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A New Yorker's Thoughts - Mammone on Cross Country PART 1

Published by
Mammone   Feb 28th 2008, 2:04am
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So before people start sending hate mail and posting mean messages on my profile I want to list a disclaimer: I have only run in 4 cross country races as being with Team XO. Two of them were in Oregon, one in Washington and one in Ohio (EAST COAST). But here's my breakdown of cross country west coast versus east coast.

The two races in Oregon was the Willamette Invite (8k) in late September followed by the Mike Hodges Invitational (4 miles) on October 13. In my opinion I didn't run fast on either course so I know this sounds hypocritical but I think they are both fast courses. I felt that they both had a couple of hills on them but nothing that would really kill you. Winning times were 23:42 for the 8k and 19:15 for the 4 mile, both won by Jordan McNamara. So two fast times from a respected runner.

For the majority of the people in the Willamette race, they did NOT wear spikes. There was some grass, wood chips all the usual stuff but a long path of cement during the race, so wearing spikes would really kill your feet. There was one long hill that would definitely be hurting your feet for the next few days.

If I remember correctly, this race consisted of two or three loops. We started on a grass field and ran into the woods where it narrows out a bit. We ran on an area of grass which is basically like running on the sidewalk because we were pretty close to the street. There were a few parts where it was a little hilly but overall nothing horrible. There was one quick steep hill and then one long gradual hill (I think for soap box racing???).

The finish was fast because the last 200 meters was on the track. Check out some race footage of the finish at Willamette Invite

XC race number 2: the Mike Hodges 4 miler. This one was definitely more suitable for spikes but even still, if you wore flats or something else it wasn't such a wrong move. There were a few patches of concrete, one part takes you through a parking lot but by staying on the side you can run on the grass. Also, there were a few patches of cement between crossing over to run onto the grass areas. I think this race only had 2 loops. Basically there was a main section that you ran twice but a few other parts that you ran on for a limited time.

I felt that this was also a fast course. The start was in the endzone of a football field which was inside the track. So the start was running across the football field and then took MANY twists and turns to get onto the path. Mid race we ran across the track for one of the mile markers and then we finished on the actual track. In total we probably ran about 400 meters.
Now thinking back to this race, I feel like we made a lot of tight turns on the course. Almost like the race organizers didn't have a lot of room for a race so they decided to have us snake back and forth to create more distance. Check out some race footage and finish line at Mike Hodges.

Because this blog would have been wayyyyyyyyyyyy to long for anybody to read (including me) I will put up the second Part in a few days. Keep your eyes peeled.

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