A Great Sport With an Old Problem

One of the things we love about the sport of cross country is that every course is unique. Yet inherent in that uniqueness lies an old problem: making sense of race performances. For years we all have known, without being able to prove it, that certain performances, which might at first appear slow or mediocre because they were run on hilly or difficult courses, are actually better performances than others which only appear more competitive because they had been performed on flatter, faster courses. Published race results don’t tell you very much either, unless you know something about those runners or the course they ran on.

Could we know, for example, if Nathan Johnson's 27:14 for 8k on the hilly Van Cortland Park in September '04 is a better performance than Adam Brunfeldt's 26:48 on the flatter Georgia State course at the NCAA D-III regionals in November '03? Similarly, could a high school runner competing in the northeast regional FOOTLOCKER championships at Van Cortland Park know if he or she ran a better race than a south region runner who's time appears quite a bit faster at the flat Mc Alpine course? Comparing performances has always been a guessing game precisely because courses are so different. Seldom are identical times on different courses equally competitive performances. Another problem is that virtually all cross country courses are inaccurately measured to some degree, many by 50 meters or more.

For some, knowing the relative competitiveness of a cross country race performance might not be that important. "It's cross country," they say, pointing out quite correctly that you race against the other runners and the course itself, however difficult. Fair enough, but if a runner, who for months or years has dedicated himself or herself to improving, turns in a lifetime best performance, he or she deserves to know it. At ON COURSE RATING SYSTEMS TM we believe every runner deserves to know how well they ran in every race. For years coaches have been trying to supply that information the best they can, but now we can stop guessing.