Cross Country Running

With autumn approaching, now is the time to start thinking about x-country running for strength and fun!   Running offroad is kinder to your joints and helps improve strength and balance as you deal with different terrain and surfaces.  It also gets you out and running away from the stresses of traffic and the dark streets of your usual winter training.

We are lucky in having two x-country leagues in reasonable proximity, that we could compete in, but we will need to get organised quite soon if we are going to take part.  The two options are the Hampshire XCC League:

  http://www.hrrl.org.uk/2007/XC-0607/HXCevents0607.htm

or the Todays Runner Winter League:

  http://homepage.mac.com/bob_ayer/runner/

The main differences are in the days they run - Saturdays for the Hants league and Sundays for the TRWL league, the terrain - Hants is mainly grassy parks with hills, TRWL is woodlands, ditches, water and hills and, I suspect, the standard, with Hants drawing the track runners, TRWL a wider range of abilities (in fact men who can run under 5:40 and women under 6:15? are banned :-).  Not sure of Hants cost, TRWL costs £1 and you get fed afterwards.  Otherwise, Hants is mens and womens teams (5 and 3 people to count, respectively), TRWL is mixed (5 men, 3 women still but all needed).

Both leagues spread the races about but travelling looks quite similar for the furthest events.  We can always arrange car shares to get more people over for less vehicles travelling (don't want to extend Zoom's carbon footprint any more than necessary).  It is also necessary to wear club vests in both leagues, and Tim has these coming, so form an orderly queue...

I believe we have affiliated for the Hants, but not sure what this gets us.   If people are interested in TRWL we have to confirm our participation ASAP or we will be dropped from the league.

If you are interested in either (or both!) leagues, please get in touch.  Rob or Andy D can tell you more on Hants, talk to me about TRWL.  No reason not to run teams out to both leagues, although there is some overlap on race days. 

Looking forward to getting dirty!!

Graham