Track Markings

I assume you can look behind the respective starting lines and see whether they say "200" or "220" or whatever. That seems to be an easy way to figure it out.

The track doesnt say 200 or 220 anywhere and I do not have a little bro or sis,

some help please

Worth a try. Ask the athetic director. If he/she doesn't know, simply knowing the year it was laid should give a good indication. Most likely it would take a track laid prior to 1980 to still be yards. If not sure, ask what company laid the track and give them a call. They typically have records of all tracks put down.

to find out what the track markings mean you can go to RW.

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-51-0-0-2029,00.html

If you really wanna know, a meter wheel would do the trick. I believe that a 400m track is actually 400 meters around six inches from the inside line if it was designed for a rail, and four inches if it's meant to be used without a rail. But don't quote my on that. Can someone else confirm or deny?

Best way to tell is to take a 100m tape and measure the distance from the finish line to the start of the 100m/100y start line. This will be a quick and easy way to tell if the track is metric or yards.

A track may have a 100M marked out but still be a 440yd track.

Look at the finish line. A few paces back from the finish you may find a line to start the mile. It the line is there you've got a 400M track.

It would have to be a pretty old track to still be 440 yards.

Sweet. Made my day.

BadGuy wrote:

Best way to tell is to take a 100m tape and measure the distance from the finish line to the start of the 100m/100y start line.

Well I guess that works if you happen to have a 100m tape sitting around the house. If not, check where the middle of the last exchange zone for the 4x100/110 is. If there is a solid start line about 10 yards/meters closer to the finish, that is a 100 yard start and it's probably a 440 track. If not, it's probably a 400 track.

If it is a track that is still in use there are almost certainly meter marks on the track. I think the easiest way to tell is be looking in lane one. If there is a staggered start for the 400m for lane 1 the track is 440y around. If the 400m for lane 1 starts at the finish line it is 400m.

Speaking of tracks, I was in Delaware last week vacationing and wanted to find tracks to run on. I found two HS tracks that were BLACK TOP. What's up with that? Anyone from DE know why your tracks suck??

matthew102 wrote:

If it is a track that is still in use there are almost certainly meter marks on the track. I think the easiest way to tell is be looking in lane one. If there is a staggered start for the 400m for lane 1 the track is 440y around. If the 400m for lane 1 starts at the finish line it is 400m.

I thought no-one was going to get round to this, it's the unambiguous way to pick a 440 track, the difference in lane 1 will be about 1.5m.

It's worse than you think. Some schools (Like Milford) still have dirt tracks.

"2nd where in the world are there still tracks measured in yards? i presume this is a hs track, if they use it it is marked in meters. you just need to figure out what the lines mean"

Well if you were from the New England Area you would know that the Harvard indoor track is in yards and not meters.

Bring a treadmill to the track and set it up next the start line. Have a friend start running on the treadmill at 6:00/mile at the same time you start running around the track. Use your garmin to average 6:00/mile for 400 meters.

If you finish a split-second before the treadmill odometer reads 0.25, it's in meters. If you finish at exactly the same time, it's in yards.

I've done this numerous times and find it highly accurate. Let me know how it works out for you.

Not bad.

But I think (unless I missed it) you left out the break line at the beginning of the back stretch and the break marker (5 cm x 5 cm) for the alley 5000 meter start on the home stretch.

fyi- there are several IAAF tracks in the US. They do not use triangles for the exchange zones.

Here's a trivia question for you:

Nearly all of the lines on the track (and field) are 5cm wide. Three are not. Which are they?