What is the strangest track you know of?

can someone post a picture of this "right turn" spu track?

Seattle Pacific track has been posted before... try this link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=130+W+Nickerson+St,+Seattle,+WA+98119&sll=47.650732,-122.358872&sspn=0.002486,0.005316&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=47.650678,-122.359092&spn=0.002486,0.005316&z=18

Jzs wrote:

RPI, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY I believe is also kinda on the square shape of things.

171m square that goes through a tunnel. Also the surface is some weird rubberized mat that was placed on the floor.

Carleton College still has that indoor track! The track team does workouts in it sometimes. You can see a bit of the bank to the right:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/2879780405_b91ef0653c.jpg?v=0

That track is, believe it or not, a full 220 yards! It's under Laird Stadium, right next to the "real" track

http://tinyurl.com/ompnrf

Their outdoor track used to have a 220y straightaway too:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3195/2890172602_af18774935.jpg?v=0

I love this thread. The pictures are great - hard to believe the stories are true otherwise.

I grew up in Oz where grass tracks have only recently started to be replaced with all-weather tracks. We had our meets at Amour Park, Revesby, Sydney. Zoom in a lot for details. I don't know the length of the track that ran inside the fence, but I think the 800 m was a bit over 2 laps. The 100 m was run on the infield. You can just make out the lanes left of center. The thing in the middle is a cricket pitch. You can also make out a rectangle used for soccer. One reason why it's difficult to see the lanes is because they were marked with ruts, not chalk or paint. The footing was OK, a bit like running on your average soccer field, we just had to avoid stepping on a rut. The other reason why the lanes are hard to see is because the groundman sits on his mower and just does one big spiral until the job is done.

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=amour+park+revesby&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&cid=0,0,17314275557376162902&ei=LzwQSqulNJDGswOrytT9Ag&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1

Kreepy Karl wrote:

Their outdoor track used to have a 220y straightaway too:

This used to be quite common.

My dad coached HS track in Michigan when I was growing up in the 60s, and I remember that nearly every meet had a long straightaway for the 220 and 180 low hurdles. I don't remember seeing a meet where the 220 or hurdles were run on a curve until I was running myself in the 1970s.

I never saw this myself, but I've heard of running the 440 with a long straight and one curve, and the 880 by running a one-straight 440 with an extra lap tacked on.

Theres a track in Westwood, NJ where the High School plays their football games that certainly had a 200 meter straight in the past. The 50 meter extensions are really grown over but this makes it pretty obvious.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qtxh6d8tx313&style=b&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=23650748&encType=1

Notre Dame's indoor track is a 1/5th of a mile around, with an astroturf football field inside of it.

http://www.und.com/facilities/nd-loftuscenter.html

Alfred University, in upstate New York used to (and may still) have an indoor track which had a surface of boards laid across the width of the track. A very springy, but slow surface.

Back in the 70s, Pittsford Sutherland High School (in suburban Rochester, New York) used to have a track that went around the baseball field. Yes, the track was triangular. They've since built a new track that doesn't go around the baseball diamond.

I always hated the UofR's indoor track tunnel, but you can't race outdoors in the winter there.

Great thread here. I just read the whole thing and clicked on every link. Awesome.

I will agree with Clemson's old track and that p.o.s. at UNC Asheville. My god those were/are awful!

The strange thing about the SPU track is that there are 5 lanes that merge down to 3 at that right turn, then into two for the odd looking curve. There's now way it could be used for any meets. Also, just south of the university is a beautiful oval track that looks to be dirt or something like it in a park. Strange that the university would build that weird thing.

I like the Stadium high school track in tacoma, WA. Sweet triangle shape, and the field on the inside has corners painted out onto the track. I'm sure the cleats give the track a pounding. The odd thing about this is it looks like there's enough room on the narrow end to have constructed a regular oval track.

I'd like to add Univ of Florida's indoor facility. 200m flat track, 55m straights on the actual track straightaways (which are rare these days for indoors). OK, so that's not so weird sounding, but... The upper bleachers of the O'Dome have to be pushed back to reveal the track. The inside rail on the straights is a hand rail that keeps you from falling into the lower bleachers or all the way to the field event/basketball floor below (if the lowers are pushed in). You could be coming onto the home straight 6 inches from the rail and have a pole vaulter in the air clearing the bar within 8 feet of you. Strange feeling.

Oregon donor wrote:

Alfred University, in upstate New York used to (and may still) have an indoor track which had a surface of boards laid across the width of the track. A very springy, but slow surface.

Here's a picture of the interior of the fieldhouse, with the track surface in the foreground.

Last time I was there, one of our shotputters, practicing after the meet was over, took out two of the boards.

*put holes in two of the boards.

Oregon donor wrote:

Oregon donor wrote:

Alfred University, in upstate New York used to (and may still) have an indoor track which had a surface of boards laid across the width of the track. A very springy, but slow surface.

Here's a picture of the interior of the fieldhouse, with the track surface in the foreground.

Last time I was there, one of our shotputters, practicing after the meet was over, took out two of the boards.

Image:

http://chronicle.com/photos/blogs/2008/12/longview400x263.jpg

Thanks... I can't help but think "roulette wheel."

The greatest thing about the indoor track at Alfred was this:

I was in college when the drinking age in NYS was 18. After one meet, the Alfred coach brought out a 1/4 keg for the athletes.

mighty porn stache wrote:

The strange thing about the SPU track... just south of the university is a beautiful oval track that looks to be dirt or something like it in a park. Strange that the university would build that weird thing.

That dirt track is Queen Anne Bowl & isn't nearly as nice as it appear from the air.

SPU needed a practice track but didn't have a whole lot of choice about where to put it. The location is constrained by pre-existing Nickerson Ave and the Ship Canal so they got a little creative. I've always wondered what it would be like to run a distance race there, anything mile or up - is it kosher to run the shortest line on the southern "straight" like in a road race or do you have to stay in lanes?

I was wondering that also. I bet it would be difficult to explain to the officials if they didn't have the same thought (stay in your lane!!).

I ran for spu and I can speak to a few comments about the track.

No there are no official meets held there. The only time we ever run any sort of competition there is for our own traditions which are only kept within the team.

To get an accurate 400 out of the track you have to stay in the outside lane the entire way around.

Yes there is another track near by, but it is dirt and is also not a 400 meter track. On top of that it is not owned by the school so it is often occupied, although we still did our fair share of workouts around that track despite those limiting factors.

There were talks at one time to convert the queen anne bowl (the oval dirt track) into an actual track with stands back when it was owned by SPU, but that was shot down by the residents of Queene Anne, so the result is one of the weirdest tracks ever constructed to fit in right behind the gym.

Thanks for the insight spurunner. That track is hilarious. I love how lanes merge at that right turn. Truly unique.