Cross Country Course Design

Every cross country course is unique. The always changing venue adds excitement to the sport. It is also what adds significant challenges to coaches, administrators, and maintenance crews. Some courses are great, while others fail to satisfy the needs of the target audiences or the rules set forth by the sport's governing bodies. The target audiences are the coaches and athletes competing on the course, the spectators who will be watching and possibly paying to attend the race, and meet management who will be responsible for game day administration of the event. As you satisfy the needs of these groups, you must also do so within the guidelines of NFHS (high school), NCAA (college), and/or USATF. With different rules for each organization and different needs of each target audience, it can be challenging to design a course capable of satisfying all your needs. Below I will attempt to touch on the needs of each group to give you the information needed to design your cross country course effectively.

The first audience I want to address is the coaches and athletes. Most of the time this is the audience a course is designed to accommodate. The one creating the course is probably a runner, and they will have to coach athletes on the course. This can lead to a selfish design, but only addressing the individual's desires in a course. Coaches want to have an easy way to get between split points (miles, kilometers, or key geographic points) and a unique feature that could add to the race tactics for an individual or team. The athletes also want these things, and are looking for a fast course to set a personal best for the season or career.

The next audience is perhaps the most overlooked, and that is the spectator. This is not considered a revenue sport, but how much of that is due to a setup which caters to coaches and athletes rather than those who would pay money to watch our sport. Many courses require a spectator to be in fairly descent shape just to fully enjoy the race. What about the handicap parent, the injured soccer player, the grandparents, or the little siblings? They will struggle with many of our current courses and should not be paying to see less than 10% of the sporting event. This audience needs to have good visuals during the event, updates via an announcer or timing loop updates, and outside vendors to provide a competition day experience beyond just the race.

The final audience is the meet management. I understand this often includes the head coach for the home team, but it goes well beyond that one individual. What about athletic directors, maintenance personnel, safety crews, officials, volunteers, and potential vendors? If these people do their job well and create an incredible environment, you want them to enjoy the experience as well. The course should be easy to access and maintain regularly, as well as having appropriate amenities available. Bathrooms are easy to rent, but if a permanent structure is available it could also add the luxury of heat in the colder months. Using a public park is great, but not if you don't have electricity for the finish or can access it to mark the course a week in advance.

Knowing that you need to think about your 3 primary audiences, it's time to fit them into the rules for each governing body. We will begin with the lowest level by looking at the rules for the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations). Most of these courses are located on school property and have the least amount of flexibility based on space. The standard course distance is 5000m but may be as short as 2500m, as measured by the shortest running distance. Throughout the entire distance, the course should be marked with either painted lines, highly visible arrows, or colored flags. When flags are used red will indicate a left turn, yellow a right turn, and blue indicated to continue straight. In addition to markings the course shall be at least 3 feet wide and 8 feet high for the entire distance. The starting line must allow 6 feet of space for each competing team and have a "lengthy straightaway" prior to the first turn. The finish line must be preceded by a 150 yard straightaway . Timing may be done by hand, but it is recommended to have either picture or video back-up for championship races. As you can see there are already some limitations which may be presented by the needed straightaway at the finish or finding suitable land for 5000m of racing.

The next set of rules to look at is from the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). While there are other collegiate organizations (NAIA, NJCAA, etc), the NCAA rules are the most widely used and understood. The standard course distance at this level varies based on gender and conference/division. Women regularly run 6000m, but may run as short as 3000m. Men regularly run 8000m, but may run as short as 4000m and up to 10000m. The course should be marked continuously by either natural or artificial boundaries. Artificial would include painted lines, pennant roping, utility flags, or similar items to indicate the running path. The mile and/or kilometer marks should be clearly marked for the course. The width of the path will be 4 meters throughout the race distance. The starting line must allow for 2 meters per team (50 cm for each of 4 runners) and curve in a way to make each starting box have the same distance to the first turn. That turn must be at least 200m, but preferred to be 400m after the start. At the finish, the course will have 100m straightaway to a finish line of 4 meters to 10 meters wide and it should be located in close proximity to the start. Ideally the course will be confined to fields, woods, or grasslands and include minimal road crossings. Several more challenges appear at this level. The race distances are different per gender, the course is significantly wider, and the start and finish straightaways are lengthy.

USATF, the sports governing body for the United States, has another set of stipulations which differ from the other two organizations. The course may be any length, but championship courses are run at 6000m, 8000m, 10000m, and 12000m based on age and gender. The course should be 9 meters wide throughout and clearly marked with solid lines and colored flags (same as NHFS rules). Each flag must be visible from the previous, and not more than 50m apart. All kilometer marks must be clearly marked on the course. Obstacles are permitted, but not recommended, on the course. If used they may not be located in the initial 1500 meters of the race. The start must be wide enough to satisfy the field size and have a 400 meter straightaway before the turn. The finish must be marked with a banner or other indicator in addition to the finish line. Prior to the finish should be at least a 200 meter straightaway, and 400 meters is the recommended distance. Championship races at this level should have 3 timing systems to ensure results are recorded properly. Like the NCAA rules, the course should be confined to open fields, parks, golf courses, and grassland with minimal road crossings. This set of rules is the most limiting regarding finding an adequate location based on distances and width.

If you are in the process of designing your cross country course for next season, I would suggest starting at the most restrictive rules and work your way down until you are able to satisfy your 3 audiences to the best of your ability. Personally, I would prioritize the audiences as spectators, followed by coaches and athletes, and then meet management. If you are lucky enough to have wide open space to create multiple length courses, then the following guidelines would allow you a single facility capable of hosting all levels of competition:

• Courses of 3km, 4km, 5km, 6km, 8km, 10km, and 12km in distance while sharing a common start and finish line.
• The course should be 9 meters wide and 8' high throughout
• Clearly marked by natural boundaries (mowed trail), colored flags every 50m, and signage for all mile and kilometer marks.
• 400m straight from start to first turn and from final turn to finish.
• 2 meters per starting box width
• Finish banner and electricity for multiple timing systems
• The start and finish should be fairly close to each other.
• The majority of the race should be visible from a viewpoint near the start and finish areas. (This could be done with video as well)

Good luck designing your cross country course!