When they opened a new HS in the county, my Sr year, it had a rubberized asphalt track. A number of American records from 15 miles to 2 hours were set on that track.
A local private school installed a 220 yd banked asphalt track for "indoor" track. It was outdoors. It was only available in my Sr year of HS, but it was a beauty.
If cinder tracks were properly maintained(turned over, rolled, bit of creosote)they were great. Used 3/4 in. spikes. My school in MI had such a track. But it wasn’t an oval. It was circular looping around the back of the grandstands. So the race could change hands out of view to spectators. Also had 220 yd. Straightaway, common in those days (60s and 70s). It was also measured to 480 yds not 440. So that was interesting. The finish line was at 3 o’clock. Most tracks in my area were asphalt like local roads. Rubberized tracks( pressed together recycled tires) were amazing but rare in those days. UM &MSU didn’t have rubber tracks until mid 70s. Had beautiful cinder ovals.
The key here is properly maintained. They would typically put new cinders down at the beginning of season and roll it. Sometimes they'd roll it for a meet. But by the end of the season they were almost like small stones and black "dirt". I don't how better to explain it.
It was a high school.
Malmo's post prompted me to remember that the local university had a synthetic track but we ran there about twice in my 4 years of vatsity track.
7-8 grade, late 70s: Cinder track, the high school track was concrete, runners wore spikes.
9-12 grade, early 80s: High school converted to ground-up tires track, not sure what that's called. Spikes still used, but my fastest times were in road shoes.
- Also during HS, the track we'd run state meets at was brick hard but some sort of synthetic, like Bislett was before they re-did it.
I graduated from high school in 1970. All the tracks were cinders and we never ran in anything but spikes. We also never trained away from the track. In college all but two tracks I was on were cinder. Most of the rest were "asphalt composition," asphalt mixed with ground up tires making the track a bit softer than a stretch of road...supposedly. In cold weather there was nothing soft about them. We used short spikes, an eighth of an inch on those tracks.
As you say” we also never trained away from the track. “ So true- not until I read “ The Jim Ryun story”-(great book)did I realize you had to get out on roads to gain endurance. But on the track we always did the standard workout 10 quarters in 68 -70 sec with 1 min. recovery.
Late 80’s/ early 90’s still had a lot of cinder tracks, some asphalt and only a handful of rubber tracks. I ran in racing flats on the asphalt tracks (and usually taunted the guys on the starting line in their spikes).
If cinder tracks were properly maintained(turned over, rolled, bit of creosote)they were great. Used 3/4 in. spikes. My school in MI had such a track. But it wasn’t an oval. It was circular looping around the back of the grandstands. So the race could change hands out of view to spectators. Also had 220 yd. Straightaway, common in those days (60s and 70s). It was also measured to 480 yds not 440. So that was interesting. The finish line was at 3 o’clock. Most tracks in my area were asphalt like local roads. Rubberized tracks( pressed together recycled tires) were amazing but rare in those days. UM &MSU didn’t have rubber tracks until mid 70s. Had beautiful cinder ovals.
Michigan had a modern synthetic track in 1975. I have photos if you don't believe me?
We had one in high school. It was probably this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/203297935709 Chevron 400. It wasn't too bad for pin spikes to penetrate for the first two or three years. But after that it hardened up a lot. We mostly ran on the grass infield inside it to protect our shins (shoes weren't that great in the late 60's).
And we did tear it up one winter shoveling off lane 1 so we could get some interval training in (yes, the sidewalks were packed with ice.). The coach and admin wasn't too happy about that.
Why should it bother folks if someone does what they love?
I think it’s also important to keep in mind that in a very short time frame, Jordan lost her mom and her coach who was an important person in her life. That’s a lot of loss. My hope is that she can get her body and mind some good recovery. I’m rooting for her.
Went to HS and college in the Midwest during the mid-late 70s. Rubberized all-weather tracks were rare. Drake had one going back to early 70s and U of Chicago had one. Sterling, Illinois had a nice indoor track and Chicago's wasn't bad. Most everything else was asphalt, rubberized asphalt, or cinder. The rubberized asphalt tracks weren't bad, and on a good day a cinder track was okay but some were in horrible shape or the weather made them bad. A lot of colleges/universities did not get rubberized tracks until mid 80s to mid-90s.
This happens with small rural schools. I went to a few meets in the 90s where the track was concrete with grass growing in the middle of the back stretch.
Only sprinters actually need spikes. For everyone else, it's a relic of dirt tracks.
Try running a 2 mile with spikes on.
Why would I do that, when I just said only sprinters need them?
Obviously you're not gonna use spikes on asphalt, morans. But whatever shoes you wear, it won't hurt your joints unless you're some sort of precious fragile flower daisy person.
I ran on solely on asphalt tracks in Maryland in high school, class of '71. Some could double as road surfaces and spikes were not helpful. Then I went to college in New England where most tracks were still cinder. Albany State and Brandeis both had very hard asphalt tracks, Bowdoin and UMass-Amherst had rubberized tracks. The US Olympic team trained at Bowdoin before leaving for Munich in 1972.
Yup I went to high school in MD as well. We had asphalt/paved track's until early 2000's. They were fast at least with the right shoes. Most of us wore xc spikes without the spikes for races. If you showed up at our track with plastic based shoes without your spikes in you were screwed. Like running on buttered glass.
Went to HS and college in the Midwest during the mid-late 70s. Rubberized all-weather tracks were rare. Drake had one going back to early 70s and U of Chicago had one. Sterling, Illinois had a nice indoor track and Chicago's wasn't bad. Most everything else was asphalt, rubberized asphalt, or cinder. The rubberized asphalt tracks weren't bad, and on a good day a cinder track was okay but some were in horrible shape or the weather made them bad. A lot of colleges/universities did not get rubberized tracks until mid 80s to mid-90s.
Ran on cinders during the first half of the '70s. Our track was a proper oval. The start/finish line was in the middle of the home straight. That's the way things were done back then. There was one track next town over that used pea gravel for their track. Felt like running on the beach. Another town not too far away had a square cinder track. Wasn't enough room on school grounds for an oval. This track on the back straight had an underground drainage tile that was broken in lane 3. It was essentially a sink hole that could not be repaired without digging up the track. That school district didn't think it was that important of a thing to fix.
On the days we had home meets our coach, not the grounds keeper, rolled the track with a tractor and a concrete roller that was 4' in diameter 2 lanes wide. That compressed the cinders enough for the first half of the meet. After that the track became churned up a bit and some guys used lane 2 to get better traction.
Most runners used 3/4 inch spikes.
Also, our coach, and not the grounds keeper had to stripe all lanes, including 440yd dash, exchange zones and hurdles with a lime spreader, one lane at a time. Our curbs were old telephone poles that had paint marks on them to help make lime striping easier.
It was what it was, and we didn't know any better until a school in our area built an all weather track out of a 2/3 mix of shredded tires and 1/3 asphalt.
And may the Saints and Angels be looking out for you if you tripped over a hurdle. The cinders would make your body look like someone took a cheese grater and had fun torturing you. I had this happen to me at JV Conference. Rules back then stated that H.S. Principal had to be at J.V. Conference meets. So I tripped over hurdle 4 in the 110's, the outside of my right thigh, from my knee to my hip looked like some took a cheese grater to it and pressed cinders into the wound for good measure. My principal observed my fall and approached me afterwords. His words were, and I quote, "Kid you better put something on that."
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