Craziest, Strangest, Most Bizarre Things in Track & Field

[EPelle]

What is the strangest, craziest, wackiest - or just plain bizarre thing which you have ever seen or been a part of at a track meet?

I watched a high school 200m race in the USA in 1993 when the entire field of nine finished with no time, because the accutrak malfunctioned, and no one timed the race. I am not kidding. Parents and fans in the stands begged to provide their hand times (which, naturally, ranged from very fast to out of this world).

I ran a 1,500m race in college in USA when the head timer must have pushed in the stopwatch somewhere during the first lap, stopped the watch, the re-started it. We pass the quarter and he calls out: "54". Ok, so we all slow down to "pace", thinking we were running too fast. We passed 800m in "1.55". I am running in 2nd-to-last at 1.55 - running according to strategy. I think at this point my coach is a genious, because he said some guys would take it out hard. Anyway, 400m to go, coach yells, teammates and I go, and hit the 1,200 in "2.53". I heard the time, went wild, layed it down, and finished 3rd for a 1-2-3 conference sweep. My coach was jumping up and down, screaming something, excited and ran on to the infield. I asked about my final 300m, and he told me: "43". I about passed out - not because of a slow closing 300m, but because I thought I had run 3.36 - a several-second PB. Not until I heard the results on the loud-speaker did I crash back down to earth and curse the timing gods.

What stunnning event have you partaken in?

[jhc68]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

I was the referee at a high school invitational. The hurdle crew somehow neglected to put out the last lane of hurdles just past the turn leading to the homestretch of the boys 300m final. The kid in lane 8, seeing no hurdles in front of him thought he had run wide and cut in to lane 7 and finished the race there. Then the runner assigned to lane 7 running, seeing someone else running in front of him did the same and shifted to lane 6! The guy rightfully in lane 6 stayed there but ran right up on the other kid's tail over the last couple of barriers! I had to figure out how to make things right!!!

[EPelle]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

Very interesting. What did you conclude?

[abinferno]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

Big 12 conference decathlon, ran the 100m twice because the first "100" was actually only 90m.

[EPelle]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

What!?!!??

[tafnut]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

Although we were horrified at the time, it's kinda funny now. We had a sophomore who had run a 54 as a leg on the 4x4, after being on the team for just a month. He was a 4.0 student, brand new to track - obviously talented. We asked him to run an 800 for strength work at a fairly big invitational. He split 26-28 (yes, 54, his 400 PR from the week before) for the first lap. He kept going at the same pace till about the 600 mark, when he began to slow down, to a jog, to a walk, and then he stood still, teetered back and forth a couple of times and fell flat on his face on the track. He was totally conscious, but virtually paralyzed from lactic acid. He was fine in about 5 minutes. I asked him why he went out so fast, and his answer was, "I thought I was supposed to run as fast as I could, for as long as I could, so that's what I did."

[EPelle]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

Tafnut // that takes home the gold!

[Walt Murphy]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

They used to run "handicap" races at NY's Armory, with the best runners starting from scratch, and others starting at varying points along the track. There could be as many as 15-20 runners in a race and it was indoor track at its exciting best as the best runners tried to move up.

The race in question was probably 500 or 600 yards, since the scene I'm about to describe took a couple of laps to develop.
A runner from Adelphi, starting from scratch, quickly moved up in position, but could never get past a runner from Essex County College, who kept throwing an elbow out to stop the Adelphi runner from getting ahead of him.

As the field was heading into a turn, the frustrated Adelphi runner suddenly changed directions, cut across the infield, waited for his nemesis, and decked him with a right cross. Just like in a baseball brawl, both teams rushed onto the track, and it was only the quick intervention of coaches Ron Bazil (Adelphi) and Russ Rogers (Essex) that kept the situation from getting out of control.

[EPelle]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

You guys sure have some tales to tell! I can:t imagine seeing something like that develop!

[jhc68]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

Epelle, as for the botched hurdles race, we were able (after a lot of soothing talking to the coaches involved) to ocnvince everyone to re-run the entire race 30 minutes after the 4X400 relay. We got all the hurdles in the right places that time!

[EPelle]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

Sounds like 1988 CA state meet trials in the girls 300m hurdles -- either the hurdles were too short, too high or there were not enough of them in one or two heats ... were forced to re-run the races again.

[jhc68]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

Tafnut, I had a similar lactic acid casualty. My first year of x-country coaching I recruited a talented bunch of 9th & 10th graders most of whom had no racing experience at all. Their first real race was a big invitational and the 9th grader who had won our time trial the week before went out with the leaders and looked like a world beater for 3/4ths of the varsity race. Then the runners went out of sight and when they came in view heading for the chute, my guy had disappeared. After everyone finished I got concerned and ran off to look for him. Just then I saw him being walked toward the finish draped around one of our team parents. He looked for all the world like a drunken sailor staggering home after a long weekend. A few minutes and a lot of water and wet towels later, he was fine. Said he was just trying to win the race when all of a sudden his body just stopped! He went on to win a lot of races in a fine high school career.

[skyin' brian]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

another hurdles problem...
at at meet at university of iowa this year indoors they raised the hurdles for the men after the women's race but moved some of them and not others. the first two hurdles were at the men's marks but the third was on the womens marks still. not sure about the last two, but that puts the second and third barriers incredibly close together. my teammate one steped the third i believe, adjusted and won the race in a world record since the event had never been run before. they reran the race with the correct spacing and he won again.

[EPelle]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

The strangest tracks I have seen are Beverly Hills High School and St. Mary:s in Berkeley, CA. Beverly Hills looks like a square, and St. Mary:s has three straight-aways!

[jhc68]

Re: Craziest, Wackiest, Strangest Things in Track & Field

Isn't it Beverly Hills High that has a retractable BBall floor built over a swimming pool? Now that I have written that it sounds nuts, but isn't that the case?