I was reading the 'most famous xc course' thread and wondered what people thought was the hardest course. Consider altitude, hills, narrowness, sand, rocks, mud, bad markings, weather, anything else.
In Arizona there is a course on one of the reservations that is at 6000 feet, all deep sand, with a huge 200+ vertical foot sand climb straight up a mesa at about mile 2. I think the mens course record is over 18 minutes. It's a real killer. And, it's usually hot and windy, too.
I ran through about 4 inches of mud for an entire 5 kilometers on a moderately hilly course in high school. Many shoes were lost that day.
hs xc runner wrote:
I was reading the 'most famous xc course' thread and wondered what people thought was the hardest course. Consider altitude, hills, narrowness, sand, rocks, mud, bad markings, weather, anything else.
In Arizona there is a course on one of the reservations that is at 6000 feet, all deep sand, with a huge 200+ vertical foot sand climb straight up a mesa at about mile 2. I think the mens course record is over 18 minutes. It's a real killer. And, it's usually hot and windy, too.
Yeah we had those same type of courses in New Mexico every thing seems to be sandy and up a mountain at high altitude. It always seemed that coaches were trying to out do each other with a more annoying course. The one i hated the most was the gallup state meet course, not the hardest but it always seemed to be in the worst conditions and of course it mattered the most. When I got to college I realized that the rest of the world had a totally different definition of XC.
Leadville has a pretty hard 100 mile course
Didn't get to run it myself, but I used to coach at Ithaca College and I heard stories about their former course, which involved running up a ski slope. Twice.
And I vividly recall spectating at a NYSHS Federation meet at Sunken Meadow (where I also never got to run), wherein I saw a girl walking up the last steep hill and passing four others in the space of maybe 50 yards. These were State meet competitors!
If I have to be restricted to courses that I personally ran (I didn't run many), then I guess the old Cornell 5.1mi course may have been the toughest, though in the universe of xc courses it was of no more than average difficulty.
And in the Pacific I ran a rolling course that was made more difficult because twice you had to travel a stretch of road that was next to a tethered water buffalo. No danger from the water buffalo itself, but sometimes it would cross the road and stretch out its tether and you'd suddenly have to hurdle the rope (about three feet high).
Also, if you fell on that course (easy enough to do--pretty rugged footing over most of it), you'd typically land on the crushed coral that they used as the base for most of their roads. This would cut you up pretty well, and of course coral cuts typically last forever--I still have some scars, decades later.
hands down the CU buffalo ranch. And it's a 8k not a 5k.
in Maine there's a 5k course that goes uphill for over a mile. last time i was there, in a race with 5 future d I runners, 1 guy broke 20 min and he was over 19. and yes, it was 5k.
HUFF 50k. I ran one 10.9 mile loop as part of a relay.
10 degrees, ice and snow packed on a dirt/grass trail. I fell a lot.
Hills only last for a short time....mud, ice, snow...last the entire way!
Alan
That is not a cross country course.
Crystal Springs in Belmont, CA. Definitely the hardest for me, but I didn't get around much. Good dirt road surface, just hilly.
it's not as hard as the courses described above, but Goat Hill, on the Course for Coatesville, PA high school is a real barn burner. The second mile is basically straight up a mammoth hill. At least two girls collapsed on the course that day.
What course is that? Anyways, at Cony high school in Maine I ran USATF states and regionals for cross country and the course isn't so much hard as much as the fact that the whole first half is uphill, and when I say up hill I mean very steep uphill with no flat spots on the way up.
keepitup wrote:
Crystal Springs in Belmont, CA. Definitely the hardest for me, but I didn't get around much. Good dirt road surface, just hilly.
I love that course, my favorite in High School.
Belmont Plateau in Philly
University of Missouri. Seemed like it was uphill the whole way.
Gale Woods in MN, but it sounds pretty tame compared to some of these other courses.
Trask Mt. in Oregon. Two river crossing, a mud pit and a 1k hill at a near 45 degree angle. I was a 16 flat runner in HS and I ran just over 20 minutes for it. I think the course record is right around 18:30 if I remember correctly.
bull run which is also the md state course. not to hard that it cant be completed but what xc is about. hills and through the woods.
I never found Crystal Springs too hard except for the oxygen debt you got from getting too happy on the 1/2mi downhill and dust inhalation.Soquel had a challenging course with a big hill in the beginning and nasty downhill after. I remember running for my life trying to avoid runners tripping and tumbling down behind me & in front. Good times, LOL...
keepitup wrote:
Crystal Springs in Belmont, CA. Definitely the hardest for me, but I didn't get around much. Good dirt road surface, just hilly.
Any of the many course over the years at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Hosted the DII meet several times.