crazy xc race stories

My high school, and another one were actually banned from running against each other for four years (to cycle everyone involved out). The reason......Bench clearing brawl durring the race.

In essence, they pushed one of our guys down a big hill, we pushed back, one thing led to another. The big winner of the day was the third school in the meet. They were the only ones that had 5 guys cross the line.

Are you trying to write for SI on Campus? A hack came up to me and asked me the same exact question in basically those exact words.

yup-- but just some background stuff. so i'm not a hack. real runner just helping them out.

are you dan rather, cuz he gets alot of his "information" off message boards.

My high school course had a large mud pit, eaily 20 feet in diameter and about mid-thigh deep. One year, we held sectionals there, and one of our JV runners, being a crazy fellow, decided to do a back flip into the pit. He ran up on a ledge, did his back flip, and caught a runner from another school right in the shoulder with his spikes. They both went down, and got back up, covered in mud and blood.

I, being slightly less crazy, only performed a normal flip into the pit and managed to not injure anyone else. Got a nice photo though:

http://home.twcny.rr.com/xcgeorge/pics/xcmud.jpg

Ok, although this isn't XC, crazy incident happened one year at one of the NYC Corporate Challenges in Central Park. You got to realise this race is more packed than any NYC marathon you might have been in. In the men's first race there are about 4000 NYC male runners, most high stressed Wall St. types, all trying to line up within the first few feet of the line. The start is like the running of the bulls in Spain. Worse than a JV hs race. Total chaos. If you fall there is no chance of getting back up. You will be spit out the back and end up in some hospital emergency room.

Well anyway, once, in the first 1/2 mile of the race, these two guys start yelling at each other, aparently one cut-off the other, after a few shouts, they started pushing and punching each other. This was going on while running at around a 5:30 pace! Then they start chasing each other zig-zaging through the crowd, yelling and screaming. Although you could not see them anymore, you could hear them yeling. Finally lost them in the crowd of people. A few of us that were behind them thought it was the funniest thing they've ever seen in a race.

I was running in an XC race a while back where two runners were run over by deer. One kid was knocked out cold.

Tom Servo wrote:

I was running in an XC race a while back where two runners were run over by deer. One kid was knocked out cold.

that was no deer, that my friend was jason rexing.

naia nationals some years back. one of the runners ran the entire race with his frank and beans hanging out of his shorts. no shit. kenosha wisconsin in about 20 degree weather with the wind and snow coming at him. he never wore underwear, and the team got new shorts the day before the race, he didn;t wear underwear and the new shorts were obviously a little looser than the old ones. still ended up all american i think but his shit was getting slapped around for 26 minutes in the cold. like a god damn pinball machine. i feel for ya brotha.

My story can't compare with the beans and franks at NAIA nats, but a good lesson for young racers.

Senior year of high school we have a stud team (took third the year before and only lost one guy). Early in the season we hear of this freshman phenom from across town who has won every early meet. Our coach was a super competitive guy who hated the coach of the phenom and really wanted to crush him. So, our coach instructs me and my friend Mike (top 2 runners on the team), to take the first mile out in an absolutely ridiculous 4:40 - he figures we're strong enough and experienced enough to pull it off without crumbling - and he knows this frosh is going to go out with us. We go through in 4:41 with this guy right on our tail, and our coach says, "drop him, NOW". Believe me, you do what this guy says, so we actually pick it up. The frosh instantly blows up like I've never seen! So do we about 100m later, but he's toast. We run a couple of ~6 min miles to get the win, our entire varsity team beats the phenom.

Only worked once though. He ran smarter after that (but still behind me. Ha.)

my buddy was knocked up in the air by a deer at the NESCAC championships a few years back. He fell on his head and shoulder, but the dude is so tough he was able to get up, shake it off, and finish in the top 20!!! The craziest part was that he thought it was a teammate of ours who had slipped and hit him. He never saw the deer and was absolutely shocked to hear he was hit by one. That is the craziest story I have ever heard in an XC race.

tried to trip some bastard that cut me off about 3/4 mile into the race and i was the one that ended up falling down. i rolled about 5 times, dodged the huge pack behind me somehow. managed to get up and still run a 15:20 5K...horrible race, only thing good was i beat the dude that cut me off to begin with.

Scott Stuernagel, a many time DIII All Amrican from UW Oshkosh, was shot in the leg by a 22 caliber rifle while runing a high school race. Felt pain but finished, only to discover the hit. Wow, that's tough.

Ended up winning 4 All Americans in CC and probably 10 times in track including a way below 9 minute steeple.

Yeah, I heard about that deer incident. Happened a real long time ago though to a Tufts kid when NESCACs was at Bates I believe. Kid was winning or was with the leaders at that point when he got run over. Think he still ended up top 15 or so.

at the regional qualifiers meet for track, my teamates were running, i think the 1600, and they didn't like eachother. One of them is crazy w/the elbows and pushed the other off the track. That girl got mad caught her and pushed her pretty hard right back. It makes me smile to this day. (cuz i didn't like one of the girls either)

Also at Kenosha for NAIA nationals, less than a hundred yards into the race, a runner tripped and fell down right in front of me. It happened so quick, and I couldn't go to the left or right of me, that as he was pushing himself back off the ground, I put my hands on his back, pushed him back down and leap frogged him. Next track season, I took up the steeple.

gsd wrote:

Also at Kenosha for NAIA nationals, less than a hundred yards into the race, a runner tripped and fell down right in front of me. It happened so quick, and I couldn't go to the left or right of me, that as he was pushing himself back off the ground, I put my hands on his back, pushed him back down and leap frogged him. Next track season, I took up the steeple.

was that in 2002? i think i was next to you in that race cuz i saw something similar in '02! that was a WAY crazy race! so slippery with the mud and all!

one of the craziest things that i have seen in a 5k race, not XC, but track. i am going to leave the names out...

there was a runner from a team in Utah with his teammates (about 7 runners from their team total)-- the dude was seriously 7 feet tall- size 16's and all. well, he walks out in front of everyone on the start and says, "we'll be running 72's for the first 7 laps. don't even think about going in front of us," or something like that. the official was looking confused, and the rest of the people, myself included were like, "whatever".

about 1400m into the race, there was a runner who is about 5' tall wearing one inch spikes, who decided he wanted to take the lead over from the tall guy. the tall dude's arm swing was so high, that the shorter guy went right under- neath it and it didn't even hit his head! i thought for sure that he was gonna get nailed right in his face. it was pretty funny.

i only have 4 more XC races left, so hopefully i will have a cool story like some of these already!

oh wait, last year at my school's XC invite, my junk fell out of my shorts towards the end of the race, but about 100m later up hill, they were shifted back in.

We were at a meet in high school. Anyway, the team lined up next to us were really dorky. We were solemn and quiet and concentrating on our race. Anyway, they were quoting lame movies and just being generally annoying like most cross country dorks. A guy on our team told one kid if he didnt shut up he was going to murder him. The kid got real quiet but still responded, like "gee whiz, ok, settle down, dont get so serious." after the meet, while on their cooldown in the forest, the kid from the other team had to stop to tie his shoe. My friend was waiting and he murdered that kid and dumped his body in a nearby river. We laughed about it for weeks.

I remember at a race a year ago, about 2 miles in, I hear someone yelling "f***you" or something to that extent. I look back and see my teammate and this other dude pushing each other down the hill. They were still going at it while running for a good two or three minutes. I think my buddy bumped into him and he thought it was deliberate, but they didnt stop to talk about it. What was even funnier, at the end, we went to get the medals for the top 15 or 20 places and line up for a picture, and they ended up right next to each other (with about a five foot gap in between them for the picture...). That same meet, someone cut me off and I accidentally spiked him mid calf with 1/2 inchers in. I felt bad, it tore his whole calf to shreds and Im pretty sure sure he dropped out. It was a rough meet.