Buying land to make a 400m dirt track . Good or bad idea?

i agree with this. grass is better to run on and doesn't turn into a mudpit when it rains. worse, you run on it as a wet mudpit and you might make permanent potholes.

to be fair, i used to seek out a local setup with a football field surrounded by a dirt track. you could run grass strides/windsprints end to end. you could run the grass perimeter of the field. you could run the dirt track. or you could run the perimeter of the complex.

that being said, to me you'd have to be bored out of your mind to turn an open field with interesting plants, terrain, and such, into some regimented circuit. there's a reason some prefer XC and running around fields and trails. you can always measure off measured increments of a loop for intervals or track-distance work.

Dirt track 400m or 440yards???

Do it. Get the diamond league to host a meet there, and have all the runners in old fashioned footwear and clothing. Then we can finally settlethe debate if our Hocker Jakob and Kerr are better than Bannister and those guys.

Always thought it would be great to mark out an eight-lane 400m track at Burning Man. Bring along some PVC piping for hurdles and standards, plus some mattresses for high jump and pole vault, toss in a shot put, discus, and javelin and you could run a nude decathlon, Greek style. Real performance art!

I agree, and I don't want my post to sound like I dislike the idea, it's just as simple as the OP stated.

Depending on how far you want to take it that will require maintenance, possibly grading and leveling, some covering like wood chips/saw dust/gravel dust/etc.. all that stuff costs money and time and some degree of experience.

Much easier to just find a park and do reps around X field. It's not like it's difficult to measure a course these days.

looooool

You are right about saving the money. But the OP has a dreamer's sense of imagination. That is also good.

Of course, by using your logic, you could also save money by not even buying the tape or stakes and just using your GPS since it doesn't actually matter if you run 400m or 402m or 398m. Your leg muscles don't actually care how far you run as long as the stimuli is good.

The whole point of the OP's question is whether you think it would be fun to have a few acres of land out in the country where you could camp, build a 400m track, set up some yurts, tents, and/or small rustic cabins, plant some shade trees and fruit trees, and take your friends out there for running/music camp-outs.

p.s. I think the answer is yes if you have access to water. Without water, camping (and running) is not that great. For me, a property with a creek and a mill pond (for post run swimming) would be ideal.

Something like this would work.

Open image

If you have the means, go for it

I've always said if I win the lottery I will do this. I think it would be great to have your own track that you can run wkts on whenever you want. All the tracks close to me are fenced-in with lock & chain. I have to drive 35 min to the nearest track & only from 6-10am.

I say if you have the means - go for it! Send me an invite! :)

They have a mondo track in Iten lol

https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/1016776658/lorna-kiplagat-sports-academy-iten/

Do you live somewhere where there are many other runners around? If so:

1. Create a partnership or LLC arrangement.

2. Either sell transferrable memberships or allow people to buy shares in the partnership. Let's say you get 50 people. You can now dilute your own outlay for the down payment to 2% of what it would have been. Let's say a membership costs $1,000. You now have $50,000 to purchase the property.

3. Charge annual dues to members. Say you have 50 members and charge $200 a year. You now have $10,000/year for improvements. Not sure the cost of wave light but a few years ago people said it was $20k. So in 2 years you can have fully paid off wave light. If you finance it you could get it right away. Similarly, you could finance the construction of an actual track if you spread the cost over time and across 50 members.

4. With 50 members, you now have a labor force of 50 people if you have an improvement or maintenance project. Want to do some landscaping? Piece of cake.

5. Have a monthly meeting where everyone discusses what the track needs next. Obvious early improvements would be a bathroom facility, lighting, etc.

6. If someone leaves the area, they can sell their $1000 membership to someone else or the other 49 members can each kick in $20.50 to buy back the share.

7. Over time, you are adding value to your club and your share is gaining in value.

Voila, you now have a private track club.

Good idea.

My high school track was shabby. No inside border/curb/ marking. Part dirt, part grass, part asphalt.1970-1974. Lotta tough intervals.

Many people who are into equine sports/racing have horse racing tracks along with a barn/ pasture. This is basically what you’re describing.

There’s one about a mile away from where I live. I’m pretty sure it’s a quarter mile but I’m not sure. I’ve thought about knocking on the door there and asking to do farm chores in exchange for use of the track.

I listen to FTK and Inside Running as well as some other Aussie based running podcasts and they consistently rant about how they don't have access to synthetic tracks, yet have an abundance of grass tracks that get painted or "ovals" around Aussie rules football fields.

Here we are with access to synthetic tracks nearly everywhere (cant speak to all regions but here in MD I am a 15-20 minute drive from at least 3-4), yet we are begging for a grass or dirt track. I too have tried to measure out 300-400m grass loops. I regularly run on a 540 meter gravel "track" shape by my house. It is great to run on. Wheeled off appropriate intervals. GPS it if need be.

In college however we did have a grass 600m track we made using the old rails of our track, and a 200m straightaway on Bermuda soccer practice fields. That was a treat. Literally still dream of running on that thing. So nice on the legs and the oversize nature of it made it easier for long reps.

It is your money...

Yup I know of a 12 acre chunk for 56k in Iowa about a mile from a popular lake. you could get a good half mile loop out there cross country style, maybe more than a half mile loop.

if i had country land i'd rather just set up loops around the property, leave the foliage and land more or less intact, and have an amorphous loop with varied stuff to look at, and comfortable running surfaces......or even change up how you run around it every day......and if you have to, you wheel the sucker and put down some distance markers, if you insist on track-style distances/intervals.

to me track is a young person's game. and most kids have access to a track at HS or college. and if this is for an adult, the mere fact you ran regularly on a good surface would probably put you above plenty of road runners and masters track folks.

that and my memory of the local dirt track was holes popping up periodically that you had to remember to avoid.