Last February I entered a masters 8K race in Derwood, Maryland. Practically the entire field pulled away from me before I broke a sweat. Struggling to keep up, working the arduous hills and tip-toeing the slippery descents, I finished near the back of the pack with a time 2 minutes off my recent best. Afterwards, the post-race refreshment was a cup of water, and I had to jog about a mile back to my car to get some dry clothing.

Yet it was one the most satisfying events I'd run in awhile, and probably one of my better races. The race was cross country: the U. S. National championships, a no-frills get-together with heady competition even in the masters age-group. At 62, I didn't mind eating the dust of the 40-and 50-year-old youngsters as I negotiated the four 2K loops with a pair of spikes on my feet for the first time since high school. What a blast!

The prospect of competing in a cross country race had inspired my running throughout the winter. I'd trained on the wooded trails of a local park where I live in New Jersey, gotten soft pathways underfoot, built strength on hills and learned something about "focus" by negotiating some tricky terrain. On race day, I had none of the usual PR fixation as I knew times would be slow, and could enjoy the camaraderie of teammates as we set out to conquer the course and the elements -- the muddy remains of recent snow -- in a paean to running purity at its best.

Come and join in. Cross country is not just for high school or college kids and national contenders. It's also for adults of all ages, abilities and goals, and the opportunities have never been greater. As runners seek variety and a break from the roads -- as many go green, as it were -- cross country is enjoying a renaissance. Give it a try and, as a cross country advocate from way back, I guarantee you'll be a stronger, more complete runner for the experience. Presented here are 10 reasons you should run cross country this year.

1. XC ORIGINS: RUN IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HISTORY

Cross country dates back to "hounds and hares" competition in late 19th-century England and began in the U. S., among colleges, at the turn of the century. The first AAU meet was in 1890. Cross country was held in the Olympics in 1912, 1920 and 1924. The first NCAA championship was in 1938. A hundred years ago in New York, cross country events drew huge crowds because, as The New York Times put it, "It is absolutely free. It cannot be connected with gate receipts and can have no awards to prompt any suggestion or taint of professionalism."

2. XC PURITY: RUN IN THE NATURAL LANDSCAPE

By and large, cross country is still steeped in the ideal of purity. "Cross country was always my first love in running," says two-time world cross country champion Craig Virgin. "It's a wonderful, cathartic experience, a pure feeling being out in the country, especially in the fall when the weather is cool and the leaves change. It's a lot different than your average road race."

Wooded park trails and racing greenery like golf courses or even loops of school grounds offer an invigorating diversion from urban clutter -- from cars and crowds, smokers and noise, stoplights and that kid on a bike teetering toward you. In a piece titled "Natural Happiness" in The New York Times Magazine, Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom [no relation] wrote, "Many studies show that even a limited dose of nature, like a chance to look at the outside world through a window, is good for your health. ... Being in the wild reduces stress."

The wild also helps you think better. A University of Michigan study found that a 45-minute walk in the park "enhances cognitive performance but walking around town does not." The study's author, Stephen Kaplan, wrote in Psychology Today that nature's "rustle of leaves" is a mentally refreshing stimulus that takes us away from the negative overload of traffic, cell phones and advertisements.

3. XC TERRAIN: RUN WITH LESS INJURY

John Pagliano, D. P. M., a Long Beach, Calif., podiatrist who treats many runners, says that those who switch from concrete roads to soft surfaces can reduce injury risk by as much as 50 percent. "Dirt or grass offers the lowest impact," he says. Pagliano reports that the most common injury he sees in his practice is plantar fasciitis. When a runner's foot hits a hard surface, he explains, there is no "compromise," no absorption, and stress can go on to the heel with a resulting partial tear in the plantar fascia. Healing usually takes three months but in severe cases can take over a year.

To emphasize his point, Pagliano refers to comments by "Lucy" discoverer Donald Johanson, the renowned archeologist from Arizona State University. Johanson recently told the Los Angeles Times that when he'd studied the fossil, which he found in Ethiopia in 1974, he noticed that the feet had a big heel, longitudinal arch and transverse arch. That assessment affirmed for Pagliano that the human foot was made for running on grass or dirt. Pagliano, 59, practices what he preaches, doing 45 miles a week on equestrian trails near his home.

Another potential risk of the roads, according to master coach Joe Vigil, is destruction of red blood cells, a process called hemolysis, which occurs every time your foot hits pavement. Loss of red blood cells means less oxygen carried by the blood and impaired performance. For that reason, says Vigil -- who coached Pat Porter to a record eight straight national cross country titles and Deena Kastor for many years leading to her Olympic marathon bronze -- his athletes always did 60 percent of their training on cross country terrain.

4. XC EVENTS: RUN FOR FUN, FITNESS AND VARIETY

Great cross country races from 5K to 15K are found everywhere, often presented in a race series -- from the New York Road Runners six-event fall series at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to the USATF Pacific Association 1

0-event fall series in the Bay Area. Run the Northampton 5K series in western Massachusetts for 26 weeks from April through September, or try the Muddy Monster 5K and 15K in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in October, with a Halloween theme and costume contest. Run the New England eight-event Grand Prix series this fall at Franklin Park in Boston, or the upstate New York fall series in the Rochester area, or the November Magnolia Springs 4.8-miler in Alabama, which warns, "If you want to park on the asphalt in front of your favorite Starbucks, this is not a race for you. But if you love cross country and the unexpected challenges ... we'll see you in November."

Just about every major running club sponsors a cross country race. (The terms "cross country" and "trail" sometimes overlap. Trail events tend to be on single-track routes that are more adventure runs than true races, except at the elite level.) My own Shore AC has an eclectic fall series at different parks culminating on the hilly state high school 5K course. The last time I participated I could park near the start, enter on race day for a few bucks, get good position on the line, and enjoy a rousing run with about a hundred others. Afterwards, various runners offered refreshments from the backs of their vans.



5. XC COURSES: RUN TRAILS WITH STREET SMARTS

For competition, Vigil stresses the need to know the course beforehand. Cross country can be flat, rolling or hilly, smooth or rough, dry or muddy, one big loop or a lot of ins and outs through the woods.

Race names can be misleading. Iowa's Muddy Monster, for example, is a misnomer. "It's mostly flat with little mud and some gravel," says race director Bob Andresen, who created the event in 2007 to raise money for needy children. Last year, the event saw a 30 percent participant increase to 450 adults and 100 youth, despite the Cedar Rapids flooding that required a course change. For this fall, the event is back at Seminole Valley Park.

Aware that some adults are intimidated by what they assume are cross country's dangers -- "huge hills and deep ravines" -- Andresen leads a dress rehearsal in the form of two training runs on-site. Prospective entrants can see the route, ask questions and gain a comfort level.

6. XC STRENGTH: RUN FOR ROADRACING PROWESS

Before his first Boston Marathon victory in 1975, Bill Rodgers took third in the world cross country championships. Before his Olympic gold medal marathon run at Munich in 1972, Frank Shorter collected the first two of four straight National AAU cross country titles. The list goes on: Alberto Salazar, Ed Eyestone, Craig Virgin, Steve Jones, Paul Tergat. Just about every great distance runner used cross country as a foundation. In 1992, after winning her third straight world cross country title, Lynn Jennings won Olympic 10,000m bronze at Barcelona. Vigil says that during the years when he coached Deena Kastor leading to her 2004 Olympic marathon bronze medal, it was cross country -- seven U. S. titles, two world championship silvers -- that improved her mechanics and V02 max and sparked her competitive zeal. Ryan Hall's breakthrough race was his victory in the 12K race at the 2006 USA Cross Country Championships in New York.

"Running cross country will make you a stronger, faster road racer," Virgin says. Ironically, while the soft surfaces cushion your legs, they also require greater leg work because you don't get the same "return" or rebound that occurs in road running. It's easy to become a "lazy" road runner but you can't be lazy in cross country. Your leg muscles gain strength and flexibility, says coach Roy Benson, and with better coordination through the need to handle tricky footing you become a more complete runner. In southern California, Cal Coast coach Bill Sumner finds that after his athletes do weekly cross country workouts -- threshold runs of up to 20 minutes on a dirt trail -- they report that road races seem easier.

7. XC SCORING: RUN FOR YOUR TEAM

Many events, like the USATF Pacific Association series, emphasize team scoring (overall and age-group), open to all member clubs. It's great motivation to try to score points for your team; as in high school or college, you can finish far back in the pack and still count for a lot. The race is not about time but place anyway. With the rah-rah spirit, you'll feel like a high school kid again.

The president of the largest Pacific Association club, Ken Grebenstein of Tamalpa Runners (750 strong), says the series--which draws about 300 entrants per event -- has low entry fees, great camaraderie, and at the 4.35-mile event that he directs in Marin County the runners hang around afterwards for bagels and beer. "It hearkens back to an earlier time," he says.

8. XC ETHIC: RUN WITH A PRE-BOOM MINDSET

Cross country is a little like running before the running boom. To me, that's a refresher. Please, no headphones, or you'll risk injury. No baby joggers. No roller blades. (One race actually had to insist on this.) In many races you won't see mile markers, and you'll rarely have someone calling split times. There are no water stops. No goody bags with pens from the chiropractor's office. Some races have big food spreads but most events are more like the Northampton series in Massachusetts. "You get a first-class orange, a good banana and juice or cider," says race director Don Grant. And the awards are certificates designed like a dollar with the photo of a noted local runner in the middle.

9. XC SHOES: RUN WITH SPIKES IF YOU CAN

There are plenty of cross country-style shoes on the market with treads to grip the turf. But it's so cool to run in spikes if the course seems right for it. Courses with portions of pavement (obviously) or a lot of tricky footing are not for spikes, which lack the full support of heavier models.



10. XC TIMES: RUN WITHOUT THE WATCH IN MIND

Cross country times are slower than road times but it's good to break away from a PR mindset and run for place, focus on effort and, as many runners do, return the next year (or next race in the series if it's the same course) and try to improve. On a hilly 5K or 8K course, figure to run as much as 2 minutes slower than you would in a flat-ish road race, according to coach Sumner. But as Benson points out, the smaller fields give you a better shot at high age-group place. Benson warns against a fast start (it's easy to get sucked into the rush off the line) while recommending a hard second half for the best results.

That approach worked for me in my nationals race. On the four-loop course I could measure my effort and push hard on the long home straight. To my surprise, I wound up with the bronze medal in the 60-64 bracket. But I won't tell you how many people were in my age-group.

Marc Bloom is long-time publisher of Harrier XC magazine. His latest book is Young Runners: The Complete Guide To Healthy Running For Kids From 5 To 18 (2009, Simon & Schuster).

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