the South Footlocker Regional course

So, explain to me why the South does not dominate the North during the spring track season.

Actually, looking at the results from 2007 Nike Outdoor Nationals, the South does dominate other regions of the country in the sprints, the hurdle events, and the horizontal jumps.

Distance running, no, but the explosive events, yes.

It is certainly easier to train year-round for distance events if you don't live south of the Mason-Dixon line. Training can be nasty in the upper Midwest and the Northeast from December through much of March, but it can be done (more and more expensive clothing). I'm not so impressed with the cultural argument--there are pockets of "If you don't play football, you're just a sissy" all around the country. The mass media have made the South much more like the rest of the country, and vice versa, in the last two generations.

Whoever said that there wasnt anybody who didnt qualify that wouldve helped the score, i beg to differ. Im not going to name drop or anything but i know there are ppl somewhere who wouldve but were injured or whatever reason

Qualifiers wrote:

Whoever said that there wasnt anybody who didnt qualify that wouldve helped the score, i beg to differ. Im not going to name drop or anything but i know there are ppl somewhere who wouldve but were injured or whatever reason

Yeah, Sean Keveren jumps to mind, but what he meant was that there is nobody who would have qualified if the regional race had been run on a tougher course that didn't qualify as it is who would have helped their score. The runners who are good enough to help the team scoring are good enough to qualify no matter what kind of course the regional is run on.

Yeah, I live in NC and McAlpine is basically 5000 meter long dirt track. That one hill about a mile and a half in can be a ball buster though, especially when almost everyone goes out waaay too fast. There are a couple of other smaller hills in there toward the end.

Why hate on the course. People down here love going to Wendy's and Footlocker because they know they're going to get a good time and have fun. The only bad thing I have to say about the course is the crazy dust that flies everywhere at the start.

I do agree about the weather argument. I live in the South, and I have to say that we do have much better weather. In my opinion, it's easier to train in the heat, as we do, than in extreme cold.

Besides, I definitely agree about the argument as far as culture, and the way the sport is spread. I go to a school of 3000+ kids and have a cross country team of about 15 kids who are at least semi-serious, and 5 who are serious runners. All together the bus to a meet may have 20 kids on it. Out of a male pop. of about 1430.

I love running this course, and it's more challenging to think your way through it that some people think. After you've hit the first 1200 smoking fast and you have to start thinking about that one hill, you might think twice about complaining about it.

I will say it's fast, though. I ran 15:30 at age 41.

I ran on that course in November and I loved it. I wish that some of you could see some of our courses in the mountain state.

Funny thing is that around here, people complain that the courses are too easy while you all are saying that your course is too hard.

People from around here LOVE to go up and down hills that are 400-500 meters long and climbs 150 feet in elevation, go through creeks (our state meet course used to have 2 creeks that would have 1-2 feet of water in them and they were about 10-15 feet wide).

I guess every region is different but in the end.....

I love Running!!!

I have to agree, another thing about that course though, was the gravel. There was way too much of it. Nuff said.