Episcopal HS in Alexandria, Va., has a circular track - I believe the type is broken-backed.
Randolph-Macon Academy in Front Royal, Va., had a 400m asphalt square, right next to a drainage ditch from a paper mill. The throwing sector was off to one side, and dropped about two feet from the circle as you went down one side - good for an extra inch or two.
Someone has to mention the Penn Relays track at Franklin Field.
I think it's basically a 5 lane track for lanes 5-9 with lanes 1-4 on the insided of the rail.
It is staggered before the finish line for the inside lanes.
Also the turns are very wide. Evryone runs some curve on the 4X100.
Mamaroneck High School, NY
Track is around a baseball field. Weird to be running down the 3rd baseline to the finish.
This is one of the best threads in a while. Thanks all!
Thanks for bringing this thread back. I was asking a couple days ago on a different thread if someone could find this thread. Actually, there's another one like it that I think has many more satellite images of even stranger tracks. Anyone able to find it. I did search but just can't locate it.
Beverly Hills High School has a square track.
good thing we didn't have this thread made a year ago
You guys gotta try harder than that
Thats what we run on.
Its a 1.5 mile track, start and finish are 2 different spots, so you have to run 4 laps + 435 feet.
Its also a slight uphill for the 2nd turn, and downhill for 2 more turns.
Hot Springs, SD high had a rectangle 440 dirt track up until about 8 or 9 yrs ago. The pole vault was held in the gym.
South Dakota State University's indoor is basically a 4 lane square this some corners sharper than others. The back stretch is behind the main seating for the basketball arena. The blind turns were not fun in college. I think they had meets there back in the day?
Omaha Central built a new track a few yrs ago to go with their new football field. I think it' 380m as it ran out of room on the north side because of the freeway. The view of the Omaha skyline is pretty cool though.
There's THIS triangular thing on the University of Texas campus.... it also is on a hill:
american university has an outdoor track that is like an oval, but is squashed on the ends...so there are two 30 m straightaways
Travis Runner wrote:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=travis+afb,+ca&sll=40.944201,-73.746328&sspn=0.007326,0.013819&gl=us&ie=UTF8&ll=38.274356,-121.937975&spn=0.003605,0.006909&t=h&z=17
ThinkPaper wrote:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=30%C2%B016%2751.85%22N++97%C2%B044%273.97%22W&sll=30.281069,-97.734436&sspn=0.006402,0.013947&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=30.281199,-97.73456&spn=0.001675,0.003487&z=19
Both of these are impressively weird. Much weirder than Seattle Pacific's. But only if they are rubber and not dirt tracks.
The track at UT is really just for (nonathlete) students to jog around on. It's right next to some outdoor basketball courts, and on the inside of the track are a bunch of pull-up bars. It's not a bad place for at least a segment of a cool down after racing at Meyers Stadium.
Does it have a rubber (all weather ) surface?
I would say this is the strangest too. Worse than thesquare turns are the pipes that come down in the tunnel in lane 1. I have scraped and hit many a sholders on those pipes while trying to take the first turn in the tunnel too close.
Oh and not to mention running in the tunnel in 80 degrees and 60 degrees in the track side.
Crazy.
Yup.
Fun thread. I never ran into nor ran on any official track that was not an oval.
I believe the idea for the high altitude track for the 1968 was by none other than... Bill Bowerman whom I believe oversaw its construction.
If anyone has Kenny Moore's book handy, you can look it up in there I believe.
stanford track 397.2 meters.
I've ran on that too (beats running outdoors in the winter there). Funny thing is that Slippery Rock has an almost identical track. During their indoor Rock Relays it was crazy roller derby in the tunnel. Pack of runners would go in and come out in a different order. Wild stuff.For outdoor it would have to be Geneva College (PA)'s synthetic 5 laps to a mile track. I think this is special because there are a lot of silly cynder tracks, but this was alctually paved. I think it has been replaced since, but we ran on it for dual meets.
THE TUNNEL wrote:
University of Rochester's 207m indoor track which is almost a square has these insignificant banks and half of the track is in a tunnel which sports a warmup increase of 20 degrees over the rest of the track. The people who run best on the track are the ones that know how to slide out into lane 2 before the bank, it takes practice.
> RE: What is the strangest track you know of?
...The urinary track.
But then I F*ck alot.