Cross Internacional de la Constitución is an annual cross country running

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

 event which is held in early December in Alcobendas

Alcobendas

Alcobendas is a city located in the Community of Madrid, central Spain. It is located roughly 13 km north of Madrid and 7 km from the Barajas International Airport. It includes a central urban zone, a recently built district known as Valdelasfuentes, La Moraleja and El Soto de la...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. The competition was first held in 1982 and began attracting top-level elite distance runners from the 1990s onwards. Hosted by the Club de Atletismo Popular de Alcobendas, the Cross de la Constitución takes place in Parque de Andalucia near the industrial centre in the city. Almost 600 runners took part in the races in 2010.

The men's elite competition is held over roughly 10 km, while the women elite runners compete over approximately 6 km. The exact race distances of the courses on the park's looped circuit vary from year to year, thus no course record is kept. The women's race was previously about 5 km but has been around 6 km since 1999. The race day's events include nine categories of competition: six are youth races by age group, short and long course races are held for senior athletes, and a separate veteran's race is also held for older runners.

Winners of the competition have included a number of World Cross Country

IAAF World Cross Country Championships

IAAF World Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Held annually and organised by International Association of Athletics Federations , it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the International Cross Country Championships...

 champions: Zersenay Tadese, Joseph Ebuya

Joseph Ebuya

Joseph Ebuya is a Kenyan runner who specializes in the 5000 metres and was the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships champion.-Early life and career:...

, Gebregziabher Gebremariam and Albertina Dias

Albertina Dias

Maria Albertina da Costa Dias Pereira is a former Portuguese long-distance runner. She competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for her native country, starting in 1988...

 have all gone on to win the world title after victory in Alcobendas. Other winners of note include Spanish marathon world champion Martín Fiz

Martín Fiz

Martín Fiz Martín is a former long-distance runner from Spain, who won the marathon at the 1994 European Championships in Athletics in Helsinki and repeated his success at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics in Gothenburg...

 and track world champions Benjamin Limo

Benjamin Limo

Benjamin Kipkoech Limo is a Kenyan middle distance runner. He runs every distance from 1500 m to 10,000 m, but mainly competes in 5,000 m, where he has won international medals....

, Vivian Cheruiyot

Vivian Cheruiyot

Vivian Cheruiyot is an athlete from Kenya who specialises in long distance running. She represented Kenya at the 2000 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics...

 and Linet Masai

Linet Masai

Linet Chepkwemoi Masai is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in track and cross country running events...

. The meet previously received permit status from European Athletics, the continental body for the sport.

Past senior race winners

Edition	Year	Men's winner	Time (m Minute A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units... :s Second The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock.... )	Women's winner	Time (m Minute A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units... :s Second The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock.... )
I	1982
II	1983
III	1984
IV	1985
V	1986
VI	1987
VII	1988
VIII	1989		27:50		13:36
IX	1990		28:52		17:14
X	1991		32:05		19:22
XI	1992		29:36		17:54
XII	1993		28:09		16:24
XIII	1994		29:12		17:09
XIV	1995		29:52		18:20
XV	1996		29:00		17:36
XVI	1997		28:26		16:30
XVII	1998		28:01		20:46
XVIII	1999		30:27		19:26
XIX	2000		29:15		18:28
XX	2001		29:30		19:49
XXI	2002		30:42		20:13
XXII	2003		30:20		20:26
XXIII	2004		30:13		19:26
XXIV	2005		29:14		19:14
XXV	2006		32:18		21:16
XXVI	2007		29:08		19:40
XXVII	2008		29:08		18:59
XXVIII	2009		30:55		19:53
XXIX	2010		29:37		20:15