SUNDAY CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE

Cross Country Running
The League

Cross Country Running

Each cross-country running course is different in composition. Distances are approximately 5 miles in the league, however there will be little in common between any two courses other than their distance. As such, accurate comparisons cannot be made between performances on different courses or even on the same course on different years as the weather and underfoot conditions can be significantly different. The benefits of cross country are

• Balance and ankle stability

• Strength and endurance

• Good team spirit and helps the club to do well

• Good skin treatment for your legs!

Things to think about when running cross-country 

• Think about having a pair of proper cross-country shoes. Normal training shoes will be OK for the first few meetings but as the weather deteriorates, so does the terrain.

• Be prepared to do what bears do in the woods! Most cross-country courses have limited toilet facilities and they can be away from the course. A couple of Spartans do carry toilet rolls with them so do not be afraid to ask!

• Remember to bring spare pair of shoes and a change of clothing. The chances of getting wet and cold are high, so have some warm clothing to change into after racing. Showers are also in short supply so have some wet wipes to do the 3 ‘F’s

• Have a bit of a warm up. It is always best to be warm before you start as this save warming up during the race.

• Do not go off too fast; you will pay for it later especially if you have not warmed up properly!

• Take a hot drink and some food for afterwards. A lot of energy will be used up in racing and keeping warm.

• Remember to take your disc or ticket at the end of the race and pass it on to the person collating the results for the Spartans. This is your finishing position and this works out the results so it is imperative that that all runners’ results are handed in quickly.

The League

The Sunday cross country league consists of a series of 5 races suitable for runners of all abilities, from October – February, with one race in each month. This year’s fixtures are:

26^th October - Cheshunt

16^th November - Digswell

14^th December - Southgate

4^th January - Royston

8^th February - Watford

Last year 15 clubs took part with between 164–234 runners taking part in the 5 events. In the ladies race the first 5 finishers from each make up the team’s score and the first 8 men provide the male team score, and B-team scores are also calculated where clubs field more than 10 females or 14 men.

Even if you do not actually score for your own team, your participation can (and more often than not actually does) still improve your team’s performance by worsening the team score of those clubs who have not yet obtained their full compliment of finishers.

There is also male and female masters league for veterans (ladies over 34 and men over 40) and the first 3 females and first 4 males in each team are used to calculate these scores.

The winning team in each league scores 15 points, while 2^nd place teams 14 points, 3^rd = 13 points, etc, down to the 15^th placed team scoring 1 point (teams fielding no runners inn that category in any race score 0 points for that event). Individual scores are aggregated across the five races to give overall positions at the end of the series, and the aggregated mens points and ladies points are added together to give a combined points total per team.

In the 2007/8 series Fairlands Valley Spartans finishing positions in each category for the 5 races is summarised below, and the final combined scores and positions for all 15 clubs shown at the bottom.

 Full results of all Sunday Cross Country results are available at www.runherts.com