Would you rather win or run a personal best?
This one simple question will reveal the true heart of any athlete or coach. Running a personal best is great. It fills you with an unbeatable sense of satisfaction—the kind that can only come from a job well done, and knowing that the work and effort you put in led to a desired outcome.
But doesn't winning , or even beating a rival, do the same thing?
Let me pose this question.
If there was no clocks, stopwatches or timers allowed, and only finish place mattered, would you still compete, train or coach the same way? In the current era of cross country, athletes and coaches are hunting for personal bests every week. Forgetting the fact that trophies and medals don't say your time on them. (Never mind the often ignored reality that course measurements aren't always reliable, and elements like footing, topography, and weather also play an outsized factor in cross country times!)
It's important to remember, when looking at the state and conference championship banners in your school, it doesn't matter what time they ran, all that matters is that they were champions.
The point of our sport, and any sport for that matter, is to win. Not to run personal bests every week—as great as that may be—but to win. Ask any runner of any ability from any era... they may not remember their PRs but they remember winning, and they remember harder courses.
The flat courses with wide turns and no difficulty are great every once in a while, but they do nothing to show and train the grit necessary for cross country. Harder courses show who true cross country runners really are. The ones not afraid to attack uphills and downhills. Or to take sharp turns at blazing speeds. Harder courses separate the good runners from the great runners, and the good teams from the championship teams. Scheduling and competing on easy courses all year doesn't make you better, it makes you less prepared.
Do you want prospective athletes to see your sport as more interesting? Run harder courses. Do you want to prepare for a deep post-season run? Run harder courses. Do really want to feel satisfaction for completing a full 5k? Run harder courses. The answer is simple. Now you just have to do it.