Things you hate about xc courses

1. Running up hills sideways or just running across them in general. I don't mind running up or down them but running across them is annoying.

2. Uncut grass is annoying as Casper. Cut the fricken grass.

3. Tire tracks or ruts in the grass. Its annoying.

4. Walnuts are dangerous objects and should be removed from the course.

5. Running in grass next to any type of pavement just knowing its so much easier to run on it but the course won't allow you to run on it.

6. Giant loops. This isn't track people.

7. Stupid field hockey players that get in your way.

8. Sharp turns and cut backs. I can't say that these should be taken out but I hate them any way.

9. Annoying fans. No not the ones that just say Go Team Go! but the ones that take it a step farther and dress in team clothes and yell everyones name as loud as a jet engine. Serious I'm going to punch you in the face if you tell me to run faster one more time.

10. Lack of shade.

The reason I wrote these is because today was a practice meet at another school and it had all of these things. I won by over 30 seconds with a 17:50 and this is the first time any team has run the course so I now have the course record.

I think I covered most of the annoying things on xc courses but what do you hate about xc courses?

I tend to not appreciate when the man in the golf cart thing leading the race asks you why you're breathing so hard.

SRSLY. I wanted to punch him.

But that's not really something wrong with the course, so nothing really.

But +1 on the sideways hills and the running on grass right next to concrete.

probably fatasses who can't seem to stop ringing those stupid cowbells

oh and kids from other schools that suck and run jv that yell "puss it" instead of "push it" to try and make you laugh

I don't like the lack of shade as you said. I also don't like when they spray paint on the course right in front of you, when someone is smoking right next to the course, and when the course is flat. The last one is my worst favorite.

my hs course was all roads because we were in a cityish area and this one father would drive his car around the course and follow us and yell

Gopher holes and dips and etc. that you don't see.

Super flat courses and repeating loops.

Down hill finishes.

Courses that have like 20m of pavement on them. Just enough I need to take my spikes out and put in my blanks.

Courses that don't start and end in the same place. I don't want to have to walk a half mile back to my stuff after I race.

P.S. my XC course is pretty bad. We have 3 almost identical loops, involving going up a ~14% grade hill twice, and 4 times up ~8% grade hills. They are all short hills, less than 150m, but still, it fucks your legs up and is really pathetic seeing middle of the pack varsity guys walking them.

Any kind of course where i have to run on sand. Fuck I hate sand.

TnF_T wrote:Any kind of course where i have to run on sand. Fuck I hate sand.

+1 Sand is the worst shit to run on, especially when it goes up hill, same as muddy courses

XC_crazy wrote:Gopher holes and dips and etc. that you don't see.

Super flat courses and repeating loops.

Down hill finishes.

really? I love them.

Hills-wa is pretty hilly. blah

water-one course you run through this creek then up this dirt hill. I hate wet shoes =[

the weather always sucks, its always that cold and wet feeling, you just feel icky.

pavement-I despise it.

really windy courses and long fields.

pinthin-i dont know if you ever ran at port townsend but i had a meet there last year and the head wind was so insane it was like i wasnt even moving.

that course is mostly hills and really windy. sucky course but suprisingly i PR'd on it.

i too, hate courses with lack of shade.

i do like turnaround points, because coming back I'll know how far I am from the finish.

one of the xc courses we race on has stairs, its retarted.

and one of our races starts in the middle of a uphill, which is also retarted.

Running With Scissors wrote:
8. Sharp turns and cut backs. I can't say that these should be taken out but I hate them any way.

Manhattan had those at the beginning in the freshmen races.

alex-likes-running wrote:one of the xc courses we race on has stairs, its retarted.

You think that's bad? I had one with an elevator.

HXC_Runner2012 wrote:

alex-likes-running wrote:one of the xc courses we race on has stairs, its retarted.

You think that's bad? I had one with an elevator.

srsly?

DyingToRun wrote:

TnF_T wrote:Any kind of course where i have to run on sand. Fuck I hate sand.

+1 Sand is the worst shit to run on, especially when it goes up hill, same as muddy courses

I xc race that had 2 almost 180 degree super sharp turns that were the sand corners of the course...I fell. Then there was a cruddy straight up sand hill...grr I HATE sand!
I also hate course with sharp turns and tons of roots...AKA my xc course.

alex-likes-running wrote:

HXC_Runner2012 wrote:

alex-likes-running wrote:one of the xc courses we race on has stairs, its retarted.

You think that's bad? I had one with an elevator.

srsly?

Do you really think they would allow that? but that would be funny.

i think my course apparently qualifies as sucks. we have sideways hills, we repeat most of the course 2 times,pavement, and the janitors are such fatasses that they never mow the grass. i do hate all of these things.
i dont like when the people dont rake the leaves so i can't see if there are any bumps or any rocks sticking out of the ground so i trip. my coaches got to the point where they say i do better when i trip.

ouch :[ i don't likee ones where it's all dry grass and there's no shade. and lots of hills.

lol at #2 on the list

Basically, our xc course has every sucky thing possible:
It starts off on a narrow trail (which is uphill), where about 20 people have fallen and broken things :/
Annoying open field.
sideways mulch hill (MULCH SUCKS AHHH).
pavement.
narrow trail.
pavement.
insane hill of death.
more mulch.
more pavement.
repeat. (It's a figure-8 that we have to do twice)

Our course is awesome, except it has no hills. However, our scrimmage course starts right behind the school, has a sharp right turn at the very beginning, is mostly in an open field, goes through a construction area, through a trail with roots, and comes out and ends in the middle of a field (you do two loops).

I like my courses finish. You go downhill on to a field hockey field and then into the outfield of a base ball field. So the last 200 yard is perfectly flat, cut grass.

I hate courses that arent in the woods. Especially courses that are just huge loops around sports fields. One of the highschool's courses near us consists of 4 laps around the field complex, and about a 1200 m loop in the park next to the school. Why didn't they just use the whole park for the course? Well, I have the answer for that. This course is also used for the state meet. They wanted it to be spectator friendly. So the lazy-ass spectators don't have to run around to watch, they can just stand in the middle of the field and watch us run around it. Isn't that stupid?
I think we should courses like that.

Triathlete wrote:really windy courses and long fields.

pinthin-i dont know if you ever ran at port townsend but i had a meet there last year and the head wind was so insane it was like i wasnt even moving.

that course is mostly hills and really windy. sucky course but suprisingly i PR'd on it.

yeah !! you mean at fort warden invite?? with all the bunkers?

its right on the ocean so yeah, its sooooooo windy. I did okay, I think I was sick but I liked it. But I was watching the guys at the end and they were trying to sprint but like you said no one was moving..lol it was even hard just standing there and watching. And you freeze your little tushy off because the wind is really cold too..the hills weren't that bad though, they were long but not too steep.