Snowflakes win again? DI Northeast regional XC championships is changed to road race because it snowed

Everyone keeps bringing up the snow for the move to road. Snow isn’t the problem, ice is. Ice chunks and rough footing. Wether or not that warrants a move to the roads is another question.

I live in Buffalo, not a current NCAA athlete (I ran for Binghamton a long time ago). I work near the golf course where the meet was to be held, and it's a pretty unique topography. The surface would be soft enough that you're going to sink in deep - very deep - with every step. Because of the accumulation of moisture that melted during the day and refroze at night, you're basically going to be breaking through a thick pane of ice with every step, and you're going to go down to where the ice is at or above your ankles as your foot sinks down into the soft ground below. If you've never run in these conditions it's hard to describe to help you understand. I'd be as worried about people getting severe cuts on their ankles as I would twisted or broken ankles. For a small gnarly trail race that might be one thing, but this is an event that is supposed to result in the best runners in the region punching their ticket to the national meet.

I had one guy go to what was supposed to be the start of the race today and made a short video.

rojo's secret source texted:

"This is the starting line. They made the right call. Another issue would have been there is no place to warm up. All surrounding sidewalks and side roads are ice covered."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQqo9BCUC9A

Here is a view from the current start line:

Officials announced that they will call back the race if anyone falls in the first 100m...

Those chunks of ice aren't what I would have expected on the course given the weather in the last 48 hours here, but still not suitable for a championship XC race IMO. May as well run it in a rock quarry. I think they made the right move switching it to the roads.

wtfrojo wrote:

Thank god you waited to contribute to the conversation until you found all this out. Oh wait, your post complaining about how this is a disgrace is still up on page 1....

I haven’t read through the rest of the pages of this thread for any of rojo’s logical gymnastics trying to justify his actions (my apologies if he owned it somewhere), as he has probably done. I just wanted to quote this for truth.

Thanks CM

Madison WI wrote:

Snowy, and USATF JOXC is in Madison WI on 12/14. There's bound to be snow on the ground. I highly doubt they'd consider moving that race to the road.

And last year’s JOXC was in Reno. Snow on the ground and below freezing temperatures. Kids with long sleeves and pants still crying because it was so cold. Whoever keeps putting these types of races where it’s gonna snow is a complete idiot. Especially when kids as young as 7 are involved.

Harvard and Cornell 1+2 in the women's race??? They were ranked 5 and 11 coming in.

https://results.leonetiming.com/xc.html?mid=1884

It ain’t easy being green wrote:

Madison WI wrote:

Snowy, and USATF JOXC is in Madison WI on 12/14. There's bound to be snow on the ground. I highly doubt they'd consider moving that race to the road.

And last year’s JOXC was in Reno. Snow on the ground and below freezing temperatures. Kids with long sleeves and pants still crying because it was so cold. Whoever keeps putting these types of races where it’s gonna snow is a complete idiot. Especially when kids as young as 7 are involved.

Completely agree. Reno was icy the first couple races and then it turned to sludge and mud. The youngest kids are the ones running first in typically tougher conditions, at least in the winter. Many of the 8U kids probably never ran in spikes and they certainly NEEDED spikes that day. USATF didn't clear the start and it was compacted snow-turned-to-ice from the foot traffic during the course run-thru from the previous day. I hope something was learned from Reno but I'm not holding my breath.

Having the race in Buffalo = Stupid!

vbhjk wrote:

Having the race in Buffalo = Stupid!

No other school put a bid in. After this year I will be surprised if the coaches ever let it be held in Buffalo again.

Any reports of the Bills Mafia body slamming tables shirtless in the parking lot?

Positive Contribution wrote:

Any reports of the Bills Mafia body slamming tables shirtless in the parking lot?

That would make me want regionals there every year to be honest.

You would think with how much negative press LR has gotten this week for the rampant sexist remarks here throughout the years that the owners of the site would try to be thorough with their "journalism" this week..'

This "snowflake" narrative that you started has been copied by many other outlets, including Flotrack, to falsely portray why the course was moved, even if you just recently corrected yourself. Xc is run in snow often; running on a sheet of ice and risking serious injury while the southern teams get to run on their manicured golf courses today would have created an even bigger disadvantage for these teams today. The roads were the right, and only, option.

Interesting to see Judy Pendergrast back at Harvard and only a junior. Quite the winding road for her.

Makes you wonder how short the course was.. 57 men under 30 min... doubt the majority of these men will run under 30 on the track.

Times were a blazing wrote:

Makes you wonder how short the course was.. 57 men under 30 min... doubt the majority of these men will run under 30 on the track.

Could also reflect that we screw up track training for the 10K by all of sudden eliminating long runs, long threshold type runs and threshold work, hill work, and replacing it with a bunch of short fast intervals during indoor and outdoor. My contention has always been we drastically alter training for 5K/10K for track vs. what was working in xc and then wonder why people have trouble matching times on the track with what they running in xc. 10K is still 10K whether it's roads, track, or xc.

No Strava postings yet... wonder if the guys/girls are afraid to upload due to short course? I could see based on the map that you could run the tangents sharply to take off some time. Only time will tell.