Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road and minor obstacles. It is both an individual and a team sport. Runners are judged on individual times and teams by a points-scoring method. Both men and women of all ages compete in cross country, which usually takes place during autumn and winter, and can include weather conditions of rain, sleet, snow or hail, and a wide range of temperatures. Cross country running teams often have the word Harriers in their names. Under harrier.
Cross country running is one of the disciplines under the umbrella sport of athletics and is a natural-terrain version of long-distance track and road running. Although open-air running competitions are prehistoric, the rules and traditions of cross country racing emerged in Britain. The English championship became the first national competition in 1876, and the International Cross Country Championships was held for the first time in 1903. Since 1973, the foremost elite competition has been the World Athletics Cross Country Championships.Cross country – Introduction . IAAF. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
The highest level circuit of professional cross country competition is the World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold level, administered by World Athletics since 2021.
Race course Course design While a course may include natural or artificial obstacles, cross country courses support continuous running, and do not require climbing over high barriers, through deep ditches, or fighting through the underbrush, as do military-style assault courses.World Athletics Book of Rules C2.1 - Technical Rules (amended on 31 January 2020). World Athletics. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
A course at least full allows competitors to pass others during the race. Clear markings keep competitors from making wrong turns, and spectators from interfering with the competition. Markings may include tape or ribbon on both sides of the course, chalk or paint on the ground, or cones. Some classes use colored flags to indicate directions: red flags for left turns, yellow flags for right turns, and blue flags to continue straight or stay within ten feet of the flag. Courses also commonly include distance markings, usually at each kilometer or each mile.USA Track & Field 2011 Competition Rules. USATF. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
The course should have of level terrain before the first turn, to reduce contact and congestion at the start. However, many courses at smaller competitions have their first turn after a much shorter distance. The course should also have a corral or chute after the finish line to facilitate the recording of finishing positions.2011/2012 NCAA Men's and Women's Track & Field and Cross Country Rules. NCAA. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
Distances
Courses for international competitions consist of a loop between 1,750 and 2,000 meters. Athletes complete three to six loops, depending on the race. Senior men and women compete on a 10-kilometre course, junior men compete on an 8-kilometre course, and junior women compete on a 6-kilometre course.
In the United States, college men typically compete on or courses, while college women race for or . High school students typically race on or courses.
Strategy Because of differences between courses in running surface, frequency and tightness of turns, and amount of up and downhill, cross country strategy does not necessarily simplify to running a steady pace from start to finish. Coaches and cross country runners debate the relative merits of fast starts to get clear of the field, versus steady pacing to maximize physiological efficiency. Some teams emphasize running in a group in order to provide encouragement to others on the team, while others hold that every individual should run their own race. In addition, whether one runs ahead of "the pack" or behind it and pull ahead in the end is important, but can vary according to the runner's individual skill, endurance, and the length of the race. Runners should also account for food intake prior to the race. Most important, however, is the training beforehand.Groves, Harry. Tactics & Strategy. Cross Country Journal Vol II, Num 2. July–August 1984.Mackenzie, Brian. Cross Country – Tactical approach. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
Equipment Cross country running involves very little specialized equipment. Most races are run in shorts and vests or singlets, usually in club or school colours. In particularly cold conditions, long-sleeved shirts and tights can be worn to retain warmth without losing mobility. The most common footwear are cross country spikes, lightweight racing shoes with a rubber sole and five or more metal spikes screwed into the forefoot part of the sole. Spike length depends on race conditions, with a muddy course appropriate for spikes as long as . If a course has a harder surface, spikes as short as may be most effective. While spikes are suitable for grassy, muddy, or other slippery conditions, runners may choose to wear racing flats, rubber-soled racing shoes without spikes, if the course includes significant portions of paved surfaces or dirt road.2011 NFHS Track & Field and Cross Country Rules Book. NFHS.
History
In 1819, boys at Shrewsbury School asked their headmaster, Dr Butler, if they could form a fox-hunting club, and he refused. The boys therefore formed an alternative club where instead of riding horses and chasing hounds they ran across country, with a small number of boys starting first to simulate the prey, and the rest following after an interval as though they were the chasing pack of dogs. Thus the terminology of hunting with dogs became associated with cross country running, with the leaders being called the hares, and the chasing pack the hounds. The hares carried a sack of paper scraps that they dropped to simulate their scent and provide a trail for the hounds to follow, and this sport was called paper chasing, or Hare and Hounds. Becoming popular at the school by 1831 it had become part of the curriculum, with several courses of different lengths. The original course of a little more than three miles was over some land owned by a farmer called Tuck, and is to this day known simply as Tucks.
These boys did not invent the idea of running across country, which had been known for centuries. Schools started the process of turning an adventurous and athletic pastime into an organised sport. The Scottish King Malcolm III is said to have summoned men to race up Craig Choinnich overlooking Braemar with the aim of finding the fastest runner in Scotland to be his royal messenger, and a 1540 manuscript in the British Museum describes a run across Roodee, also known as Chester Racecourse, for a prize of "six glayves of silver."History of the Highland GamesBadminton Library of Sports and Pastimes (1887) Vol 20, p. 253
William Shakespeare, writing in the early 17th century, has Sir John Falstaff tell Prince Henry, "I would give a thousand pounds, I could run as fast as thou canst," and Samuel Pepys in his diary for 10 August 1660 describes going to Hyde Park to see, "a fine foot-race three times round the Park between an Irishman and Crow, that was once my Lord Claypoole's footman."History of Henry IV, Part I Act II, sc 4 In his diary for the year 1720, whilst he was an undergraduate at Oxford university, Sir Erasmus Phillips (1699–1743) later the MP for Haverfordwest, describes how he rode out to Woodstock Park one afternoon where he was one of, "a most prodigious concourse of people," who saw a four-mile foot race between the duke of Wharton's footman and Mr Diston's footman."Athletics and Football (1885) Montague Shearman In July 1826 Bell's Life reported that, "Yesterday se'nnight a match of running, between the gentlemen of Milton and the gentlemen of Chart, was won by the latter.""Bell's Life", Sun 30 Jul 1826 p. 14
By 1834, Hare and Hounds was known at Rugby school, and their route, the "Barby Hill Run", was described in an 1857 novel, Tom Brown's School Days, by Thomas Hughes, who had gone to Rugby but was by then an influential politician. At Eton College, the chasing pack were known as Beagles, but in many other places they are called Harriers (a breed of dog used largely for hunting hares). At Harrow School they ran across farmland at Pinner, but Winchester school did not start cross country until sometime in the 1880s. In 1837, Rugby School started a longer run of approximately twelve miles known as the Crick Run because it goes out to the village of Crick and returns to the school. This has become an annual tradition and continues to this day.Harrow School, Yesterday and Today (1948) E. D. LabordeFifty Years of Sport, Vol III Eton, Harrow and Winchester (1922) Lord Desborough
By the early 1850s, athletic clubs had started holding their own paper chases as a form of training, the sport was seen at Oxford University by that time. A national championship was first held on 7 December 1867 on Wimbledon Common in south-west London. The course was about 3.5 miles, through a bog and over hills and started in the evening so runners had to navigate in the dark. Many runners went off course, and it was declared void and had to be rerun. The championship has been held over the distance of 10 miles (16,093 metres) since 1877.
In 1869, Thames Hare and Hounds, the world's first cross country running club, was formed in the same area of south west London, and the same year William C. Vosburgh of New York introduced the sport to the United States. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge held their first cross country contest at Oxford in December 1880, and Harvard University held races from the same year.
Three area associations were formed to administer the sport in their region of England. The Midland Counties Amateur Cross-Country Association was formed in 1879, the Northern Cross-Country Association in 1882, and the Southern Counties Cross-Country Association was established in 1883. Then also in 1883 the National Cross-Country Union was formed, with Walter Rye, the founder of Thames Hare and Hounds, as first President. In 1933 this was changed to the English Cross-Country Union because by then the other constituent countries of the United Kingdom had their own cross country associations. The Scottish Cross Country Union was formed in 1886 and held its first national championship at Lanark in March of that year, and the United States followed suit in 1887.
Over time the sacks of paper scraps gradually got discarded and courses came to be marked with flags, lines on the grass, bunting, and marshalls, with races held on farm land, through forests, and over various forms of mixed terrain with championships frequently being held on golf courses and horse racing courses.
In 1898, Harold Hardwick of Salford Harriers took a team across to France for a cross country match and in the process invented international cross country running as a sport. The International Cross Country Union was formed in 1903, and the four home nations of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales started a match in that year which became a true international event in 1907 when France sent a team to compete. Other European countries sent teams during the 1920s and Tunisia sent a team in 1958.