Introducing the newly revived O'Connor Park Cross Country Course

Once upon a time, not that many years ago, there was once a great and revered cross country course tucked deep into the Carrollton neighborhood at O'connor Park. For years Pirate runners have lost blood, sweat and tears on the rolling hills of the park grounds in the forging of many a Pattonville cross country team.  Sadly the surrounding neighborhood was demolished by airport expansion and our beloved park suffered a period of abandonment in which the back areas of the park grew wildly. For a couple years we (the XC team) even mowed sections of the course ourselves to try and maintain the course. However,  nature's will was much greater than a few mowers and weed eaters. Thankfully, Bridgeton maintained the front of the park and we were able to use it as an alternative practice location, but never to the extent that we once did.
   Alright, if you have made it this far in the saga then you deserve a happy ending.  We are super excited to announce that since last cross country season much progress has been made in reviving the O'connor Cross Country Course. Last Wednesday's 1st summer team run marked the first running of the new course. A special thanks goes out to our own Superintendent Dr. Mike Fulton for creating this opportunity as well as Assistant Superintendent Mr. Barry Nelson and Athlectic Director Mr. Bob Hebrank for working with the Bridgeton parks department to help create a home for our cross country team.  Finally, none of this would be possible without the immense work and cooperation of the Bridgeton Parks Department.  They have been outstanding to work with as Coach Simmons and myself have plotted a new course. I am not exaggerating  when I say they have moved tons of earth and cleared a forests worth of brush (mostly honeysuckle, for our nature lovers) so that most of the old course could be revived.
   The new course is very similar to the old course, with some tweaking that was necessary given the changes to the park. Just in case any Alumni were to read this post.. don't worry... it hasn't gotten any easier. At this point some of the footing in the cleared areas is pretty rough.  Heck, this is Cross Country ...and with time and use the course will smooth out.  The Bridgeton Parks Dept. will also be mowing the course to keep it under control (once again a special thanks to the Parks Dept.)  See the map below for the general layout. A 5K course is basically 2 laps around the marked course.  We will also design a two mile version using the same grounds.
   Finally, as a result of the course and clearing of O'connor park we now have a single park the Pattonville Cross Country teams can call home.  We will still practice at other parks for variety of training, but O'connor will once again become our central location. We do not currently have plans to race the 5K course this season. However, that could change and it most likely will in the years to come.  We are planning to run a 2 mile version of the course for our Green and White meet and  host the Middle School meet this Fall. Most importantly all the various part of the course will be employed for training purposes throughout our season.
As an extra bonus, the roads around the park are very quiet and almost unused since all the homes are gone.  This means we can run safely on the neighboring roads in addition to using the park grounds.
  If you get a chance I recommend a run on the course.  A solid workout is guaranteed.  We will also be having our Wednesday runs at O'connor every other week.(see previous post for summer events schedule)
Happy Running! and remember...We Love Hills !