Cross Country Dreaming

Perhaps one of the greatest disappointments since being hit by a the car, is having to sit out the Winter Cross Country Series. Truly, a great disappointment. Every year, The Memphis Runners Track Club puts on a four race Cross Country series spanning January and February. The distances are varied, 3k, 5k, 8k, and 10k, but the results are always the same-everyone crosses the finish line with a smile and looking very muddy. In the past I had generally just run the 8k, or the 10k, and both times placed in the top 5. This was to be the year where I ran them all, and tried to win the overall series. So, instead of actually getting to run those races, I am going to opine over the great and pure sport that is Cross Country.

Thank goodness for the game Hares and Hounds played in 19th century England. It was the birth of cross country running. The game was simple, the first group, the hares, would set out and leave a trail of paper behind them, to be followed by the chasers, or hounds. Eventually, people simply decided it would be fun to race over hill and dale. Because of the game that it grew from, the runners became known as Harriers. That name has more or less stuck, at least to those who love the sport as I do.

Think about it. The largest cross country race, generally large invitational meets hosted by high schools, often have 300+ runners participating. When the gun sounds, they have go from that wide and sprawling starting line to a space about the width of a large hallway in roughly half a mile or sometimes less. If you fall in that start, thats it. Your mother will be in tears, the medics will find you quickly, and your day will end in an ER. I have seen it, and actually caused it, and its not pretty. Cross country runners are not generally wearing normal running shoes, but shoes that are light, and equipped with painfully sharp spikes to better grip the terrain. The last thing you need is 100 sets of those churning over your crumpled body.

However, its the terrain that separates this from all other running genres, except maybe trail ultra marathons. There is no smooth, well measured, and orderly asphalt track to compete on. Cross country is just that, cross country. Courses are often laden with lung busting hills that come at the worst times, and often do not have a downhill on the other side to recover on. There are even sandpits, logs, and ditches to be hurdled and cleared. At times, the grass is far thicker than you want it to be, and at the other end of the spectrum, the ground can be as dry and hard as concrete. When this happens and there are 300 people charging over the course, a throat choking dust bowl develops. Lest we forget the weather. Unless Zeus himself is throwing bolts of lightning down, the race is always run. In fact, my first overall victory on a cross country course came in a blinding rain. The cross country season, for high schoolers and collegiate athletes begins in the blazing heat of late summer, and often ends in the bone chilling cold. It does not ever matter though, the race is almost always run.

It is sad that Cross Country kind of fades away after runners leave college. There are several cross country races on the international stage that are run during the months of January and February, but often times, the worlds fastest are resting up and preparing for another track season. It is disheartening, but speed sells. The fact is that world records will not ever fall on a cross country course, and for that reason, athletes cannot earn their salaries while getting muddy and charging through snow storms. There is a debate about allowing cross country into the Olympics, but at this point that does not seem likely.

Cross Country is so pure. Its runners vs other runners vs nature. Sure a trail may be have been carved out for them to compete on, but generally the terrain is still quite rugged. There are not officials all over the course to make sure you do not raise your spikes a little high to graze the knee of the guy following a little too closely. They are not out there to keep you from giving the guy that just will not let you pass, though you are faster, a little bit of a shove. It will never be raining too hard, snowing too much, or be to hot or cold. Its raw human talent and mother nature often times unleashed. How could one not possibly want to be a part of this. It is this form of racing and running that I feel is the most pure, and requires even the heartiest and fastest of runners to really check themselves. Sure the marathon is a 26.2 mile grind, and ultra marathons test the ultimate bounds of human ability. But cross country forces you to maintain a 5 minute mile or faster over a quarter mile long muddy hill. Cross country is running as it was ment to be.