Running track takes athletic qualities, then renders them to the most optimized conditions to determine the winner.
It’s pure. The lanes are staggered so no runner has an advantage based on his or her lane position. The surface is flat. Runners wear cleats specifically optimized for the track surface.
When answering which athlete is faster there are stopwatches with answers. For those looking for the most scientific method for measuring speed and endurance, it appears track is the ideal method, but is it the most accurate?
After all, the earth is not a flat surface. It is not paved. So is a track a measurement of functional speed in real-world conditions?
The same goes for other sports.
Every football field is 53 yards wide and 100 yards long. Baseball is a little looser with its outfield measurements, but every field has three bases and a home plate at a regulated distance. Basketball courts, tennis courts, even wrestling mats have required measurements.
Only one sport reflects “real-world” conditions. Cross country.
The only uniformity of a cross country course is the distance between the start and finish line.
Courses go uphill, downhill. I’ve covered courses going through deserts, forests, over eight-lane superhighways and more.
The 3A regional course at Neodesha had chicanes, hairpin turns and water traps thanks to torrential rain.
Track is NASCAR. Cross Country is Formula 1. The only limitation for the designers of cross country courses are the topography and the course designer’s imagination.
Without a doubt, hands down, cross country is the most underappreciated sport in America. With the right marketing, dress it up a little, it could be the next national pastime.
It’s man against man as well as man against nature. (Except when it’s a beautiful day and there’s no place you’d rather be than out in a Kansas field.)
It’s odd how even though cross country is one of the most rugged sports in high school athletics, people often associate it with softer, more regal endeavors such as tennis or golf.
Cross country runners are athletes. They’re just a different breed — more primitive, primal, but masked in a runner’s physique.
I’m a little late on this column, considering the cross country state meet was two weeks ago, but I wanted to write something different, highlighting the things in sports that often go unnoticed.
