Gaithersburg High School debuted its new 4A West Regional cross country course today in a home meet against Poolesville, Blake, and Damascus High Schools. It was purely coincidence that none of today's visiting teams were schools in the 4A West classification. Last week, Gaithersburg used the county championship course for its home meet because this new regional course was not yet ready. It is worth emphasizing that the county championship course is not changing.

I repeat: the Montgomery County Championship Meet course is not changing from what it has been for the last six years.

For the first time since the school underwent construction in 2010, Gaithersburg utilized the athletic fields behind its campus to start and finish a race. It was similar to what us old-time alumni called the "dual meet course" at GHS, but it was different enough that it should definitely be considered something brand new.

The course began on the artificial turf field and quickly bottlenecked through a fence opening at the end of the track. Today's race managed to squeeze over 100 runners through the fence opening without incident. The 4A West Regional Meet will have a maximum of 98 runners per race. It would not work for the county championship meet, and nobody is saying that there is plenty of clearance, but it should work. 4A West runners should plan accordingly.

In the old dual meet course, runners exited the track and hooked a sharp right around the track. In this new 4A West Course, runners continued straight across the field to the edge of the property and ran up a small hill to loop around the upper field. Runners ran down a paved path and completed a large loop around Bohrer Park in the opposite direction of the current county course (very similar to the old county meet course).

The return to the campus included extra loops around the upper field and baseball field and did not include the sharp hills by the tennis courts characteristic of the old county course. The course ended on the track but the 4A West Course this year will end on the turf field inside the track.

Admittedly, anyone who has been around for less than seven years has already stopped reading this article and/or has no idea what they just read. One of Montgomery County's top present day runners, Andrew Lent of Poolesville High School, was kind enough to share his thoughts and opinions on the course, even though he is not even in the 4A West Region. I asked him to be very honest and not be afraid to criticize the course if he wanted to. The Gaithersburg athletic staff will be interested to hear all feedback good and bad.

Excerpts from a post-race interview with Poolesville's Andrew Lent:

"The start is really good...a little tight at the beginning but I've run big invitationals that are just as tight at the beginning, so I'd say for a regional course it would be great."

"There is a little bit more pavement than I'd like for a regional course but overall there is enough room to run on the sides. On the way out, you'll definitely have some guys on the pavement, but it will be ok. From there it is the same as counties and I love the counties course. So I'd say it's pretty good."

"It's definitely going to be slower than the counties course, but that's fine for a regionals course."

"I didn't love the back section behind the baseball field over there. There is a bit where you are up on one side and you slant down and it's just kind of bad footing, but other than that it's a pretty good course especially for what they have here."

Lent dropped a 16:21 5k performance at the Oatlands Invitational three days prior to today's 17:21 performance at this new 4A West Regional course. I asked if people should be concerned that the new regional course may be a full minute slower than Oatlands, but he assured me that his time today was not indicative of the speed of the course. Given the different atmosphere and stakes from Oatlands to a dual meet, it is understandable.

Excerpts from a post-race interview with Gaithersburg Coach Herb Tolbert:

How did the 4A West Regional Meet come to be hosted by Gaithersburg after the Clarksburg course at High Point Farm was no longer a suitable venue?

"We were asking around what courses we could use, and I said we could certainly do it at the park here at Gaithersburg if no one could come up with anything better and I guess no one came up with anything better so we won by default I guess...and I don't mind it. I really enjoy it. It's fun for us and I get a lot of support from my athletic director."

Why do you want to include this back section of your campus as opposed to doing the entire race in Bohrer Park?

"Truth be told, economically, it is easier to do it here. We have a little more control and also I thought I could make this a little more challenging. Obviously we can't make it like Hereford because we don't have those kind of hills, but I wanted it to be a little more challenging than the county course."

What are the pros and cons of this new course?

The Pros:

"The start and finish. I mean we got the bleachers here. It's going to be a great place to start and it's a great place to finish. We've got the stadium clock going. Whether we have a chrono at the finish or not, everyone can see [the stadium clock]. Everything here is convenient for restrooms and concessions."

The Cons:

"There is probably a little more hard surface than I would have wanted."

Neither a pro nor a con:

"A lot of places where we reversed the course you are going uphill as opposed to downhill. We tried. If you go up you've got to come down so even at counties...but I think doing it this way it does add a little bit there."

More twists and turns -

"You're going to have to be thinking and paying attention and knowing where you are."

Very Unofficial Course Map Created by Mocorunning - Accuracy not Guaranteed


Both the County and 4A West Regional courses are Pokemon-Approved