Wednesday, October 5, 2011

I am so over this thing called XC

Every fall my running club begins to ramp up for the fall XC season and every year I think to myself...

"Maybe this will be the year that I will like cross country...?"

And every year I HATE it.  I hate running on the grass and the hills and just everything!  I have been this way for quite some time and I don't know why I would think that it would ever change.

My first official cross country race was in fact a race put on by my very own running club.  In August of 2005, my mother convinced me to run a XC race as a training run for my second year of college basketball.  I thought I would like it, but I hated every minute of it.  I knew during that race that there was a reason I never ran XC in high school and played soccer instead.

Last year, I tried to run XC again and although I still hated, it I thought that maybe I should just keep with it.  And then I got injured.  And I blame the grass and the trails and the hills - I blame XC for my injury.  So this year I played it smart.  I have been avoiding the trails and the hills and the grass and I have stuck with running on the roads and so far so good.

The only proof that I actually ran a XC race - even though it is blurry I am positive I have a death face

I feel like I am just a runner who likes the roads.  I like the sound of runners shoes on the asphalt.  I like the feeling of roads clear of cars for races.  I just like the roads.

So last night at my running club workout, I decided to ditch the grass XC workout the rest of the team was doing and run the same workout on the road.  It felt good to run fast on the roads and not worry about spraining my ankle or falling in a hole.  I dragged my running buddy along too and we had quite a nice time sprinting down the road as we did two sets of interval and race paced repeats.

And I didn't miss running on the grass at all. 

So which is it for you?  Cross Country or Roads?

11 comments:

Zaneta @ Runner's Luck said...

I am right with you!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the asphalt! I tried a 5k race on grass, but didn't like it as much... and I'll probably run it again this year, but I'm a roadie all the way :)

James said...

I was a Cross Country junkie in high school, over 15 years ago. Now, I'll take a well maintained road or sidewalk over the grass and hills anyday.

Amy said...

I'm with you. I've done a little bit of trail running and even bought trail shoes to see if it helped me to feel more confident, but I'm so worried about tripping over a root the whole time that I can't relax. Weird, because I ran xc in highschool, and loved it.

Anonymous said...

I am a little bit of both...how about a well packed in trail with no tripping hazards but a good view?

justme said...

road

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

I am with you on preferring roads. I am a naturally clumsy person, so I think XC running is not a good sport for me as I feel so sure that I would fall or trip or twist my ankle!

Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem: A Runner's Blog said...

ROADS! I ran cross country in high school and have no desire to go back ever!

Marlene said...

I'm with you - definitely partial to the roads!

Lisa said...

I've never run a cross country race or even done much off-road running. It's intrigued me, but I'm definitely afraid of tripping or falling on the uneven ground and getting injured. Maybe I should keep thinking about that and keep to the roads!

Glad you had a good run!

Chelsea said...

I've only done one XC race and I didn't like it either. It was so weird to run on the grass.

Molly said...

I'm a fan of the road. Too many things to trip over if I run on grass : )