FOR MANY club athletes the end of the summer means only one thing – that it’s time to clean last year’s muck off of their spikes and to contemplate the pleasures of running around cold and boggy fields, writes The Extra Miler.To be sure, cross-country running is an acquired taste, but, once you get the gist of it, there’s a certain primitive buzz to be had from ploughing along through horrible conditions and surviving until the finish line.

In comparison to the boom in road racing that continues around the country, cross-country running is still very much a minority pursuit and this is a great pity. It appears to me that many of the recent recruits to running – those that flock to the big summer road races – could perhaps be enticed over to cross-country running with only a little extra effort.

Perhaps one idea might be to create a category of cross-country competition that caters specifically for these recreational runners and that would serve as an introduction to these rare pleasures. Think of it as Fit4Life with additional muck!