Here are my ideas on making a Grand Slam Track event that will bring the thrills, the dollar bills, and the spine tingling chills.
1. Mystery event scenario: Distance group arrives at the meet, and their even starts at 6:00pm (or something). They have no idea what distance they will be running. Mr. Johnson rolls a die that the camera closes up on. The options are: 400, 800, 1500, 3k, 5k, 10k. They hear the result and then must do strides and get on the starting line. This would be absolutely electric.
2. Elimination race, also possibly of varying distance, or just make it 8 laps for 8 competitors. Last one out at the line gets pulled. If it’s tough to call, you let them keep running through the line, then announce it via stadium announcer while they are on the next lap and someone rolls the videotape. Also totally electric.
3. Workout King Challenge - Set up a dumb hard workout with a few different top notch pacers. They could do something like 4xMile at 4:10, 4:05, 4:00, 3:55 - and ALSO go down as one of the best workouts in history. Another option could be set the wavelights for 400m reps off 2-3min rest and see who can go the longest. Start at 65 and take 1sec off every lap.
4. Surprise relay. The athletes’ names get put into a hat. Athletes warmup and do strides. Right before the gun, the names are pulled. They must plan with their team to cover 5km total, and can break up the relay however the hell they’d like. This could also be Racers vs Challengers. Totally electric.
5. More exhibition events. At each Slam, we get something like Mondo vs. SML at 400m flat. Ideally also something like Keely Hodgkinson vs Fred Kerley in a 600 too. You could also do a stagger race like they do down unda’
These would all be sick to watch, and are crazy enough to get mainstream attention.