Geoff Burns article link on BU track

Thank you, OP. This was an excellent, illuminating article.

I'm also amazed the given technical advances in every other area of life that we still haven't created a more efficient running surface than plywood.

This is why there needs to be a standard for shoes, tracks, pacing and anything that artificially deflates times or inflates throws.

This was a great article and confirms some of my thoughts on why we are seeing so many fast times. The outdoor pro times at 800/1500/5000 are nothing crazy out of the ordinary, meaning its not the spikes alone.

But now, any serious collegiate runner is flying to Boston to race these drag race time trials and getting pulled along to fast times on this fast surface. So when you add up the combo of spikes + BU/other fast tracks + TT type races + a couple of other factors you start to see a ~3 second difference compared to historical years.

Ive been running at a lot of the BU indoor meets over the last 5+ years and its crazy how much better they have gotten. There used to be 1 heat at these meets paced to sub 4, now you see the 7th/8th heat getting taken out at 1:59, the game has changed.

I wonder if we should just start treating indoor track like cross country where the focus is on course records and qualifying based on placing at certain meets and beating certain teams/people. Wouldn't this alleviate a lot of the issues for the ncaa? Pros and top collegians would still want to chase fast times to qualify for US champs and worlds, but at least for most the ncaa it would help.

I want to congratulate Geoff Burns on his fine article on the BU track and his in depth study of the how and why of the fast times at BU. I learned some new things. I wrote once before about why the BU track is "special" here on the forum, pointing out the asymmetry of the turns and the "bounce" I wanted by using wood frames (support triangles made of plywood and 2x4 framing).

The original track also had rubber bushings on the corners of each track section (180 pieces) that was supposed the help in the true bounce for each step taken. The end result was that there was so much movement between each section of track from all the running that the original Rekortan surface started to tear at the joints.

I had warned Floyd Highfill that we would have huge numbers of runners using the track and would need some very strong supports and wondered whether the bushings would compromise the union of each section. Having put together the old BU track in the Amory for 16 years, I understood the stress each section sustained and how important it was to maintain stability of the surface. Some old timers will remember that we had "dead" spots in the old Armory track, as the 2x4 cross supports would either separate or crack from all the runners on the track. Sometimes the sections would also separate from the stress. We spent many hours prior to setting up the track each season, fixing section upon section. Often times we also had to do repairs in season for the "dead" spots.

When John Beynon came into the picture to fix the BU track due to the tearing of the Rekortan surface, the bushings were taken out and a second layer of 3/4" plywood was put down on the original plywood and then Beynon's polyurethane was put on top of that. (I did not see this take place, but was told by BU facility people on site and by Bruce Lehane).

So, this second generation of wood track has 1 1/2 inches of plywood (I know of no other track that is that thick) plus the Beynon polyurethane, which I believe is a bit softer than the original Rekortan.

It may be that combination that has helped the track become even faster 20 years after first being put up, or it is a combination of the new shoes, fast people coming to race and a track surface that is actually a bit more stable than the original track from 2002. Certainly you can also throw in the setting of a sunken track giving great viewing opportunities for the spectators as adding to the excitement of racing there. That was also my idea based on how the Madison Square Garden track sat low, with seating coming almost up to the track.

The banking height was a compromise between what Floyd Highfill and I wanted (40") and what Bruce Lehane and Lesley Lehane (the woman's coach) wanted (36", the same as the Harvard indoor track). I believe the actual peak height is 38", but my memory might be slipping.

My desire to have a wooden support base was a result of having run on the Mondo tracks that were just coming out in the late 1990's and having competitively run on the Louisville indoor 220 yard track for the Mason Dixon Games back in the early 1970's. That track had metal supports and it was obvious to me that the track ran stiff and didn't provide a true bounce as did the all wooden tracks of those days.

Having the Harvard track close by and seeing how well that ran was also an incentive to try and have the entire track made from wood, rather than have metal supports. Boston also had the Reggie Lewis track that was built from metal supports and had a Mondo surface. The banking there was quite low (so desired by officials who were concerned about the safety of runners going around a high banking, as was the case with the old BU armory track, where more than once kids ran off the bank around the turn).

Another interesting side note is that the Highfill tracks were mostly painted plywood as Burns has commented on. However, the new Madison Square Garden track, also mentioned by Burns, had a very soft Borden synthetic surface on it that made the track slower and not faster. It seemed to most athletes that ran on it that one would sink down into the surface and not get a good return, due to that soft surface. The only one that soft track did not have an affect on was Martin McGrady, who set the world indoor best for 600 yds at 1:07.6 there in 1970. This article below says it is a wooden oval, but it had that soft synthetic material on top. Lee Evans got beaten by McGrady there and I was a distant third.

I was given the opportunity to have input on the BU track and I continue to get very excited to see all those fast times coming along. During my coaching days, I used to tell my runners that our track was comparable to running outdoors on a warm, sunny day, so keep that in perspective when cranking out some fast times. Our 4x400 relay team ran 3:10.+ on the BU track indoors and we ran an equal time outdoors at the IC-4A meet at the Princeton track, which also had the same Rekortan surface as the BU track had during that time.

Thanks for allowing me to comment. I hope many more runners will set personal bests on the BU track.