(photo courtesy of the PAUSATF http://www.pausatf.org)PA USATF Cross Country Grand Prix begins today
The 2009 Cross Country season begins today for Open and Masters division runners of the Pacific Association of the USATF. The Junior Cross Country season begins in early October. The first meet on the schedule is in Santa Cruz, at the campus of UCSC, with the season concluding in a championships event at Golden Gate Park on November 22nd.
The Pacific Association of the USATF stages the most robust schedule of cross country events of any association in the country, and this area's athletes are among the best in the country, making the local events highly competitive. Races are run separately for women and men, with the women occasionally running shorter courses. The courses range from 5K to 10K in length for the men, and 5K to 4.25 miles in length for the women.
Both men and women have open and masters level competitions. The Pacific Association offers prize money and scoring for each 10-year age group in the master's division, with final yearly standings based on the top 6 race scores an individual runs throughout the Grand Prix series. The top teams in each age grouping are also scored and awarded prize money. Runners are eligible to score and earn money in their own division and any division younger than their own. These divisions are:
Open : age 39 and under
Masters : 40-49
Seniors : 50-59
Super-Seniors : 60-69
Veterans : 70 and over.
This Grand Prix Cross Country series has become very popular among the runners of Northern California and Nevada, and seems to become more competitive each year. This year's series will have 9 races:
8/22 Santa Cruz
8/29 Santa Rosa
9/12 San Francisco
9/26 Hayward
10/3 San Francisco
10/10 Folsom
10/24 Mountain View
10/31 San Rafael
11/22 San Francisco
The PA Grand Prix concludes with the association championships in San Francisco in November. For the ultra competitive there is a National Club Cross Country Championships on December 13th, being held in Lexington Kentucky this year. There is another National level Championships, the USA Cross Country Championships, to be held in Spokane Washington on February 13th, 2010.
More detailed information can be found at http://www.pausatf.org/indexxc.html, and http://www.usatf.org/calendars/national.aspx.
In the words of one local competitor, "You don't have to get into shape to run cross country. You run cross country to get into shape". Plus, cross country races tend to provide much more social interaction with other runners than a typical track meet or road race. Come on out and give it a try.
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