The XC thread

92 watchers

larkim Jan 2023 3:07pm, 30 Jan 2023 20,094 posts	larkim Ditto. I've been one of about 200 in county races and league races, but being one of 2000 across the mud will be something different again.
SPR Jan 2023 4:23pm, 30 Jan 2023 39,442 posts	SPR An XC start with 2000 plus just sounds nuts.
paulcook Jan 2023 4:33pm, 30 Jan 2023 2,272 posts	paulcook Been about 30 years since one of my only 2 starts at the North of England Schools Championships. I can't recall exactly how many started but it was many hundreds, I doubt as many as 2000 though. However, we practised the starts religiously the week before the race because it was such a different and important race.
Neal Jan 2023 5:05pm, 30 Jan 2023 215 posts	Neal 2190 entries for the Nationals Senior Mens 12k race. Only 1060 for the Nationals Senior Women 8k race. I was wondering how this compares to other types of races and Google found me a story about the ballot for the 2020 London Marathon runnersworld.com In that year 373,736 ballot entries were from the UK, with over 179k of them being women, so more or less 1:1. This strikes me as being significantly different to the 2:1 above. I wonder how many women would have entered that ballot if their "marathon" was 17.5 miles.
paulcook Jan 2023 5:19pm, 30 Jan 2023 2,274 posts	paulcook I looked at the fell race championships for last year. I couldn't see at a glance total entries but there were twice as many point scorers in the men's than the women's despite both having the exact same point scoring criteria. I wasn't going to analyse too much at all, but knowing local races, I wasn't surprised there was a similar 2:1 split as the XC above. I think overall though, I tend to agree with Gobi's take that you can't make people run. There's nothing (obviously inherent, to me) that closes doors for women rather than men. And fell running is slightly different anyway in terms of its appeal, attracting people to the sport, etc. I'm not sure the London Marathon is a normal example either given its ubiquitous appeal. But it is great to see an even split though.
stilldreaming Jan 2023 5:54pm, 30 Jan 2023 1,124 posts	stilldreaming Out of interest, at last Sunday's XC race (I wasn't able to run this time), our club had a team of 13 men and 9 women. In our league, men and women run together on a course of around 5.5 to 6 miles. Wonder what says about women not wanting to run XC?
Neal Jan 2023 5:59pm, 30 Jan 2023 216 posts	Neal Yes, it looks like London is probably the outlier in the ratio, but I'm surprised by how huge the effect is. The results from last year's Manchester marathon have a ratio of 2.5 men for each woman.
SPR Jan 2023 6:04pm, 30 Jan 2023 39,443 posts	SPR We have an obvious history of sport in general being more for men than women. Even if there's equality of opportunity to enter right now, it doesn't mean that those factors won't have an effect. I'm not saying it would end up even but it's worth looking at. What does the ratio look like across the age groups?
SPR Jan 2023 12:09am, 31 Jan 2023 39,444 posts	SPR Had a look at entry and it's only really under 17 and junior where there are material differences. Would need historical numbers to know what to make of that. Obviously numbers are significantly lower than in the seniors race so it's potentially about the ratio of adults clubs attract.
Gobi Jan 2023 7:03am, 31 Jan 2023 79,066 posts	Gobi My club has more men xc runners but we are erratic. The women seem to be clutch group of 6 who attend everything but always the same 6. Training is the same the committed are committed but there are no others.