Thanks for the support.
Joggers almost always ran in lanes 7 or 8- if they didn't, they were politely asked to move out, and they did. But don't get the idea that it was ever busy. It was very unusual to find ANYONE actually running.
I never tried to use the track during track practice, and neither did any of my running buddies. We were a bunch of guys who could go sub-29 for a 10k 2 weekends a month for six months a year. We weren't "joggers" and Martin only called us that to tick us off. The first time Martin tried to kick me off, he wasn't there with collegiate's, he was there with post-collegiates, and some of them weren't even very good. I'd say, maybe 30 minutes for 10k? One guy could run close to 3:45 for 1500, but that would have been pushing it. Maybe 3:45 was his PR. The rest of us were trying to actually earn a living on the roads and track. Most of Martin's guys never made a dime. Sure, some of them were trying to qualify for the trials, but that didn't mean they'd make it. In fact, they didn't. Other years he's had good runners, but that year, they sucked.
You can't compare Martin to Barry Alvarez. Only a LUNATIC would try to use a football field during football practice. No one would try to shoot hoops during basketball practice. But everywhere in the world plenty of runners share tracks. We also ran the Arb trails and all over Madison, but any runner knows that during race prep time you have to get on the track regularly. Barry always pratices at the same time and place- but Martin would appear at odd hours. No pattern, just insanity.