We arrange Saturday morning regular meetings for off-road training. These runs are open to our young and energetic junior runners, senior members and parents who may like to undertake a Saturday morning group social run. We start at 9.00 AM with runs between 5-8 KM, including some hill reps (with shorter loops for our younger members), and the session will last just over an hour.

Training schedule for this season to be announced. Locations include:

• Canford Park SANG, Knighton Lane BH21 3AS
• Tollerford Road, Canford Heath
• Learoyd Road Canford Heath

Poole AC teams compete in the Hampshire XC league, and the Wessex XC leagues and these events are free to affiliated club members. To register your interest please contact the club team captains before the start of the XC season, and supply them with your affiliation number and date of birth, and they will pre-register you. You will then be supplied a number which you will run in for the season.

Young and old alike, fast and slow, everyone is welcome! It is important that you compete in the official Club Cross Country colours – the black vest with the gold stripe (club kit list here). The events for this year are published below. You do not have to commit to any race in advance, as long as you have your number and your vest, just turn up on the day.

The Wessex league is more local, so if you have never tried Cross Country before it is an ideal place to start and it’s not too far to get home for a well earned shower or bath. Venues include Canford Heath, Ferndown, Blandford, and Yeovil.

The Hampshire league races tend to be further afield, and with larger numbers of entrants you may find yourself competing against the complete range of abilities all the way up to GB Internationals! Venues include Bournemouth, Petersfield, Popham, Reading and Aldershot.

Other important events in the Cross Country calendar are  the Dorset School Championships (PEDSSA), the South West Schools XC Championships, the English Schools XC Championships, the South West Championships, the Southern XC Championships, the Inter Counties XC Championships and the event that all our cross country aficionados rave about – the National XC Championships, held at Parliament Hill, London.

Running in the league events automatically enters you into the internal Poole AC annual XC competition. The first runner home for the club gets a minimum of 5 points (if there are six competing – 6 points, seven competing – 7 points etc) and subsequent finishers get a point less (so if three compete it will be 5,4,3 or seven compete it will be 7,6,5,4,3,2,1).

Men and women compete in separate events, with different start times. Typically the senior mens races are 8.5k and the womens races are 6.5k. The junior events will be shorter depending on age category. Some events are flat (ish), some are hilly, and they consist of varying numbers of laps. In typical British weather you are guaranteed to get muddy! It is advisable to wear XC spikes or trail shoes if you don’t want to be slipping and sliding around, and have some extra clothing with you to keep warm when you are standing around (did we mention that the British weather is often cold too?)

Suitable for all abilities and is great for testing XC as a discipline

Suitable if you’re under 18.

An introduction to off road running, especially if you’ve previously chosen track or roads.

Impressive cross country events that take part across the country. You could be representing the county or the club.