Drake mile. Is the mile usually run in lane#5 on a 400m track? Was that slower?

track logistics wrote:

Why Lane#5? Wouldn't that make it slower? Where do they start when doing the mile in lane#5?

Do you mean Penn? Lane 5 is 400 meters, inside lanes are less.

justthefacts wrote:

track logistics wrote:

Why Lane#5? Wouldn't that make it slower? Where do they start when doing the mile in lane#5?

Do you mean Penn? Lane 5 is 400 meters, inside lanes are less.

Yeah, must have got them mixed up yesterday.

Never knew they made tracks with less than 400m on the inside lanes.

That's actually a great idea to make tracks with inside lanes under 400m. Every track should do this.

All the walkers that insist on being in lane-one can walk on the inside.

Genius.

But how would you know the track isn't a full 400? You might think you're crushing a workout, but in reality you're just running short.

For those too young to know, the Penn track is built that way because the brick stands are close to the track (were built for football, I assume), so only 4 lanes are 400 meters (used to be 440 yds). To get enough lanes for championship meets, administrators put 4 lanes inside the 400 lane (lane #5) so there are 9 lanes total. Been that way for the longest time.

Penn is the only track where you go to an outside lane when you cut "in". I guess you can say runners "cut out" at the break line.....

that's the trick. You'd know, but no one else would. I've never seen walkers in the outer lanes...

Rockgip wrote:

But how would you know the track isn't a full 400? You might think you're crushing a workout, but in reality you're just running short.

justthefacts wrote:

For those too young to know, the Penn track is built that way because the brick stands are close to the track (were built for football, I assume), so only 4 lanes are 400 meters (used to be 440 yds). To get enough lanes for championship meets, administrators put 4 lanes inside the 400 lane (lane #5) so there are 9 lanes total. Been that way for the longest time.

Penn is the only track where you go to an outside lane when you cut "in". I guess you can say runners "cut out" at the break line.....

I think you've got the story close to right. Heard that the building was originally build around a regular playing field with a narrow-ish cinder track going around it, and when it came time to modernize and put in a synthetic track, it wouldn't fit within the walls, and they weren't just going to tear down historic franklin field, so they had no other choice but to build the rest of the lanes inward. So yes it was kind of no other option but to build inwards.

Major renovations are going to be made to Franklin Field track - included expanding the track outwards - so the < 400m meter lanes will probably be eliminated. Pretty big project - existing brick walls will have to come down.