Santa Clara University had a home meet on an extremely hilly course in a park (Almadden?) in San Jose that was more hilly than Crystal Springs.
Santa Clara University had a home meet on an extremely hilly course in a park (Almadden?) in San Jose that was more hilly than Crystal Springs.
Mt. Sac is hard. The hills are steep so if you can charge hills and fly wrecklessly down the other side you are fine.
That said there are much harder courses out there. However Mt. Sac is probably one of the harder "famous" courses out there.
Agreed on all accounts but the one thing lacking at Crystal Springs is parking. Neighbors complain all year about the park there (um you knew it was there when you bought the house) and have threatened to have the city shut it down.
Building a parking lot near an old rest stop
was rejected. Sad that there's nowhere for kids to run and even those that are out there are threatened.
not sure if it's the same anymore but in the 90's Alaska had some pretty tough cross country courses....I remember the Colony HS course having something like 21 hills, just non-stop short steep climbs. The winning times in my region in 93 and 94 was 17:30 and 18:11....yes for guys...one of whom had at least a 15:15 PR.
Willow Hills XC course in Folsom is harder than Mt. SAC and harder than Crystal Springs
There is almost no flat on the entire course and the route is still covered (although there has been much grooming, and it's gotten better) in all shapes and sizes of rocks. The following photo is pretty standard for the condition of the course surface
https://picasaweb.google.com/104578475190206874870/WillowHillsPhotos#6209203195576725586
The uphills and downhills are steep and herky jerky, totally unlike the long rolling hills of SAC or Crystal. The turns are sudden and rhythm killing.
The powers that be keep adevertising the course as a full 5k, but it has gradually been shortened up over the last few years and is probably closer to 3 miles even, but the times are still a good 30 seconds slower than on the Woodward Park 5k course.
Mt. Sac historyhttp://archive.dyestat.com/results/xc2003/Oct/24MtSAC/CourseChange.htm
Palos Verdes Peninsula HS wrote:
http://www.pvcrosscountry.com/PV_Cross_Country/Bay_League_Finals.htmlThe Palos Verdes Peninsula HS course is shared by Palos Verdes HS and located at
1994 Palos Verdes Dr. Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274.
This map shows the 3 200+ foot climbs
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.783642,-118.4143242,80a,20y,180h,83.42t/data=!3m1!1e3
This ^
I read about it in the book "Cross Country 101."
I've run Crystal Springs (I ran the longer course in college) and while it is a tough course, the hardest High School XC course I have ever seen has to be the "Hard Course" from the Three Course Challange at Seaside Oregon. Sub 16 guys routinely run 19:30s to 20:00 minutes. Guys that have been in the low 15s have failed to break 19 minutes on that course. It is god awful. It has a "mud pit" reminiscent of a "tough mudder" run rather than a high school cross country meet
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