Craziest race I ever ran with Bob Henes winning the race in around 3;52. Anyone start a race on the track with a bigger field. Still have the scars from this one.
Craziest race I ever ran with Bob Henes winning the race in around 3;52. Anyone start a race on the track with a bigger field. Still have the scars from this one.
Kansas City once had an annual July 4 5K run on a high school track.
I think the last one held was in the mid-80s or so, but it had hundreds.
They had 40 or 50 girls running in one of the indoor 5Ks I forget which, might have been the ACC 5K, anyway I've seen indoor meats with more people on the track, that's no big deal for an outdoor track, I think they should have more athletes, keep it interesting
1988 Kodak Invitational at East Tennessee State, Saturday morning “B” heat of the indoor men’s 5k had 42 on the start line. Actually wasn’t that bad.
56 men in heat 2 of the 2019 Swarthmore last chance 5k. They combined the last two heats due to time
ACC Men's 3k slow heat in 2011 had 40-45 runners on V Tech's indoor track.
I saw a high school invite (at a small school in SW Michigan) where they put 55 boys on the start line for the 1600m, winning time was like 4:55 ... what a mess.
in high school i ran a 1600m in thibodaux, la with 56 ppl, starting with a one turn stager. it was insane. i won the race with a meet and school record at 4:26. but this was 2 decades ago
75 guys in my heat of the 5000 at the Dogwood Games, U.Tenn 1983
I recall racing in a 5km at Dogwood Relays (Tennessee) back in either 1986 or 1987 with at least 50 in the race . . .
Not at all a high level race, but I remember my senior year in high school for some reason a dual meet we had switched into a quad meet. One of the tracks must've had a problem. Anyhow we did a mile heat with everyone in it (I guess to save time) and it had to be about 40 kids. I made a point of identifying the kids I was actually racing for points and not pushing myself to win overall because I had a big invitational in the coming weekend.
About 15 years ago I ran a 5K held on an outdoor track with over 250 starting out, it was pretty insane for the first couple of laps and then stretched out but most folks ended up walking the first lap until they were able to get separation. We had 20 laps so it wasn't the worst, I cannot imagine running a 1500 with 50 starters.
The Women’s US Olympic Trials 10,000m had 41 starters.
I ran in a B heat DMR at the Penn Relays with 30 teams on the start line for the 1200m leg.
The shorter the race/faster the pace, the tougher it is to have a large number.
At the KU relays we had 4 per lane with 3-4 extras left over in the 4x8 in 1997!
coahc wrote:
Craziest race I ever ran with Bob Henes winning the race in around 3;52. Anyone start a race on the track with a bigger field. Still have the scars from this one.
A 3200 I raced recently had 45 runners on the start line. Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad because the field spread out very quickly.
My indoor 3000m PR (8:58), there must have been 30-40 people in the race at the minimum. I finished in the top 30% of runners and remember being somewhere around 12-15th place at best. This was on a 300m flat track.
I remember running comfortably in about 20th going through 1200m in 3:29, probably in lane 2 or outside of lane 1.
By about that time, things strung along and I was able to stay behind a small group in lane one. I did have to swing out to lane 2 for a corner late in the race as I was lapped by that year's NCAA 3000m champion. I also spent a lot of time in lane 2 on the final lap as I out kicked about 5 guys; the last one I was debating to get on the inside when he closed me off and I had to stop, go around the back of him, reaccelerate, then pass on the turn, which prob cost me 1 second or so.
A fun race.
I saw a girls 800m with 45 athletes last spring. It was such a mess.