The Slowest HS Cross Country Race Ever

[@RunnerBoi]

Took a mini-break, but still have some bigger stuff in the works. Also I might start using bsky idk, it looks 10x less cluttered than Twitter so maybe lol: bsky.app/profile/runnerboi.bsky.social

[@FrankTank-dt4jm]

Realistically Mt. SAC changed their course so they could make it a full three miles and end on the track of their stadium they spent a crap load of money revamping. The course runs around 15 seconds slower this year than the old course.

[@jackdias9263]

100%

[@Simplyhimly]

Did you win a medal?

[@notcool1079]

Agreed

[@alexmartin4842]

I ran in this exact race as a freshman in high school. It was by far the most miserable, demoralizing race I ever ran. I was running around 16:30 throughout the year and I didn’t break 20 min there. The mud was so thick that it would literally suck your shoe right off your foot. I remember seeing several shoes sticking out of the mud on just the first corner. Our coach had us use 1” spikes that were basically nails with a threaded top and we wrapped duct tape around our shoes to keep them from coming off. I ran a lot of muddy races after that in both high school and college and nothing came close. Not only was it crappy for the athletes, it was a nightmare for the organizers and the hotel that was hosting us. 400-something kids and their gear completely caked in mud trashed the tour busses shuttling us too and from the venue, clogged showers, and obliterated hotel carpets and towels. There’s a place for mud in XC, but I don’t think it should be the entire course. I wasn’t surprised when they decided the change the venue the following year.

[@eric13hill]

This insight is very helpful. Thanks!

[@marypagones6073]

Wow, that’s a fantastic story-I’ve run in muddy races, and yes, the cleanup afterwards is another athletic feat in and of itself.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

My high school home course was like this where the rest of the schools that we ran against hated to come run with us because our course was so much harder. Was great

[@marypagones6073]

@@whydidyoutubeaddthis Holmdel?

[@T3STM0NK3YRECORDS]

If you were getting 20:00 as a dude who could run 16:30 I don't even think I'd break 22 minutes lmao

[@neils1726]

I used to run X country in high school back in England, and I remember once being sent through a stream and then across a plowed field. 55 years later, I can still call up a visual memory of over a score of runners trying to fish their shoes out of the mud. The furrows were so high and troughs so deep.

[@NolaSportspicks]

Look up Louisiana State Meet 2018. The winner of the meet ended up running at CU Boulder the following year and finished with a time of 18:00 for 3 miles. The winner of the girls race went on to run at LSU and finished with a time of 21:22 The state line was a literal mud pit as was the entire course

[@yamzam20]

First meet that came to my mind when I heard “worst conditions ever”. Two of our old school record holders ran there and finished in 19:10 and 20:15. Both guys were in ~16:30 5K shape. Absolutely horrendous race, it keeps me grounded when I run in bad conditions.

[@williamgaston1346]

I'm actually on the Bronxville cross country team. Got jumpscared so hard when Mary Cain came up on the screen. We finished 2nd at the New York State public school championships this year for boys and girls. Nice video 👍

[@iRunfastXC]

Jumpscared?

[@williamgaston1346]

@iRunfastXC I heard about her and knew she was really good but I didn't really know how good she was so I didn't expect her to show up in one of these videos. Caught me off gaurd.

[@torrent222]

@@williamgaston1346 oh shit what class are you?

[@b.vancevancerefrigeration4761]

Heres a fun story for you: I'm a bit older. Went to a high school in Northern section 1. My senior year my 4x8 team went to NISC (now replaced with new balance nationals). We were all around 2 flat trying to break 8 indoors. But this was the year of swine flu. I'm sure you younger guys have never even heard of that. Anyways I got swine flu bad about 2 weeks before the race and just didnt really recover in time. I personally ran 2:08 that race. During the girls 4x8 on the loudspeaker we hear: And Bronxville's anchor who is just an 8th grader just ran 2:07!!!. So here I am, a boy at a national meet and just ran slower than an 8th grade girl lmao. In fairness that 8th grade girl also made the world finals as a high schooler. My teammates never let me live it down though lol.

[@williamgaston1346]

@torrent222 I am a sophomore. (So class of 2027)

[@dominofuel8050]

TAPPS Texas state championships 2015 in Waco was exactly this. Course was completely covered in thick mud. I remember the winner finishing in around 19:30 as a typical sub-16 runner, while I finished 7 minutes behind him.

[@animevibes9116]

raced there this year and thats insane because its such a nice course can't believe it was such a slow race

[@dominofuel8050]

@ They changed the course very shortly after that 😂 the groomed golf course was a nice change of pace

[@pauldalton4868]

The final race of my high school career was in cold, rainy western NY conditions. Days of rain beforehand, swirling winds. There were 2 big hills on the course- dubbed Death Mountain and the Wall. The wall was short but very, very steep. We were an early race (small school) and many guys fell going down the Wall- it was a loop course and you went down toward the beginning of the race and up near the end. Going back up was worse- guys who didn’t wear spikes were screwed. It was so bad they rerouted the rest of the days races to avoid that hill. Races are still run on that course, but the Wall is no more (it has trees on it now). It was a miserable race to run, but one of my highlight memories of Cross Country.

[@TheNutsoCharles]

Great vid. Makes me miss my collegiate cross-country days. 6 mi Monday, 7 mi Tuesday, Hill Sprint Wednesdays, oh joy.

[@Boomaroo96]

I ran pre-nationals on this same course in 2013 with similar conditions. The course had a reputation for being fast for pre-nats, so our team went in hyped for some prs. Then we all ran slow as fuck in the mud lol.

That is cool, on December 15th I’m running nationals for 11-12 boys for USATF

[@billsmcdonald3856]

For Northern English XC, those condition are what you get on a good day. That’s what’s XC is all about.

[@SoundSpeeding]

Exactly! I watched this video and it felt like varying between "average" and "good" conditions.

[@samiaziz7338]

I ran in this race as a senior in high school. Was an individual qualifier from the Northeast region, coming off a PA independent school state championship win (15:51 at Belmont Plateau). It was such an anticlimactic way to cap off a high school cross country career. Within the first 100-200m, I knew it was gonna be a race unlike any I had ever run before. Remember seeing a guy lose one of his shoes & it flung like comically high in the air. Also, there was an open/community race before the girls’ race that contributed to the course being torn up. By the time we were running, there was barely any surface to run on.. it was like a mud run.

[@jacobfaughtrunningproducti974]

I loved my home course because it was more of a challenge of who could run hard in bad conditions, it was aboute 75% trail, and even out of the trail there was a short, but very steep hill with about 250 meters to go, times were normally about a minute slow there. My junior year there, the winning time was only 18:05 by a guy with a pr of 16:04

[@kahsxcftw]

Great video! This was one of my favorite races

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

If the cross country cross does not have hills dirt and mud it's not a real cross country court

[@tetra_748]

Woodbridge is crying rn

[@pinkdarkman]

Removing a hill from your school's running course would have to be the most short sighted stupidity. "Yeah, our kids look faster because they don't have to run hills at their local course! Now they're completely unconditioned for any other course they run that involve hills. Good job team!" Going by the comments here, though, it looks like the hill was removed for other reasons and the guy who announced the changes just wanted to look stupid by saying it was for time improvement for some reason.

[@16nowhereman]

Hills are slippery when wet.

[@Patman1216]

I LOVE RUNNING

[@DatKellyBean]

THE BOWWWLLLL (thanks for the Holmdel shoutout)

[@arcticphoenix2789]

My conference meet that year was in cold, hailing, and windy conditions. It was not the mud run the national meet was, but that race still presented it's own chellenges.

[@dom_smth9]

This is very standard conditions for British XC and it’s great!

[@EvanRichards-dg1ye]

I still have ptsd from the hills when I raced here a few weeks ago

[@torunit4620]

I ran USATF Masters on that course in Portland in 2004. It was almost as muddy then. It was just a terrible place to put a course. No terrain, just the horserace track infield of flat mud and a few artificial hay bales and woop de woops It only took them another 10 years to figure it out.

[@TimeToFlush]

This was excellent reporting! I hate bad weather racing days; the only thing I hate more are those that want to change it.

[@bituminouscole]

The Virginia Class 4-6 Course is crazy hilly, the Oatlands Plantation course, it was a ton of fun though, but crazy slow compared to what I am used to. I live in a coastal plateau, so naturally we don't have any hills at all, but it made the states course a great experience compared to the flat (often very muddy however, which is always quite fun) courses I am used to.

[@marypagones6073]

As a crushingly average fifty -year -old runner, I had to chuckle at the somewhat “relatable” 5K times relative to my (still slower) PR on pancake-flat asphalt.

[@trentcard]

i had a race like this once, a dozen people lost a shoe in the horrible mud pit and it was at most 50 degrees fahrenheit. fun times! :D

[@natnat-xc8n]

I remember running NXR my junior year of high school in a similar (not as severe as this though) mud pit. Cold and rainy too. I had probably my best race of the season but missed my PR by 45 seconds. It was so much fun

[@wompastompa3692]

Colorado's state meet used to have a decent hill about a mile in. They rearranged the course to get rid of it a few years after I graduated. Mildly annoying, not because I didn't get to run the "easy" course, but because now the kids don't get to run the fun course.

[@inappropriatejohnson]

Fact: Sarah Baxter was/is beyond tough.

[@outfoxd3494]

If you want another interesting NXN story, the 2013 girls race was also crazy from the team side. First time that Manlius loses the Women's team championship until they fall out of perennial winning after 2018. If you do do it, please know that Wayzata is pronounced Y-zet(like vet with a z)-a

[@ImChrisGonzo1]

Brite lake course in Tehachapi CA is the most difficult from when i was in HS. I almost cried

[@m-e-m-e-y]

As someone who runs for ms cross country, all these times are mind boggling for me

[@Johnson_Johnny]

LETS GO, I run track for Simi Valley high school!!! 💨

[@jackh.7125]

you havent seen me run before lol

[@xwind3499]

This is peak cross country. This is the point of the sport. Id much rather see highschoolers running 17 than 13.

[@christian1499]

Holmdel park is a KILLER. If you live in NJ you know the pain 0:35

[@matthewkwon6045]

yes

[@runr100]

Yup, I still remember that. I was afraid someone would get stepped on with cleats.

[@Lolbadnub]

Ong

[@YienLiu]

Nxn this year was what cross country should really be

[@ericfromreallife3058]

The course in the background is Goucher College in Towson, MD

[@16nowhereman]

That's what cross country and steeple chase running is all about.

[@alansutherland6663]

Oddly, at the NXR south meet this year, it also seemed like nike put water on the course. It was pretty dry, and the lower elevation parts of the course were fine, but oddly the step between the turf fields was shin deep mud. I suspect they were actually trying to make it less dusty, but I have no clue what actually happened, so I'm not going to make any accusations.

[@derekkendig6714]

LL League Iron Bridge 2018 mention at 0:20 ? Is there a full video still out? I remember there being one out there, I thought it was gone 😅

[@iRunfastXC]

Honestly, 2012 just reminded me how weak we are as American cross country runners. This is like your average European cross country meet, it’s expected over there. It’s a much better sport when there’s tons of mud.

[@Milesplitstalker]

I remember running one xc meet this season in cold, windy and snowy conditions it was more of a flurry but it was colddd it even hailed at one point and that course was alllll hill it was technically on a mountain. A lot of courses in the northeast of the country are not for the weak lmao. Insane course but finished third outta like 35 girls so not a bad race by all means just tough

[@mikemccann1647]

We are so back

[@phillylifer]

I couldn't imagine the Belmont plateau removing parachute hill

[@Warsaw_Pact]

If you don’t get water or mud on you did you really run a cross country race?

[@gabeponichter4570]

Where’d you get the King Cheserek Van Cortlandt park race footage? Love the channel!

[@mr.muffin5635]

Need more courses like that

[@playmd557]

Do you know know of any places to get clips from the 2015 xc szn? Thanks!

[@fakepistonnotrealuser9]

I wish they would change the national, or at least in my state, the state course every 2 years or something to make it more fun my state meet course is good but we run it 3-4 times a year and it would be nice to have a state meet on a tough course instead of a really flat fast course with one short section of terrible hills

[@Goflames297]

For my state championship, it’s a different course every year. This year, we had to run on the same course as last year due to hurricane devastations from Hurricane Helene

[@AG82Ross]

Wow, i didn't realise Americans ran actual priper XC! Thought it was just golf course type stuff.

[@zavtparticles]

today i learn 17 minutes is slow meanwhile i'm running 28min 5ks

[@evan9-g5b]

Same

[@16nowhereman]

I'm 65 years young and running sub 30 min 5k.

[@Lemme_flx]

BRO THATS BETTER THAN MY PR

[@ArtificialDuck]

Crystal Springs for the win for best cali course now. Thats a course that knows how to do hills

[@expentra2910]

Look at Arizona AIA State Championship Course. I think it's one of the harder cross country courses out there.

[@knockon9454]

YOO BIG UP HOLMDEL PARK

[@janibeg3247]

i ran xc many years ago and our courses were not that crappy.

[@chxuROBLOX]

you want a good state to watch true cross country... come to wisconsin... the ridges golf course... very hilly in the last two miles

[@Shjanzey]

Clearly they never followed my HS track seasons

[@basketballnerd_2399]

Do a video on the downfall of FM high school cross country, I’m from the area and it’s sad to see how much of a downfall they have taken

[@cartoonpower0]

Slowest HS cross country race ever?? Bro was clearly not at the 2023 Lawrence Early Bird

[@visionaryq4356]

This is the average Australian race. The organisers like to pick the rainiest days (jk).

[@jakerussell135]

I bet ive been in slower dual meets

[@bxg5]

Sam Wharton Ohio legend

[@tedyue6161]

As someone who runs xc in southern california, the mt.sac course change did not make it faster, all the times on this new course were slower this year.

[@torunit4620]

Nope, they ruined tradition so the race can finish on the track in that stadium they paid so much for.

[@thatlowrankedguy9549]

wish that if anything they would've extended the old course to the 3 mile mark by making us go onto the track to get to that distance instead of finishing on that litttle green up area.

[@torunit4620]

@@thatlowrankedguy9549 depending on how it was routed around fences, that would finish about where they do now.

[@wafov9584]

As someone who has ran in very muddy conditions at a high level meet being NCS I feel for them it was wet and Cold and also ran a horrible time of 19:32 almost a minute added to my or for 5k 💀

[@oliverjacobs8594]

Also ran at NCS! Managed to run 3:30 off my PR :)

[@slm8263]

I also ran NCS! Slowest race I have literally ever run lmao it was awful

[@reecewatson2678]

I swear my secondary school (high school) cross country route was harder than that racetrack. No stiles, no streams, no rocks or roots and no proper hills just some undulation. Not saying I could get anywhere near the times they got but thats not cross country it’s a field with some hay-bails.

[@BruceWayne-us3kw]

My slowest 5k time is 45 minutes.

[@ak2n218]

I thought cross country running was across a natural course like this one. I think this should be the norm not the exception. What a challenging and fun race!

[@MaxRunia]

I ran at NXN in 2010. Was my slowest 5k of my high school career. That course is brutal. I'm glad they moved it to somewhere a little better. I also think it's kind of disappointing for the runners to make it to NXN only to run so slow. It was less running and more "trudging".

[@nickryan4346]

i hella was the fastest returner

[@Javi1da]

Do a Justyn Knight video

[@SpiritTheGhoul.]

The new mt sac course isn’t even any good. Ran on both courses as this is my last year running high school cross country and the new course is not any better than the old one. It a hard course either way taking out one hill really didn’t change much. I ran slower on this new course but that’s just me dealing with injuries and what not but something interesting to be said about the site course is that the competition this year was not nearly as good as previous years and I think it had something to do with the date. This year they moved the race week ahead one week and in California to qualify for state and international elite athletes need time in between races to recover and what not so if Mount sac being the week before league finals or section finals most fast athletes opted to not run the new course, even if it was their league final course because they would rather have fresh legs for their finals. So the date being changed did a result and worse times this year, but the new course is going to be faster not a crazy amount faster, but definitely can have a impact on the SAC course records. If the race officials can organize a better date for the race, I think there will be a lot better competition like there was in the previous year, but that’s just what I think.

[@gideonparry5684]

Why were the boys so much muddier than the girls?

[@marypagones6073]

Because the girls’ race cut up the field even more with their spikes.

[@KentonSchoen-ln4fu]

1) Girls ran first so course was in worse shape. 2) Boys are faster and heavier so each step hits with more energy sending more water, mud, alligators etc flying farther.

[@SoundSpeeding]

Honestly this just looks like a quite normal average XC race in New Zealand. But this is what Americans think of as "extreme"??? Weird. Harden up! It's a XC race, not a track race transplanted to a golf course.

[@swimmerboy172]

Huh? New Zealand actually has runners? The more you know.

[@SoundSpeeding]

@@swimmerboy172 even had a few world class runners (such as Peter Snell, who to this day still holds the world record for 800m and the mile on grass), and even the world's greatest ever coach is a kiwi: Arthur Lydiard

[@gummy5862]

Challenging slow courses are fine, but it gets ridiculous when they become safety hazards.

[@eric13hill]

Nice XC video. Let's collaborate! I'm making my yearly documentary of NXN this Saturday.

[@RunnerBoi]

Feel free to reach out to my email! I've always appreciated your NXN docus haha.