Run, Valley, Run!
The LV Cross Country teams competed at their first home meet, August 23rd, on their new course. The team had worked on planning the routes since last year after they decided to have a home meet.
The new cross country course has an interesting mix of hills, shade, and multiple terrains including around a bean field or two. The start of the course is next to the middle school, where the LV teams practice every day. In response to the course, I decided to interview the coaches and a few members of the teams to see how they felt about the course and if there is such thing as a “home field advantage.” Mrs. Hoover said, “The kids all enjoyed the course and we had a good meet. She also went on to say “yes” to my question of if there is such thing as a home field advantage. She explained that, “because [they] train on it, [they] run on it all the time.” Mr. Fee agreed and added, “you know when you can cut a corner once and awhile.”
With the runners, I asked how well they did, if they think there is such thing as a home field advantage, and if they think the course prepared them for other courses. The popular answers for the runner's reactions to the course was that there was a plethora of different terrains and steepness along with different areas and difficulties. Malea Butler, a Freshman laughed with remembrance as she simply stated, “There’s a lot of hills.” The teams did well on the course with a few personal records in the group, raising the overall excitement about the course.
Most of the runners said that there is, in fact, an advantage to running the course a lot with a few saying that it depends on what advantages that you are talking about. William Clark, an eighth grader argued, “If the [other] team runs the course and they study it well, no. But if they just sit there and sit back and wait, I think there could be, because they wouldn't know the natural hazards of the course.” The final question of if the course prepared the runners for other courses was met with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. Bailey Gray, a junior, answered with confidence, “Yes, because there is a lot of hills and you have to have a lot of endurance.”
The new cross country course at Licking Valley was greeted with much enthusiasm for the years to come. The runners seem pleased with the amount of endurance training that was provided from the course and are confident that they will do well in upcoming meets. Do you think training on a harder course would help you gain an advantage on other courses, the runners sure think so! Good luck teams!