Cross Country's Origin
Annotated Bibliography (#1)
"Cross-country | Sport." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Ed. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 31 May 2015.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/144063/cross-country.
In the article posted by Britannica on the origin of Cross Country it gives information on what we have now and how its different from what the original game. This article also give information on not only the origin but also on where the game spread to and what type of places started holding "cross country" races. As well as gives information on the first international races and why cross country is an illegible "summer sport for the Olympics."
Annotated Bibliography (#2)
Robinson, Roger. "The Origins of Cross Country." Runner's World. Runners World, 13 Sept. 2009. Web. 31 May 2015.
http://www.runnersworld.com/rt-columns/origins-cross-country.
The Runners World posted an article by Roger Robinson on the origin or Cross Country. In this article it explains where the origin of Cross Country came from in detail and has a first hand view from the author who partook in a game (race). As well as includes vocabulary, where it came from, and why they use it. The article also includes briefly step by step instructions on how they play the game.
Origin of Cross Country.
Cross country began with a group of girls from Shrewsbury who called themselves "harriers-- hare hunters-- because they were imitating there fathers' sport of hunting." The game begins with "two runners" who 'would be designated" as "the "hares" or "foxes" and' would "run ahead by 10 minutes or so (that time was called "law"), laying a "scent" of shredded paper." "The pack" was a group of "younger runners who were supposedly the hounds." The hounds job was to work "'as a team to cover any "checks" (where the scent was lost). Skilled hares would zigzag and double, and lay false trails to make the hounds' job difficult.''' '"The field was the older students who were supposedly the pursuing Huntsmen. They followed the hounds, and once the hares were sighted, they began the serious run in. If they caught the hares, it was "the kill." So if you're "ahead of the field," you are indeed winning the race, just as the best schoolboy runner did as he chased the hares any misty October day in 1825."'
They also scheduled more formal races such as the '"steeplechases, modeled on their fathers' daredevil horseback gallops from one village church steeple to the next. This time there would be a marked course. That came from the Latin word "currere," to run. Fences, streams, and thorny hedges were all part of the challenge, and the students at Shrewsbury" the "next day proudly displayed the scars inflicted by a technique they called "belly-hedging." Sometimes they would jump hurdles, which were movable sections of fencing, used by farmers for penning sheep."'