| I have to offer the course in Elkins, WV as one
of the toughest. There are courses in WV harder than Elkins, but
none that hold major meets.
The Elkins course is currently home to the Forest Festival Invitational
and was the site of the WV State Meet for several years (the meet
was held at a different location this year and in 1998 and 1999).
Only one high school runner has ever broken 17:00 on this course.
That was Justin Simpson of Oak Glen. He ran the course in 16:54.
A couple weeks later, he ran the Footlocker South race in 15:30.
The course features several large hills (one particularly large
hill that begins at around 0.6 miles), two creek crossings (add
some weight to those shoes for the last mile), a log jump, and several
areas of rooted terrain that is rather treacherous.
In 1998, when our State Meet was at Williamstown, Ricky Moore was
the State Champion (Class 3A) in 15:57. The year before, he was
State Champion on the Elkins course in 18:15.
We'd love to have some of the Maryland teams that compete at Hereford
come to Elkins and make the comparison for themselves.
Josh Weekley
RunWV.com
College runner seconds the motion
I am a college senior at Morehead State University. I have run
many cross country courses in my time, but no course compares to
that of the West Virginia State Meet at Elkins, West Virginia.
The course is located in the mountains of WV at an elevation of
around 3,500 ft. The course takes you up a huge mountain, through
2 freezing cold creeks, and over many fallen trees that serve as
Steeplechase Barriers.
Don't take my word for it, just look at results from our State
Meets.
This years state meet was held at Mineral Wells, WV and the Simpson
Twins ran 15:20. Last year it was held at Elkins like it used to
be and Justin Simpson set the course record of 16:54, shattering
the old record of 17:03. Not even 9:14 two miler's Chris Walsh and
Ben Lukowski could conquer this course ,running 17:31 and 17:36,
respectively.
Toughest Courses
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