One of the many benefits of being a member of TRL is the opportunity to compete as a team in various events throughout the year, including the local cross country series in the fall, as well as USATF cross country events. Being on the team simply requires being a TRL club member.
What is cross country? Cross Country (or XC) are races which take place on grass, mud, trails or other off road surfaces. In addition to being on softer terrain, there is also a team scoring aspect to XC races. Some teams, including TRL, can be quite large – but only a certain number of runners “score” in a given race. The team scores for a XC race are calculated by adding together the places of the top 4 or 5 (# depends upon the race series) runners on each team. Teams need to have at least the minimum number of runners in order to have a team score calculated. The team with the lowest score wins.
For many people, the team scoring aspect of XC is what makes these their favorite races (that and racing off-road…). Since the terrain isn’t always flat or fast, time is less important than trying to pass (or not get passed) by someone from another team. At the end of the day, XC is a fun way to build camaraderie within our club and have some friendly competition with members of other clubs.
The cross country teams are open to club members of all abilities. For more information contact Torrey.
