The next World Athletics Cross-Country Championship is slated for Tallahassee, Florida's Apalachee Regional Park Cross-Country Course on 10 January 2026. So on Saturday morning, 11 January 2025, 364 days before the big event, Visit Tallahassee hosted a Countdown to the World Championship at ARPXC. Heading the schedule at the Countdown was a three-kilometer cross-country run on the course. Tallahassee master runner Leonardo Canete was the first to finish the 3,000 meters, running 10:53. The first woman was Rebekah Mills, who toured the course in 13:34.
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| Leonardo Canete |
It was Canete's second win of 2025; just seven days earlier he had won the half-marathon at Gulf Winds Track Club's Swamp Forest Trail Race, another cross-country event. Both Canete and Mills had raced at Apalachee Regional Park three weeks before the Countdown in the Tannenbaum Trail 6K on 21 December 2024. Based on that schedule, you'd have to think that the two athletes have some love for the sport. You wouldn't be wrong.
"It's wonderful that there's so much excitement for cross-country here," said Mills, Caesar Rodney High's four-time medalist at the Delaware Cross-Country Championships. "It's the best sport."
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| Rebekah Mills |
Excitement is warranted. You'll see different figures for the number of national teams that will compete in the World Championship (dozens and dozens) and for the number of athletes (hundreds and hundreds). The exact numbers aren't important, though. What is important is that these will be the best cross-country runners in the world. This is, after all, the World Championship, and these harriers will be competing in Florida, in Tallahassee, at Apalachee Regional Park.
There will be five races. Senior men, senior women, junior men, junior women, and a mixed relay. "Senior" means any age; the senior athletes race ten kilometers. "Junior" is under 20, the junior men race eight kilometers and the junior women six kilometers. The relay is 4 x 2 kilometers in the order man, woman, man, woman.
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| The Tallahassee 26 logo unveiled |
No one in any of the five races will have to race up Apalachee Regional Park's notorious incline, the Wall. The races will each feature multiple laps around a new two-kilometer loop at ARPXC, a loops that will feature a sand element (symbolizing Florida's beaches), a mud element (symbolizing the Everglades), a roller-coaster element (sharp up-and-downs symbolizing Florida's theme parks), and a water element (symbolizing Florida's water recreation). Thankfully, there will be no 'gator attack element (symbolizing Florida's wildlife) or lighting-oneself-on-fire element (symbolizing Florida man).
The World Championship has never before been in Florida. It has seldom been in the United States; of 46 World Championship meets Tallahassee 26 will be only the third in North America.
Links
- More Trouble Afoot! photos of the Countdown to the World Athletics Cross-Country Championship
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10124457953891193
- Map of the 3K at Apalachee Regional Park Championship Cross-Country Course
https://app.box.com/s/wiaj82rrw2thbl53qlvmdmsav09906rh
- Wikipedia entry for the 46th World Athletics Cross-Country Championship, Tallahassee 26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_World_Athletics_Cross_Country_Championships
- The World Athletics Cross-Country Championship is just one area event on the Trouble Afoot! calendar
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
14th annual Trent Trot 10K, 5K, and one-mile fun run. 8:00 AM ET one mile / 8:30 AM ET 10K, 5K. 
36th annual Shamrock Scurry 5K and one-mile fun run. 8:00 AM ET one mile / 8:30AM ET 5K.
Red Pepper Run 5K. 8:00 AM ET. Saint George Island Firehouse, 324 East Pine Avenue, Saint George Island, Florida 32328. 2024 
27th annual Gulf Winds Track Club Mile at the Breakfast On The Track. 7:45 AM ET. Maclay School track, 3737 North Meridian Road, Tallahassee, Florida 32312. 2024 
Hahira Honeybee Festival 5K. 8:00 AM ET. Hahira Community Center, 216 Randall Street, Hahira, Georgia 31632. 2023 
Gulf Winds Track Club's 46th annual Pine Run at Tall Timbers 20K. 7:30 AM ET. Tall Timbers Research Station, 13093 Henry Beadel Drive, Tallahassee, Florida 32312. 2024 
18th annual Rejoice Run 5K and Mom's Mile (formerly Joyce's Jog). 7:30 AM ET one mile / 8:00 AM ET 5K. Historic Donalsonville Fire Station, 220 South Woolfork Avenue, Donalsonville, Georgia 39845. 2024 
45th annual Boston Half-Marathon and 5K. 8:00 AM ET half marathon / 8:15 AM ET 5K. Commercial Bank, 124 West Jefferson Street, Boston, Georgia 31626. 2024 
13th annual BFD Catfish Crawl 5K and one-mile fun run. 8:00 AM CT. M and B Train Park, North Main Street and Railroad Avenue, Blountstown, Florida 32424. 2024 
Full Press Apparel Memorial to Memorial Veterans Day 5K. 8:00 AM ET. Florida Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, 463-489 South Monroe Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301. 2024 
Gulf Wind Track Club's 13th annual Tannenbaum Trail 6K Cross Country Run. 9:00 AM ET.