New appreciation for cinder track era runners

Always a bigger fish. Old man rolled by younger runners, life goes on

IDK if those apply in this situation. Are these kids bigger fish just because they have fast times? They are placing worse.

Also, my time was set as an 18 year old, so...its an 18 year old, rolling another 18 year olds times.

My father was one of the top runners during the cinder track era’s and he consistently said when you rolled the cinder tracks and add some moisture you could get it fast like racing on a road. He said he loved fast cinder tracks and thinks the mondo tracks are slow because they absorb to much energy. I think the shoes add value but not how most think. Shoe technology significantly helps over time. Meaning it allows you to train harder and faster more consistently that results in better performances. Buying a new shoe and thinking you can go out and run sub 9:10 is not happening and ridiculous. Kids train smarter and have better knowledge on how to recover faster so they can train at a high level more consistently.

The biggest change in T&F was going from leather shoes to nylon shoes.

I started off racing on 440 yd. cinder, some meets, 440 yd. asphalt composite some meets, 400m asphalt composite some meets and 400m red rubber track some meets. Without conversion, some athletes set person best on 440 yd. cinder.

I trained a couple of times in my father's leather shoes. Those shoes are slow! At least 2 seconds added per lap slow. That means subtract at least 1/2 a second from Jesse Owens, 100m (then add a bit for f.a.t.).

When the old guys die off, there wont be anyone left to complain about super shoes, rubber tracks vs cinder tracks, bamboo and sweedish steel poles, sand vs foam pits, hand time vs auto, pacer lights and rabbitted time trials to good old fashined head to head racing, modern nutrition, training techniques, chemical cheating and so on.

From my viewpoint, most at the top have access to all that is available for maximal human performance. That's exactly what I hope to see at the track when I buy my tickets. Deep fields and close races with great efforts.

I ran on cinder tracks as they were slowly being converted to synthetic surfaces including Mondo. Id never wish that on any of todays athletes. Yeah, the Ryuns, and Mills of the 60s were great for sure (incredible, actually) but they don't sit around these days wishing they had today's modern conveniences. They did the best they could with what they had. Just like todays athletes do and tomorrows will.

Just dont change the rules for the performance like measuring the long jump from point of takeoff to keep interest of the short attention span of modern spectators.

i had a school record for like 2 years. enjoy it while it lasts.

re supershoes and record setting, you're conflating 2 different things. i think the top end is faster. but i think my area is actually slower than it was decades ago. if equipment and tracks leveraged everyone that wouldn't be true.

kind of like my alma mater plays faster offensive tempo soccer but i am like who taught these kids defense?

try running on a cinder track (a) in the heat or (b) when the hurdle monster decides today it grabs you.

since we're naming torture devices, metal high jump bars. you knock that off and then land on it......

Not to be rude but 25 years ago was a pretty weak period in distance running, good chance your time wouldn’t have fared as well in the 70s in your state