Franklin Park

On Saturday, Franklin Park in Boston plays host to the McIntyre-Bay State Invitational, the largest High School XC invitational in Massachusetts. Held at the approximate midpoint of the season, the BSI is a great chance to run on the same course where the EMass Championships will be held in November. There are races for varsity, JV, and freshmen boys and girls. Altogether, about 2000 athletes compete.

It's hard to imagine any place other than Franklin Park for this meet. Franklin Park has a long and colorful history as host to local, national, and international meets. I ran at Franklin Park when I was in high school in the 1970's. The great Alberto Salazar ran at Franklin Park, but never won a State Title there. In 1984, the day after Doug Flutie threw his "Hail Mary" pass to Gerald Phelan in Miami, Franklin Park hosted the U.S. National XC Championships. In March 1992, Franklin Park hosted the World Championships. It snowed the night before the meet, and a number of runners from the Kenyan and Ethiopian teams ran barefoot through the late spring snow.

Varsity High school runners compete on the 5K course at Franklin Park. The 5K course starts at the far end of Playstead field and consists of three loops. In the first loop, runners cross the field at a gallop, take a hard right turn down a slight incline that takes them behind White Stadium and eventually back behind the Starting line and around the field past the Finish line. About 100m after passing the finish line, runners pass the 1M mark and start around White Stadium a second time. ON the secon loop, however, instead of turning back toward the Start area, runners detour up and over the one significant hill on the course -- Bear Cage Hill -- named for the area that used to be part of the Franklin Park Zoo. The top of Bear Cage Hill is approximately the halfway mark. From there, runners fly down the hill, and bear left behind the Start area, right behind the backstop, and past the Finish line a second time. The third and final loop is called the Wilderness loop and presents runners with almost a mile of twisting trails and modest rolling terrain. Runners leave the Wilderness with about 600m to go, circle the entire field one last time before finishing.



Freshmen get to run a 3K version of the course that cuts out the Wilderness loop.

Every year, the most talented runners vie to make the list of the Top 100 HS times ever recorded at the Franklin Park course. (In case you're wondering, Newton North alumnus Chris Barnicle is #8 on the Varsity Boys list and #3 on the Freshman Boys list. Newton North has five girls on the Top 100 list, with 2004 grad Liz Gleason leading the way at #48 and Jess Barton currently sitting at #69, a placing that could change on Saturday.)

While the boys team is passing up the BSI this year to focus on next Wednesday's showdown with Wellesley, the girls hope to make a splash with a strong freshman team in the Div I Freshman race (1:45 p.m.) and n the Div I Varsity race (2:20 p.m.).

If you have never been to Franklin Park for a meet, don't wait until the end of the year. This is the weekend to go. Here are my favorite directions from Newton Center.

Hope to see you there!