When I saw the OP, i thought it was joke but no it's real.It's official. Max King's Course isn't Rupp Certified:
NOP tweeted:
Oregon Project @OregonPJT 1h
Nike Oregon Project won't be racing at USA Club Cross tomorrow. We wish everyone a great race. See you on the track!
When I saw yesterday that Max King designed the course and it was inspired by my predecessor at Cornell, Jerry Smith, I just chuckled as I knew it would be a real xc course. Honestly, if I'd known that I'd have flown out to Bend to watch the race.
I remember hearing stories of those guys doing workouts and then a yell would come out from Smith (or maybe he blew a horn) and the guys would practice hitting the ground and tumbling mid-workout.
Max graduated the year before I got to Cornell but guys were still talking about him after I left. Yes, he did pin the bib to his chest:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=5532148Update: Employee 1.1 is running in the race. After the NOP pullout, we texted him and asked him, "How bad is the ocurse?" He wrote back, "It's pretty bad to be honest. I would have been shocked if they ran. All up and down. NO FLAT. Some places you can go flying off course or down a hill. It's going to be a lot of fun."