When I was young, the tracks were longer (which is true, being 440 yards) and always uphill (which is probably not true). Most in the 70s where I grew up (and now live) were cinder, Bronxville, White Plains, etc. You’d wear one-inch spikes when you raced there, and your feet would make a whush sound, as is made when you run around the Reservoir. No party if it rained.
Iona Prep had an all-weather track (a lane of which we shoveled after blizzards, like banditos digging their own graves). There was an all-weather track with a 220-yard straightaway in a stadium at Randall’s Island, which had a big bubble on the backstretch; the stadium was used for the 1936 men’s Olympic Trials (Bowery Boys podcast!), although it too was cinder then. It was all torn down and rebuilt as Icahn Stadium.
All of these tracks are all-weather now of course.
On a recent Saturday Warren Street run, the subject of tracks came up, I don’t know how, and Paul Thompson mentioned that where he grew up in northern England there was a predominance of grass tracks. Such things were unheard of here. When I went for a run in Dublin with Eamonn Coghlan, he mentioned his club’s plan to build a grass track on a field that happened to be outside his back door.
Yesterday I saw a where-i-run video from Ewen, from Down Under, wearing a shirt that says “21 km” on it, which means I know not what. (You got 21km Marathons there?) The track is, he says, in Calwell, Australia. It’s a grass track, and it looks wonderful. As I noted there, while if I had to choose I’d go with Mondo, but I’d love to have a grass track as an alternative. In theory one could run around the inside of an all-weather track (although many such fields in Westchester are now artificial turf), but there’s something of beauty in a grass track with lanes and stagger lines cut out.
Think of the work all of the little muscles in the foot would get from a solid workout, and the ease of doing barefoot strides. As with always running on trails, of course, you’d have to get a chunk of road miles in if you were to race on the roads. It won’t happen, of course. When I watch the various Austen adaptations I wonder just where I could set up a track on the grounds of some estate. Wouldn’t it be great?
Surfing, kangaroos, grass tracks. Another reason to spare Australia. (And if TK is watching, here’s another song that references London.)
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April 15, 2010 at 4:26 am
Ewen
Not yet Joe — thankfully! The shirt was for a 21.0975k race in 2005 at the Gold Coast. I think the T-shirt designer wanted to save on ink. A dead-flat and fast course, popular with the Japanese:
http://www.goldcoastmarathon.com.au/default.asp?PageID=7909
Very close to a great surf beach and with a Maccas right near the start — so Americans would be right at home here if Australia is spared as Randy advises.
The track looks great on that Google Maps view — looks like the start/finish is at the top of the hill. When I started running there they had the staggers set up so the 200s were ‘downhill’. The lanes were remarked today (I think they use diesel to kill the grass). They do that about twice a year. You’re so right about the feet and ankles getting a good workout, so yes, campaign to get grass legalised in the US!
April 15, 2010 at 9:21 am
joegarland
We say “legalize” here mate.
April 17, 2010 at 5:37 am
Ewen
No worries buddy.
June 5, 2013 at 5:57 pm
cg9m
when i ran x-c in hs, we did three types of speedwork: hill drills, fartleks on our campus’ course, and intervals on grass. no track work at all. the ‘intervals’ were a quarter mile around the perimeter of the baseball field. so it was flat. and our lap times compared favorably to what they were for 400s on the track during spring season.
of course- and i didn’t appreciate it at the time- this period coincided with what i look back on as the ‘teenage’ years of women’s running: the 80s. i think by then, women’s racing had become accepted. more girls began to go out for track & x-c, and most schools had girls’ teams. coaching wasn’t the best- mostly we all always raced each other during workouts. and we did way too much speedwork. and raced too much, too- as much as two or three meets a week. i enjoyed the experience, but there were quite a few who left for other sports- some b/c the other sports carried greater cachet- the ‘coolness’ factor- and others b/c they couldn’t get along w/the coach.