Tim Hutchings of all people needs to comment on this. He's always whining that American cross country courses are too easy.
His most recent post on X yesterday is about dogs. Got anything to say about your hearty countrymen cancelling the national race because of a spot of rain??
Well blimey, it appears that it will be rainin for the 217th day in a row. Wouldnt want the poor blokes to get sick, lets call it off and grab a pint instead
Parliament Hill Youth Games, Oxford intercounties and now the National XC.
We’ve lost our hotel deposit!
I just really feel for the young runners, especially those who are racing in the top year of their age category.
Rain in England should not be a surprise.
The sheet volume of rain is a surprise. We're coming off the wettest winter on record, everywhere is just saturated. We get one downpour and streets get flooded, storm drains overflow. I have regular running routes across fields that I would normally have been running for at least a month by now. But at the moment, they're impassable because they're so saturated that there's still standing water.
It has been horrendous.
I don’t like to criticise too much. This sport is already far too reliant on the goodwill of volunteers to maintain the race calendar. However, in this instance, an email really does need to be going out earlier than it did. One last rainfall can’t be that critical. You have to make a judgement call 72 hours before hand. I bet 100s turn up tomorrow unaware.
Also, I really do hope they rearrange, if only for the youngsters. Make sure the U13/15/17s get a race.
I've changed the title of the thread to reflect it's the English XC champs - not the British champs. Let's don't pin this on all of the British people - just the English.
I guess it's appropriate, right? I'm not an expert of British culture but aren't the English the ones who think they are much more sophisticated than the Scots and Welsh? I can see why they don't want to get muddy - that's very working class :)
I write that previous paragraph somewhat in gest, but can someone in the know confirm to me that the English look down upon the Scots and Welsh way more than a Northeastern elite looks down upon a Southerner in the US?
I guess it's appropriate, right? I'm not an expert of British culture but aren't the English the ones who think they are much more sophisticated than the Scots and Welsh? I can see why they don't want to get muddy - that's very working class :)
I write that previous paragraph somewhat in gest, but can someone in the know confirm to me that the English look down upon the Scots and Welsh way more than a Northeastern elite looks down upon a Southerner in the US?
No... that's not true, if anything the Welsh and Scots have more national pride, yet the English typically just look at everyone as British together, not looking down on them. As a dual-citizen of both England and U.S. I can confirm the North/South divide in the U.S. is much more arrogant. After all, y'all did fight a civil war much more recently.
I'd say this is the worst Brojo take since Wejo started a thread about Kiptum and Rono training together in heaven immediately after their deaths
I guess it's appropriate, right? I'm not an expert of British culture but aren't the English the ones who think they are much more sophisticated than the Scots and Welsh? I can see why they don't want to get muddy - that's very working class :)
I write that previous paragraph somewhat in gest, but can someone in the know confirm to me that the English look down upon the Scots and Welsh way more than a Northeastern elite looks down upon a Southerner in the US?
No... that's not true, if anything the Welsh and Scots have more national pride, yet the English typically just look at everyone as British together, not looking down on them. As a dual-citizen of both England and U.S. I can confirm the North/South divide in the U.S. is much more arrogant. After all, y'all did fight a civil war much more recently.
I'd say this is the worst Brojo take since Wejo started a thread about Kiptum and Rono training together in heaven immediately after their deaths
Just to add to the above, as a proud Welshman, being more sophisticated than us is not an especially high bar to clear.
We all muck along fine thanks.
The divide in Britain is London and everywhere else.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
I've changed the title of the thread to reflect it's the English XC champs - not the British champs. Let's don't pin this on all of the British people - just the English.
I guess it's appropriate, right? I'm not an expert of British culture but aren't the English the ones who think they are much more sophisticated than the Scots and Welsh? I can see why they don't want to get muddy - that's very working class :)
I write that previous paragraph somewhat in gest, but can someone in the know confirm to me that the English look down upon the Scots and Welsh way more than a Northeastern elite looks down upon a Southerner in the US?
Well England did invent cross-country so we should cut them a little slack.
It's a damn shame, particularly for the youngsters.
I would have loved to have seen the state of that course by 10th race. It looked like it had some chonky hills in there too.
For context for others - English Nationals get cycled between North, Midlands and South every three years. The South always gets held at the venerable site of Parliament Hill in London, which is obviously easy to get to travelwise and requires little parking due to excellent public transport. For various reasons the rest of the country has been having trouble securing suitable venues in recent years, one of them being accommodating transport, which is a real shame.
I've changed the title of the thread to reflect it's the English XC champs - not the British champs. Let's don't pin this on all of the British people - just the English.
I guess it's appropriate, right? I'm not an expert of British culture but aren't the English the ones who think they are much more sophisticated than the Scots and Welsh? I can see why they don't want to get muddy - that's very working class :)
I write that previous paragraph somewhat in gest, but can someone in the know confirm to me that the English look down upon the Scots and Welsh way more than a Northeastern elite looks down upon a Southerner in the US?
Not so much the Scots, the English are quite respectful of the Scots. Tbh it's more of London/Southeast England vs everywhere else.
how difficult would it really have been to get everybody to park a few km away on the nearest suitable site and then have a few pick-up trucks ferrying everybody to and fro. or even use the first aid vehicles that would have been waiting on site ready. many people could have simply walked.
probably somebody in a suit somewhere wanted a proper bus and a health and safety assessment written up.
Just for context, if you've never seen the English National XC results... last year there were 1,473 finishers in the senior men's race alone. And with all the age groups, there are ten different races. In terms of the scale of the event, this is nothing like any cross-country meet that has ever been staged, at any point in history, in North America. A few pick-up trucks are not going to cut it.
Just for context, if you've never seen the English National XC results... last year there were 1,473 finishers in the senior men's race alone. And with all the age groups, there are ten different races. In terms of the scale of the event, this is nothing like any cross-country meet that has ever been staged, at any point in history, in North America. A few pick-up trucks are not going to cut it.
The parking area was underwater. I'm not sure exactly what could have been done.
Note: This is (and I have 1st hand experience) a common reason US XC (at least HS and lower) races are canceled as well. Parking at many venues is on grass.
So yes, Brits, Euros etc, anyone really calling us soft over here...please remember this incident.
I think the reason our XC gets panned is because we use "easy" venues. Golf courses for example.
I really don't care- easy, tough, whatever, if it's on grass and trails it's cross--country.
The parking area was underwater. I'm not sure exactly what could have been done.
Note: This is (and I have 1st hand experience) a common reason US XC (at least HS and lower) races are canceled as well. Parking at many venues is on grass.
So yes, Brits, Euros etc, anyone really calling us soft over here...please remember this incident.
The difference is that fans of US XC don't care at all about bragging to the rest of the world about how great and tough their XC is... unlike the UK. So if you are gonna talk all that $H!T and then cancel due to weather - you are gonna hear about it.
Note: This is (and I have 1st hand experience) a common reason US XC (at least HS and lower) races are canceled as well. Parking at many venues is on grass.
So yes, Brits, Euros etc, anyone really calling us soft over here...please remember this incident.
I think the reason our XC gets panned is because we use "easy" venues. Golf courses for example.
I really don't care- easy, tough, whatever, if it's on grass and trails it's cross--country.
That tends to be the gist of it.
My son is thoroughly jealous of the XC venues he sees on YouTube. As you say, often venues that look better than our championship golf courses!
A race is a race; it's always hard. Some of the league races we end run in and around London end up being mud baths and are borderline daft. But that's the fun of it.
This post was edited 6 minutes after it was posted.
Tim Hutchings of all people needs to comment on this. He's always whining that American cross country courses are too easy.
His most recent post on X yesterday is about dogs. Got anything to say about your hearty countrymen cancelling the national race because of a spot of rain??
Again: no one is bothered about the course, we're used to running in bogs at this time of year. It was cancelled purely because athletes will struggle to get to the venue