also just to say, in racing the central and London leagues, I remember 1, maybe 2, in the last two years races where the mud was deep enough to cause real issues. Admittedly I haven't done every race, but ime racing CX in the dry is far more common than expected.
Yeah Leeds, deffo lots of mud round here!
I run on the trails a lot (so I’ve been scoping out routes) and there’s a big variance in ground condition depending on recent weather. A couple dry weeks often lead to records being broken at fell races because the lack of mud speeds things up so much.
also just to say, in racing the central and London leagues, I remember 1, maybe 2, in the last two years races where the mud was deep enough to cause real issues. Admittedly I haven't done every race, but ime racing CX in the dry is far more common than expected.