The 2014 cross country season opens soon, the long march to the State Final at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee on November 15. The State Meet isn't the biggest meet at the Apalachee Regional Park Cross-Country Course, though. It isn't even the biggest cross country meet in Tallahassee. That honor has to go to the Florida State University Invitational.


First run in 1972, the FSU Invitational is the oldest cross-country meet in Northwest Florida. The Invite has only been at Apalachee Regional Park since 2009, though. Back in the Nixon administration, back when the United States was still embroiled in Vietnam, the meet was held on the FSU Golf Course and the old FSU Dairy Farm.

FSU INVITATIONAL -  FSU GOLF COURSE 1974

The Dairy Farm was acquired by the Florida State College for Women in the 1920s. After World War II FSCW became coeducational Florida State University, and land needs started to nibble away at the Dairy Farm. The FSU Trailer Park took a small bite, and the FSU Nursery chewed off some more. The Alumni Village student apartments gobbled up a big chunk and in 1962 the FSU Golf Course devoured an even bigger one. What remained of the Dairy Farm was closed down in 1969. The cows were gone when the runners arrived in 1972.


Over the years that the FSU Invitational was based at the golf course, the distances contested ranged from the mile-and-a-half pre-1977 high school girls' races to 10K university men's races. Courses changed frequently over the years, but the races always started on the golf course. Before 1980 the longer runs would venture onto the Dairy Farm, but in later years even the longest events stayed entirely on the golf course. The land was rolling. At the east end of the property the FSU Golf Course's clubhouse stood at the top of a hill. The west end was the low ground along Munson Slough. Between the two there were plenty of slopes to ascend or descend.

FSU INVITATIONAL -  FSU GOLF COURSE 1974

Too many state champions to list competed on the FSU Golf Course/Dairy Farm in the FSU Invitational over the years. Olympians Joan Benoit Samuelson and Keith Brantley raced there. The venue was good enough that an AIAW National Championship was held there one year and the US Cross Country Team Trials for the World Championships another year.


Unfortunately, it was also a golf course, and many golfers weren't happy to see the runners there. There were always onerous restrictions--don't go in the clubhouse, don't park there, don't work out on the course. After nearly three decades, the FSU Invitational moved.

MICCOSUKEE GREENWAY XC COURSE

The new home was the Miccosukee Greenway, which had also been carved out of old pasture land, this time from property at the edge of Welaunee Plantation. North of the Greenway fence, the cattle are still grazing. The Greenway was a great place to run, and the FSU Invitational was joined there by District meets, Region meets, the FACA Senior All-Star Meet, and other races. The runners didn't have to share the land with anyone hitting golf balls, but they did have to share the Greenway with cyclists, equestrians, hikers, and dog-walkers. Some of the other Greenway users didn't like the large running events like the FSU Invitational, not even a little bit. They asked Leon County to enforce the land use agreement under which the property was leased from the state of Florida. The result was that you could still run on the Greenway, you just couldn't park there. That made it all but impossible to stage a meet at the Miccosukee Greenway and the FSU Invitational was held there for the last time in 2008. You can still run out there, and many teams train on the Greenway, which has more miles of oyster shell path than anyplace else in Tallahassee.


Leon County worked with FSU to find a new running venue and came up with Apalachee Regional Park, on yet another parcel of land where cows once roamed. ARPXC was dedicated at the 2009 FSU Invitational. The Invitational swelled in size when it became Pre-State in 2012; it's now a two-day affair where thousands of athletes compete in multiple races.

APALACHEE REGIONAL PARK - XC PLAYGROUND

Eventually the FSU Invitational at ARPXC will gather legends to rival those of the Dairy Farm days of the meet. Ken Misner raced the Dairy Farm, but Sukhi Khosla races ARPXC. Kathy Moore ran the turf of the FSU Golf Course, Julie Wollrath the woods of ARPXC. But if you happen to be standing next to an older gentleman at the next FSU Invitational on 11 October 2014, don't try to impress him with stories about the Wall. He'll tell you about the Power Lines, and you may not ever get him to stop.

Northwest Florida Correspondent Herb Wills

Herb Wills' running career goes back to the 1971 boys' age-group mile at the Florida Relays. Since losing that race he has won the 1976 Florida High School class 4A cross-country championship, 1979 AAU USA junior titles in cross-country and the 10,000 meters, and the 1989 TAC USA 30K national championship. As a distance runner at Florida State University from 1978 to 1982, he was NCAA All-American three times in track and once in cross country, and won a silver medal in the marathon at the 1981 World University Games. Graduating Florida State with a degree in mathematics, in the following years Wills ran in the USA Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, 1988, and 1992, and placed tenth in the Boston Marathon in 1989. After more than a few years of duty as a hurdle setter and lane judge at track meets, Wills discovered that the public address announcer not only got to sit down at meets but was also sheltered from the rain. Since that revelation you can hear him with a microphone in his hand at several track and cross-country events in the Tallahassee area. Writing is another activity you can do while sitting down, and Wills has written about running for Racing South magazine and Tallahassee's local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat.

You can read more running related tidbits in his blog at http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/

Herb Wills NorthWest Florida Reports LINK