Northbrook AC

Having just watched a great XC league race at Wyken I wondered if more members could turn out, but knowing that not everyone loves the mud or the competition I thought back to when the club had a Winter XC handicap series. Is it worth bringing it back, just club members say at Lakeview Park, the first Sunday in the month with a rota each month for setting the course out. I feel that many more members who have never run XC or feel intimidated by B'Ham league standard would give it a go and may one day aspire to run in the Birmingham league. Lakeview Park is a great venue and with 2 laps for ladies and 3 for the men with a staggered start is great fun. Anyways think about it and speech to other members. Can we do it!........ Yes maybe.....

re cross country good idea that but how many members are left that remember the good old days like the club motto pari passu i know what it means but do the newer members i think not

The club motto from the good old days was translated from the Latin as ' run together', which I think is very apt. Hey more the reason for running a winter XC handicap, which is a good leveller rather than a straight race which can demoralise some of us slower mortals.

correct but you must be an older member to know

The subject of the Winter Handicap was one of the topics discussed at the AGM for two maybe three years running.
Some of you may remember the AGM........... Anyway I digress. Attendance at the XC handicap at Lakeview Park was falling year by year and we tried to inject some life into it by using the Brum league fixtures as they would be at different venues (a nightmare for the handicapper though). This didn't really take off so after much debate the decision was taken to bring the XC h/c to an end.
Years ago not many people were doing marathons, so it got a reasonable turn out. As more members began doing the marathon, numbers dropped. I think this is one reason why it ended. Most of us do our long run on Sundays and Saturday was a day of rest. I dont see it being resurected either.
Tony.

Agree with Mac. Numbers were falling year on year for the winter handicap. We tried loads of variations to revive it: races at Coundon Park, combining it with the Birmingham League and, frankly, no-one cared. The men were more bothered about where they finished in the Brum League and very few of the women had any interest in XC at all.

We've got the summer handicap and that seems to work. Bob's had to invent the results for the winter handicap for years to find an excuse for presenting the trophy. Let it lie...

Whilst I think we need to encourage more people to run XC, I don't think bringing back the Winter Handicap is the answer. Nathan and Mac are absolutely right, let it lie. I recall the last Winter Handicap series we held at Coundon Park and there were barely a dozen runners on each occasion. And I don't think that more than a handful completed the series.

What is worrying is that the numbers running cross country for the club seem to have diminished in recent years. Rather than resurrect the Winter Handicap, our efforts should therefore be focused on getting more people to run the Birmingham League and the three XC Championship races. True, competition in the Birmingham League is fierce but there is still a broad spectrum of ability, especially now the four Leagues have been consolidated into three. No-one need fear that they will be in any way embarrassed if they take part.

For those who haven't run cross country for a time (or never at all!) but want to get a better understanding of what is involved, what about an informal off road training session on a Saturday or Sunday during September and October? This could be held at the Memorial Park or Lake View Park - and details could be posted on here.

Lets be positive, & not 'well numbers were low so we gave up'. The whole point of this topic is to canvas the full spectrum of the club. So far we have had the seasoned B'ham league runners response (only 3 mind you).
The forum item was posted to try and inspire new & not so competitive members to have a go at XC. For a club of Northbrooks size - close to 140 members it is a poor show not to have a XC handicap. For those who are training for the Spring marathon I agree it does not fall into their training plan, but for everyone else it can. I remember when 40 members use to run over each of the 6 handicap races and it was great fun. Lets look at the big picture and reinvent the XC handicap, since the numbers running the B'ham league for the club are not huge and a club internal series can only be good to boost are league turnout.

I like the idea of a cross country handicap but for it to succeed it needs someone, (or a few someones) prepared to organise it and give up their time, regardless of how many people turn up. It might encourage more people to run the league races, but I rather suspect it might just be counter-productive with some runners choosing to run the handicaps instead of the league races
You could combine the two I guess with a club handicap race in say, Coundon Park, in September and October, and then the runners handicapped for the league races and able to gain more points there towards the final trophy. You could even finish with a final Club race in March Mmm that might work. But there would need to be a good system for letting runners know the results throughout the season. (That's where the summer handicaps fall down - there's no sense of who's where, and who's in the lead month by month)
I have to agree with Judge John that there does seem to be a defeatist attitude abroad because of what has happened in the past, and there are a lot of new members now who might like the chance to run the handicaps. The only way to find out really would be to give it a go and see what happens.
Anyone out there willing to get on and organise it (maybe starting in September 2008?)
If you feel strongly enough that it should be happening then why not give it a go? Who knows, it might be a huge success in which case you've proved the defeatists wrong! But if it turns out to be a non-starter you can say "Well I gave it my best shot" and then 'let it lie'

After getting badgered in the Jag car park earlier after returning from the Sunday run here are my thoughts.
I am new to the club and fairly new to running. I like the idea of trying some XC but as soon as someone mentions the words 'league' or 'championship' then I start worrying. It would be good if someone could do an introduction to XC and then give some feedback on whether it would be worthwhile continuing. I like the idea of a Winter Handicap but I clearly I wasn't around when this failed in the past.
JohnW.

I can see a need for some kind of ‘introduction to cross-country’. People have bad memories from school or just an instinct that cross-country will be torture. Besides taking up organisational effort that could be better directed, I think a formal handicap series has the potential to be counter-productive as people struggle to find free weekends and so may opt for handicaps over league races, etc. I agree with Howard’s suggestion of a more informal run in September/October. This could take the form of a 10k route for men and 5/6k for the ladies and people could run as they please, with regular mud churners from the club of a range of standards to pad out the numbers. This would be a useful taster giving first-timers an idea of what to expect in those scary league and championship races but would also be useful training (a tempo run if anyone can agree what that is!) for more experienced members, a chance to have a run out in spikes, etc. Perhaps a Saturday morning at Coundon Park around the Birmingham League course, or Memorial Park?

i used to hate cross country in fact i still do! but i still turned up at lake view park and ran moaning all the way round. the reason i stopped was because the elite members of this club decided to incorporate the handicap into the brum league not a good idea for the majority of the members (my opinion) i say bring it back or at least give it a try one sunday morning and stop being so negative!!
(PARI PASSU)

This topic has one of the biggest hits, but very few comments. I appeal to all new converts to xc or runners who have thought about xc but never run one to think about next season. Go on, go on ,go on you know you want too.....October will soon come round and I am sure the club could organise a maximum of 4 xc handicaps though out the winter. Anyways best of luck to all those running a spring marathon and the 12 stage relays at Sutton Park.

Although I won't take part in XC, I'd like to point out that the events we used to run at Lake View Park were well supported. In fact it was looking out of the living room window watching everyine, that encouraged me and Mr H to join Northbrook in the first place!!
I've always supported and will be happy to provide tea and cakes on the lawn if it is organised in the autumn

www.justgiving.com/angelahands