywhere in the world. Thanks to USC for a superb job.
You are serious? We waited three hours for the official results. The course was....well it was fine for a hard surface run, but not up to a difficult cross country course standard. Nevermind, you wouldn't understand.
No you dumb ass. Coaches want conference champs challenging but insist on saving the legs for the regionals and finals. Any course can be simply altered by the grounds crew.
That meet is horrible. course was not measured correctly. Results for the men side still not officially posted... usc does a lot of things wrong its pretty sad really. Like that human race 10k that they had a few weeks back. The course was not measured correctly. The results never posted! They ran out of water... just horrible. once again usc failed.
There was plenty of water. It tasted just like Northern California water. I wonder why ? The course was fine. The results are handled by the results service contractor not USC.
Im a northwest guy who came to support his son at the Pac-10 Championsips. So I am not involved in this USC-UCLA fighting that goes on down south.
I must say that the meet was very well run. The golf course was in great shape, it was a spectator friendly race, the weather was awesome, and it was well organized. Your gripe about some Nike road race weeks ago has nothing to do with the Pac-10 cross country championships.
I can tell you weren't at the meet because the results were posted at the site within 5 minutes. Im not sure why the Pac-10 office didn't get the final results out sooner but things like that happen.
My wife and I enjoyed our trip to Long Beach. You got to give credit where credit is due. And USC did a great job of putting this meet on. As to the USC-UCLA infighting feud, I stay away from that stuff. Its time to grow up pal.
What do you expect from those gutty little Bruins. A few years ago their cross country team talked trash after having a good recruiting class. They were popping off about how they were going to beat the Ducks and the rest of the Pac-10.
But this is what happend. They weren't prepared because they aren't tough enough, they got frustrated when things didn't do well. And then they imploded when their coach put too much pressure on them. The end result was that they got their coach fired and the rest is history.
You got nothing over a whiny, spoiled 3 year old. Grow a pair, and shut the eff up.
PAC-10 is a bunch of little bitches. Course seems like a 7500m downhill road race. It should be called PAC-10 Downhill Road RAce championships. This is not cross country. Cross country is built around toughness, not pussy little bitch courses like the PAC-10 has.
I know it's tough when residents of Los Angeles County brought home 9 medals from the 2009 IAAF WCs in Berlin, San Franciso County brought home only one, while the entire state of Oregon brought home zero. But keep the faith. Maybe the state of Oregon can finally medal at 2011 Daegu, 2012 London, or... someday.
I thuogh the meet was awesome. Very rare and well-done.
2009 Berlin wrote:
I know it's tough when residents of Los Angeles County brought home 9 medals from the 2009 IAAF WCs in Berlin, San Franciso County brought home only one, while the entire state of Oregon brought home zero. But keep the faith. Maybe the state of Oregon can finally medal at 2011 Daegu, 2012 London, or... someday.
This had literally nothing to do with this thread.
Los Angeles county is like 3 times bigger (population wise) than all of Oregon...
Gotta Be Kidding wrote:
You are serious? We waited three hours for the official results. The course was....well it was fine for a hard surface run, but not up to a difficult cross country course standard. Nevermind, you wouldn't understand.
Says the Oregon snob.
Being one of the few Cross Country fans down here (most people think you are talking moto cross when you mention cross country down here), exactly what did that guy say that isn't true? The results were three hours late in getting out to the rest of the world and the cross was awfully easy for a cross country championship.
LA Cross Country Fan wrote:
Being one of the few Cross Country fans down here (most people think you are talking moto cross when you mention cross country down here), exactly what did that guy say that isn't true? The results were three hours late in getting out to the rest of the world and the cross was awfully easy for a cross country championship.
If by one of the few you mean a few thousand then yes. I have been to the last ten pac 10 champs and this was one of the most well attended. And all college champ xc meets are flat. They could be in the middle of the rockies, the course will be flat.
It was a great meet and whoever wrote that the conferences like to save their runners legs with easier courses is correct and why not. Each Pac-10 team got to run the same course didn't they. They venue was great the weather was great and everyone forgot to mention the hamburgers, they were also great. I couldn't believe that they sold the program for one buck, it was worth at least five. But some people have to find fault in something but it is their problem not ours. It was a great meet!!!!!!
try this one wrote:
It was a great meet and whoever wrote that the conferences like to save their runners legs with easier courses is correct and why not. Each Pac-10 team got to run the same course didn't they. They venue was great the weather was great and everyone forgot to mention the hamburgers, they were also great. I couldn't believe that they sold the program for one buck, it was worth at least five. But some people have to find fault in something but it is their problem not ours. It was a great meet!!!!!!
Nice! He put that bait out there and got him some Sucker-Fish. (9/10)
I don't know who told the high school teams to come down in the morning from all over Southern California, workout at Skylinks, then cheer and support the PAC-10 teams. But who(m)ever did so did the right thing. Those high school cross country kids really made the meet fun for everyone. Job well done.
One of the best XC meets ever held in North America (you're including Canada too, how nice)?
From a competition stand point it was great to see the Oregon men v the Stanford men, followed by the Washington women v the Oregon women, on a neutral course go head to head. Plus there were a load of quality individuals in both races to keep them from being complete dual meets. Plus, great efforts on the part of all the runners. Anyone at the finish line could see the toll this race took on these guys and gals, as many dropped to the ground just past the finish line, exhausted. Yes, one of the best XC races I've ever seen. Good job making that happen USC.
Well organized? How hard is it to make sure 2 races, an hour apart, go off on time? Well USC made it look easy and did a great job at it.
Well planned? How hard is it to make a spectator-friendly course? Not too terribly hard when you stick to the 4 X 2,000 meter lap format. And it's on a fairly flat golf course. And you stick a dog-leg that goes up one fairway and back on the adjoining one to add an extra couple of easy-access viewing points to an otherwise big circle. USC pulled this off rather well too.
How hard is it to measure a course so that it is exactly the correct distance for each race? Well, there's some debate about how well that job went. If the course was short, there was plenty of room to move the starting line back, as well as the finish line.
How hard is it to create a proper XC course with some XC-type terrain on it? Maybe put a hill on it somewhere? Well, pretty hard if you are stuck with a golf course in Long Beach. I wonder if there are any USC alumni on the board of directors, or such, at Skylinks?
How hard is it to design a course that doesn't have a dog-leg that loops back around in such away that the spectators start cutting in front of the last 1/3 of the runners just to get to the next point in the course in time to see the lead pack? Maybe a little fore thought on crowd control would have been prudent. This, of course, was the flip-side to that extra effort to make the course spectator friendly. Turns out the course is now runner un-friendly. Really shameful USC.
Was this really one of the best XC meets ever held in North America? One of what? One of the top 10? No. One of the top 100, probably not. I just saw much better meet management, organization and spectator friendliness, not to mention course design, last week at the Mt SAC Invitational.