Making Tracks

(This piece is for my book-in-progress titled See How We Run: Best Writings from 25 Years of Running Commentary. I am posting an excerpt here each week, this one from May 2003.)

Most of us have at least two homes – the one where we grew up (and never completely leave no matter how far we wander) and the one where we now live. I claim more than two homes, but the two that nourished my passion for this sport the most also happen to be America’s most fertile oases of track and field.

Everyone knows about Eugene, my hometown since 1981. Tell even the most casual sports fan that I live here, and I’m likely to see nods of familiarity followed by some combination of the words “Track Town,” “Prefontaine” and “Nike.” Tell a runner I’m from Eugene, and eyes light up with envy.

My ancestral home in track, and the sport’s second great center, is harder to guess at if you don’t know me. It isn’t Sacramento, which despite landing the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials plus the 2003 NCAA Championships, hasn’t yet gained a feel of permanence as a track mecca. Nor have Los Angeles, Indianapolis, New Orleans and Atlanta – sites of the 1984 through 1996 Trials, whose tracks are now either little-used or gone.

It isn’t Fayetteville, Stanford or Boulder, where great distance runners train now, but each city is either a newcomer to or a non-player in the major-meet business. Philadelphia has the history, with its century-old Penn Relays, but the city is so big and busy that “track” isn’t your first thought when you hear Philly’s name.

When I say my college was Drake, I’m likely to hear “Drake Relays.” One wit has written, “Drake is the only university named after a track meet.”

Sports fans may not have heard of my school and may not be able to place it geographically (a USATF news release once had the meet happening in Omaha), but they’ve heard of the Drake Relays. The track meet introduced me to the school in Des Moines, Iowa.

Drake was a magic name in my family. Charles Henderson, my late uncle, first took my future dad to the Relays when I was minus-15.

At plus-16 I ran there for the first time, in the high school mile. I ran the first, 10^th and 25^th (and last) Drake Relays Marathons. In 2003, I ran the shorter of the meet’s two road races.

I’m a Drake graduate – with a one-of-a-kind, self-designed major in running. Traveling to nearly half the states with the team and writing about the sport and the Relays for the school paper couldn’t have prepared me better for my career.

I also belong to a much larger alumni association, as a graduate of the Drake Relays. Anyone who has ever run there, or coached or worked or watched there, will never forget it – same as with anyone who has ever visited Hayward Field for a track meet.

Hayward and Drake have been the settings for memorable events for a long time. Besides hosting the Prefontaine Classic each year, the Eugene track is the only one to house three Olympic Trials (1972-76-80), plus a World Masters meet (1989) and many USA and NCAA Championships. There’s talk of making it the NCAA’s permanent home.

Des Moines has hosted the Drake Relays since the very early 1900s. The Saturday program has sold out the stadium since the mid-1960s.

Both tracks bring in loyal and knowledgeable crowds. Both have dedicated and experienced officials.

Both places are national treasures, shrines even. Runner-turned-TV-personality Marty Liquori once called Hayward Field the “Carnegie Hall” of track.

That’s close, but even closer would be the “Fenway Park.” Drake Stadium is our “Wrigley Field.”

Just as the two baseball parks have their quirky trademarks – the Green Monster and the ivy-covered outfield wall – so do the tracks. Hayward has its wooden, covered grandstands. Drake has its sunken infield and squared-off north turn.

As shrines usually are, both stadiums are old, built between the World Wars. Both must preserve and protect the old atmosphere while keeping up with the competitive times.

Hayward has done that better than Drake, with major upgrades in the 1970s and 1980s. Repairs were made in 2002 when the original east grandstand faced condemnation. Other costly overhauls are planned.

Drake has been slower to act, which is why it hasn’t been able to host another NCAA meet since 1970. The stadium is showing its age, and the track can’t be considered for events on this scale.

Which is why the folks in Des Moines are trying to raise $25 million to maintain and modernize this shrine. Drake wants to become a serious bidder for meets that routinely go to Eugene – the NCAA regionals and nationals, to USATF championships, to U.S. juniors and masters.

To borrow a line from the fictional movie “Field of Dreams,” set in Iowa, Drake’s promoters believe, “Build it and they will come.” Here that line probably will come true.

Whichever site a big event chooses, Des Moines or Eugene, it will be a home meet for me.

UPDATE FROM 2015

Drake succeeded in its major rehab effort (while losing the unique sunken infield and squared north turn), and has since hosted USATF and NCAA championships. Hayward also underwent major renovations before hosting those same meets and its fourth Olympic Trials in 2008 (with two more to follow). The Drake Relays celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2009.

[Hundreds of previous articles, dating back to 1998, can be found at joehenderson.com/archive/. Many books of mine, old and recent, are now available in  as many as three different formats: (1) in print from Amazon.com; (2) as e-books from Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com; (3) as PDFs for e-reader devices and apps, from Lulu.com. Latest released was Going Far. Other titles: Home Runs, Joe’s Journal, Joe’s Team, Learning to Walk, Long Run Solution, Long Slow Distance, Marathon Training, Run Right Now, Run Right Now Training Log, See How We Run, and Starting Lines, plus Rich Englehart’s book about me, Slow Joe.]