A friend and fellow runner who lives in Natick travelled to Framingham last week to watch the Natick-Norwood-Framingham tri-meet. He enjoyed the meet, but thought the course was embarassing -- too much asphalt, confusing and overlapping loops, and poor course marking in the short woods section.
It got me thinking about the courses in the Bay State league. Which are the best and which are the ones most in need of improvement? At Newton, we've been racking our brains trying to think of a way to improve the Cold Springs course or move it to another venue. We haven't come up with anything better than the current situation, but we continue to try.
Both the Wellesley coach and Norwood coaches changed their home courses this year. The Norwood coach, Jim Forrest, abandoned the 3-mile road race around Norwood H.S. and replaced it with a course of multiple loops of grass and trails at a different venue. He and an assistant spent many hours clearing brush and preparing the new course. It can be done!
Now, I know a lot of kids (and adults?) from other schools read this blog. What do YOU think about the courses in our league? I'll offer my opinions, but would love to hear from others.
The Criteria
In rating the courses, I took into account the following criteria, in descending order of importance:
1. Safe and well-marked
2. Variety of terrain, with predominance of grass or trails
3. Good start/finish areas
4. Good for spectators
5. Distance (accurate, not too short)
The Rankings
1. Brookline (Larz Anderson Park, 2.65 miles) - The course we love to hate. I know that it's difficult to love the hills, but other than the fact that it's really hard to run, it has everything that a good course should have. It's safe and self-contained; there's a small amount of pavement, but spikes are still possible; it is good for spectators (if they're willing to climb a hill!); and the start and finish area is a good gathering place. Do you disagree? Let me hear about it!
2. Milton (Houghton's Pond, 2.95 miles) - Mostly a great place to run, with two flaws that I can't overlook: the paved hill (up and down) and the poor footing at the bottom of the hill, which leads to the bad footing along the path that runs parallel to the road. If it were not for these features, this would be the best course in the league by far.
3. Walpole (Walpole H.S & Town Forest, 2.7 miles) - Starts on the football field, then to the track, then to the woods, then back to the track. It's too narrow in places, and the start is weird, but it's a fair course with a lot of variety.
4. Weymouth (Wompatuck State Park, 2.78 miles) - This would be a great course if it were not all on pavement, and if you didn't have to drive 3/4 of a mile to watch the middle parts of the race.
5. Wellesley (Elm bank Park) - Give credit to Lou Pearlman for trying to improve the Elm Bank course (see Natick, below), but there's still a lot of pavement and the course is still too short. Adding the embankment to the course is a great idea, let's keep tinkering and turn this into a first rate course.
6. Norwood (Middle School, 3.05 miles) - Almost all grass or trails, some confusing loops, including a loop around a little league field, which feels forced and unnatural. An excellent spectator course, and fair to the runners.
7. Natick (Elm Bank Park, 2.5 miles) - I love Elm Bank Park, but I really dislike the course here. It's flat, unimaginative, and too short.
8. Newton (Cold Springs Park, 3.05 miles) - Field start and finish and two big loops through the park. The footing on the trails is getting worse year-by-year, and it is a poor spectator course.
9. Needham (Cutler Park, 3.1 miles) - The start is narrow and inappropriate for more than two teams. There are no real hills, and the footing is poor in places. Even worse as a spectator course than Cold Springs.
10. Braintree (Braintree H.S., 3 miles) - Track start, all over the school grounds folling a million cones, out into suburban neighborhoods, and back to the track. Easy to watch, but seems annoying to run.
11. Dedham (Dedham H.S., 3 miles?) - I don't know this course, I've only seen the map, but I worry about the amount of the course run on roads, and the need for traffic control. Can someone who has run the course offer their opinion?
12. Framingham (Framingham H.S., 3 miles?) - Has an uncomfortable and dangerous start, confusing loops through a dreary suburban neighboorhood, confusing poorly marked section through the woods with some very poor footing, and a poorly laid out finish area. I've written about this course before. If you're interested in my suggestions for improving it, let me know.
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14 comments:
what's wrong with flat and short? i think natick's course is just fine
Hmmm. Short and flat. I know, there could be a separate sport for that...you could do it during the winter and spring...
I'd put Walpole at #1. Larz Anderson has that terrible U-Turn section. Obviously the fact that it's a hill makes it worse, but still U-Turns are not good, regardless. Wampatuck(sp.) has that rocky and terrible footing on the whole trails section, and gets narrow a little too quickly at the start. Don't know how Wellesley's is but Natick's is alright if unchallenging. Never done Needham's so I don't know. Weymouth is all concrete, though it's a legit course with the hills. Norwood, one where Barnicle & Co. went off-course? Pretty decent course though on concrete. Don't know Dedham or Braintree. Framingham course is pretty lousy with the narrow trail and the part where you crash into other runners. In short my rankings are:
1)Walpole
2)Brookline
3)Milton
4)Natick
5)Weymouth
6)Newton
7)Norwood
8)Framingham
don't know: Needham, Wellesey, Dedham and Braintree
"Wampatuck(sp.) has that rocky and terrible footing on the whole trails section, and gets narrow a little too quickly at the start. "
...
"Weymouth is all concrete, though it's a legit course with the hills. "
The Weymouth course is Wampatuck
"Wampatuck(sp.) has that rocky and terrible footing on the whole trails section, and gets narrow a little too quickly at the start. "
...
"Weymouth is all concrete, though it's a legit course with the hills. "
The Weymouth course is Wampatuck
o my bad i was talking about Houghton's Pond oops
1. Walpole: The classic. I'm sorry to see it go.
2. Natick: Short, flat, and fast. A good dual meet course for a league with so many meets. Don't care for the dogs though.
3. Norwood: A major improvement.
4. Newton: Overall good, but too many unleashed dogs.
5. Milton: A nice variety, but the start is too far from the finish. Dogs, too.
6. Weymouth: Nice location, but too much pavement. Spectator unfriendly.
7. Wellesley: Another new course? At least they are trying to be creative. Dogs.
8. Brookline: Too tough for a season of racing.
9. Braintree: Mostly off neighborhood streets, but needs something more.
10. Framingham: Confusing last 1/3.
11. Needham: Off road, but unimaginitive and spectator unfriendly.
12. Dedham: A road race with little safety precautions. Too dangerous.
How did people like Needham's old course, the one on the roads? Because I was a big fan of that one.
Norwoods course will be improved next year. No more baseball loop, which will make it all trail and 3.1. Even this year is most fair to runners and spectators!
Needham's old course was much better than the new one. I miss it.
whats unimaginitive about Natick's course?
Jampol, "Larz Anderson has that terrible U-Turn section. Obviously the fact that it's a hill makes it worse, but still U-Turns are not good, regardless."
1.) Suck it up, it's a hill, deal with it.
2.) At first I was going to critique the "terrible U-Turn section" and was going to use that exact phrase too, however if you think about it, it's not really all that bad. The area is wide enough to make the turn easily and since the actual U-Turn (the first one is a V-turn) is on an 'uphill' takeing the turn is even easier due to lack of momentum at that point. Cold Springs I don't think should be that far down the list. All the trouble it has is the aqueduct(sp.??) thingy. Either way, ALL of these courses are better than any 8K.
I would also like to give some love to Cold Springs. It obviously is not the best spectator course (for the uninitiated. I doesn't have any real hills, and the parking is a mess. The CIF (Canine Impedace Factor) can occasionaly be pretty high. The back section before emerging onto the fields can get pretty technical, and the footing on the aqueduct seened to deteriorate by my junior/senior year, and is probably prett bad by now. But no other course allows you to focus on your race like CS. Just me, my feet and the woods. It just feels like cross country. You can't hear cars. I kind of liked that there were no spectators for so long, and then you emerged to a wall of sound by the storage shed. But then it was back to you, and your man. Cross country at its purest.
If it isn't 100% on trails grass hard packed dirt it is not cc, why not just call it a semi road race. The BSL has too many courses that are not cross.
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