Latest weather forecast for the World Cross-Country Championships (February 18) is sunny, 82 degrees. And that may be the most sensational statement ever made about the great old race in its 120-year history.
In most of the world, cross-country is a cold-weather sport. Unrepentantly. Cross-country proudly goes ahead when all other sports are cowering under shelter from storm or snow. In the UK, where it all began, and in Europe, championships come after the holidays, and hardy club harriers plan their training to peak for their biggest races in the bleak late winter of February and March.
The grand climax of the season each year is the world championships, typically run in the northern hemisphere’s frigid March, the thoroughbred elites fighting cold winds and floundering through mud, slush, and frozen grass. The “World Cross” has been at that time of year since its first running on March 23, 1903, in Hamilton, Scotland. Traditionally, teams are selected from each nation’s own championship two or three weeks earlier—even in the U.S. and Canada where the scholastic cross-country season wraps up in…
