ABSTRACT
Recreational and competitive running events are held on road, synthetic tracks, parkland, and on more rugged off-road terrain (Creagh et al., 1998a). Over the last few decades, road running has prospered with the ‘marathon boom’ of the early 1980s, and the increasing popularity of shorter road races such as half-marathon and 10-km events. There has not been a corresponding rise in cross-country running as a means of improving health and fitness, despite some efforts to promote variations of this sport such as the ‘HellRunner’ series (TrailPlus, 2008).
