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Why is the English Cross Country Association website so c***? (5 posts)

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sarahrollins said 1 year, 2 months ago:

Thank goodness for twitter – the ECCA website is so rubbish. I can get 2010 results and pictures… As with much in athletics, some things remain in the dark ages.

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sarahrollins said 1 year, 2 months ago:

maybe that was a bit harsh. But very irritating

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Simon Freeman said 1 year, 2 months ago:

I think one of the attractions of cross-country is the old-skool approach to, well, everything basically! My main frustration is that the races are always in the middle of the day which means they tend to dominate the whole day – leave home at 11am to get to the race. Race at 2pm. Get home at 5pm. Day gone! Why not have the races at 9am like sensible race organisers?

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Nick said 1 year, 2 months ago:

Hi Simon – I am going to throw a spanner in here and say that afternoon XC racing can be great. If you use XC as a session then it can become your afternoon tempo or hard run. You can still fit in a morning run before. The great Bill Adcocks (read the road to Athens) used to run his 10 miler on a Saturday morning and then race the Birmingham League XC in the afternoon as a hard run. Bill was one of our true marathon legends of the 60′s etc. His book is a brilliant insight into the simplicity of running and racing hard.
However, having said this, the park runs are a huge success and there must be room for XC lges to maybe run in the morning with just the bigger National events in the afternoon allowing time for travel.
I disagree with Sarah (sorry!), Ian Byett and the ECCA do a fantastic job with a very small budget to host the National X Champs and National XC relays. These races have been the envy of many European nations over the years.

Keep training hard guys and I recommend every runner to use XC and/or Park runs to keep in tune with racing while training hard for bigger events. You can practice tactics, work hard and keep in touch with pace. Huge confidence builders also………

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sarahrollins said 1 year, 1 month ago:

Finally got round to reading your reply Nick and I have to disagree with you too (sorry too ). In orienteering the results are almost instantaneous – all you need are the electronic chips – which are used in most big races – the technology is there, but it is just not being used to its full potential. And at the big Orienteering events, you can follow the results online, including with live GPS tracking so you can actually see where people are on the course and they provide free wifi in the field…..
I’m sorry, but athletics has a lot to learn from other sports. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the small budgets and small group of mainly volunteers who work their socks off at these events, but there are resources out there which would make accessibility for spectators so much more exciting…it would be a good thing!
It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive!

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