So I have to do the 3200 (20 laps) and then the mile ~45 minutes later.
Any ideas so that I do not get bored/lose track of laps while racing? (Here's looking at you, 10,000m racers)
So I have to do the 3200 (20 laps) and then the mile ~45 minutes later.
Any ideas so that I do not get bored/lose track of laps while racing? (Here's looking at you, 10,000m racers)
That sounds awesome. Be grateful to race on a piece of history.
You got 20 laps for the 3200, which means you're gonna be seeing the same people on the infield 20 times. Pick a girl and try and get her number while you're running every time you pass by her.
Try to lap the entire field. Once that is complete, lap them again. Make it a game.
What track is this? The only wood track I know of is in Idaho and is 200m.
You have a chance to experience indoor track as anyone who ran it until maybe 20-30 years ago did. That's rare now. Savor the experience.
I've got to run one one next weekend too...Enid, Oklahoma?
Anyway, it's not as bad as you think it will be. They'll probably have a lap counter. In regards to boredom, you really shouldn't get bored during a race. It's a race. It's what we spend hours a week training for. It's fun. The laps fly by extremely quickly. Even in a 2-mile, you'll feel like you're moving fast.
I wonder if your track was the same 160m banked board one from 1985ish NCAA indoor meet. IIRC it was 15 inches short one year because there was no curb and Roddie Haley’s 500m we of 59.94 was not official. I think Haley later ran into some trouble with the law. He was blue collar pre YouTube.
Meadowlands , MSG , Toronto, Detroit Dallas , SD, Cleveland, Kansas City, LA all had big time indoor arena meets on tracks about those sizes. Those were awesome events.
The indoor meets now seem formulaic and not as exciting or maybe I’m old and think that everyone should walk to school uphill both ways and gym class should be nothing but 600y time trials under. 1:15. And why the heck do kids not shower after practice? Every high school in America has about 40 showers that were last used at the tail end of the first Bush administration. And I heard you can’t even smoke on planes anymore.
Anyways good luck on the boards this weekend.
Best Sounds Ever
-pack of runners circling an indoor wooden track
-Stratocaster "Number One" in the hands of SRV
-'65 427-powered Shelby Cobra at 6,000rpm
-waves slapping the isolated beach late at night
Yeah, the sound of runners racing on an indoor track for me ranks up there with the sound of a baseball hit cleanly with a wooden bat. Great sounds.
Sport, It sounds like there's a bunch of us who wish they had your opportunity to run the boards. In our high school years; my dad took my brother and I to watch the meet at Tingley Colosseum in Albuquerque. It was thrilling to be there. Good luck.
OklahomaGuy wrote:
I've got to run one one next weekend too...Enid, Oklahoma?
Yeah, that one.
Are you going to the 6A meet?
The 1975 NAIA indoor national meet was on a similar track. I made the finals in the mile, as did Olympic medalist Mike Boit who was running for Eastern New Mexico. The final was a kickers race so I was ahead of Boit for a while and made a point of turning around and looking at him. Now I can say, "........so I turned around and saw Mike Boit* on my shoulder". There was lots of jostling in the final and two runners got bumped into the infield which is pretty much why I placed.
You will enjoy your experience on the board track. Just be aware that there may be some elbowing on those tight turns, and don't expect to run a PR.
* - Mike Boit was the only person to make the finals in both the 800 and 1500 in the 1972 Olympics. He was 3rd and 4th in the finals.
528 feet wrote:
I wonder if your track was the same 160m banked board one from 1985ish NCAA indoor meet. IIRC it was 15 inches short one year because there was no curb and Roddie Haley’s 500m we of 59.94 was not official. I think Haley later ran into some trouble with the law. He was blue collar pre YouTube.
Meadowlands , MSG , Toronto, Detroit Dallas , SD, Cleveland, Kansas City, LA all had big time indoor arena meets on tracks about those sizes. Those were awesome events.
Anyways good luck on the boards this weekend.
The above named tracks were all 11 laps to the mile or 176 yds per lap, not 160 meters. So two miles would be 22 laps.
If this track was the original Oklahoma City track it might be 10 laps to the mile, thus 2 miles being 20 laps. In any case any of the old, old tracks were yds, not metric.
i have to say, i enjoyed reading this thread. no snark, nice stories, people actually being nice and supportive. thanks all....
I got to meet Mike Boit at the Ottawa Citizen Indoor Games in the late '70s. (Along with Nick Rose, Tony Staynings, Steve Scott, Henry Rono, Mike Boit, Adrian Leek, Eamonn Coghlan,) He was very gracious to a star-struck teenager. The meet was held on our 125m banked board track, which they disassembled from its home in the Coliseum and moved across the lot to the Civic Centre. For a few years late '70s early 80s they packed 9000+ into the stands making it fun and loud. Eamonn Coghlan held off Steve Scott one year to dip under 4:00 and set a world record for an 13 laps/mile track. When you ran those tight turns the metal railings at the top of lane four would bang with every step. The worst part of the running was if you stepped on a board just as someone lifted their foot you could get thrown off rhythm with the track feeling a little lower than you expected under your foot but springing back suddenly on you mid-stride. Nothing beats that experience though--track as circus, loud fans packed tightly, close races and tight turns.
Birdlegs wrote:
The 1975 NAIA indoor national meet was on a similar track. I made the finals in the mile, as did Olympic medalist Mike Boit who was running for Eastern New Mexico. The final was a kickers race so I was ahead of Boit for a while and made a point of turning around and looking at him. Now I can say, "........so I turned around and saw Mike Boit* on my shoulder". There was lots of jostling in the final and two runners got bumped into the infield which is pretty much why I placed.
You will enjoy your experience on the board track. Just be aware that there may be some elbowing on those tight turns, and don't expect to run a PR.
* - Mike Boit was the only person to make the finals in both the 800 and 1500 in the 1972 Olympics. He was 3rd and 4th in the finals.
I got a chance to race on that Ottawa track when I was in high school. I liked it and it didn't seem to slow us down much.
I distinctly remember that bounce to parts of the track that seemed to enhance speed one minute and kill it the next if you were out of sync with the bounce.
Is this the track? That's kinda cool.
A 20-lap race causes some problems on a 160m track, since there's a high chance that at least someone is going to get lapped. That said, there' s a good chance you'll be working with experienced volunteers who are able to keep track of who's on what lap. It takes practice. For the 3200 I'd recommend getting a good handle on the splits you want to hit, especially for the first 1600. 30s for 10:00. 28.5s for 9:30. 27 for 9:00. They don't come easily if you're not used to that size a track but if you work out the splits for your goal time and get them in your head for that first ten laps that will keep you focused for that first half of the race (and decrease the chance that you're going out far too fast or slow). Then gut it out and count down. 160m isn't really that small a track and banked board can be almost as fast as outdoors--some runners claim even faster.
Sometimes,I hate this sport wrote:
So I have to do the 3200 (20 laps) and then the mile ~45 minutes later.
Any ideas so that I do not get bored/lose track of laps while racing? (Here's looking at you, 10,000m racers)
"...banked board can be almost as fast as outdoors--some runners claim even faster."
Eamonn Coghlan's Mile PR's
Outdoor 3:51:59
Indoor 3:49:78