Michigan Track and Cross Country Forum

OK...here's a situation that occurred in a meet last week, and I'm just wondering what others might think:

Middle school, 3200m, boys and girls racing together. Our top girl and their top girl battle back and forth from the gun...as they run up the back stretch on the final lap, the other girl has our girl by a good 10 meters...round the final turn, our girl is gaining, but their girl is starting her kick...still our girl gains...40 meters to go it looks like it might be real close...BUT...there are two boys up ahead, and the pair of girls are closing on the boys. Boy #1 is on the rail, boy #2 is on his shoulder, and their girl is on boy #2's shoulder...as our girl is within 15 meters or so from the finish, she tries to go wide, BUT - there are hurdles in lanes 3-4-5, etc...so she has no where to go! She dodges back inside - the boys are there - then outside - the hurdles - then finally squeezes by inside between their girl and the two boys, to win it in the very last moment.

SO, my question is this: should the hurdles be set up in lane 3 while there is a race going on? I feel like a runner should have the option of rounding the final turn and going wide, having plenty of room to actually RACE.

I asked the official about it after the meet. He had no real answer, but suggested my girl exclaim "coming by" or something to that effect, which seemed ludicrous to me in a racing situation - she should be able to come past by surprise.

Am I way off-base thinking we need three lanes open? I realize we want to run a quick, efficient meet, but athletes working that hard during a race deserve the right to the track, in my opinion. For the record, we are now leaving three lanes open until the 3200 is completed at our home meets.

Any thoughts?

This is a pretty regular fight. People try so hard to be efficient that they forget we are there for the kids to run. A meet takes some time, settle down and relax.

I am with you in your desire to keep sufficient lanes open. I typically size up the race and hold off three or even four lanes depending on the size of the field.

Teach her to cut through like Suzy Favor taught us at the clinic and then all problems are solved.

Lol Don, Suzy was ruthless!

I was helping with hurdles at a MS meet last week and accidentally started putting all 8 lanes up while there were still one or two 2-milers on the track. I pulled the hurdles out of lanes 1-4 without really thinking about it. It seems like the kids deserve to have a clear track when they're finishing.

(05-07-2010 10:50 PM)g_lofdahl Wrote: [ -> ]Lol Don, Suzy was ruthless!

I was helping with hurdles at a MS meet last week and accidentally started putting all 8 lanes up while there were still one or two 2-milers on the track. I pulled the hurdles out of lanes 1-4 without really thinking about it. It seems like the kids deserve to have a clear track when they're finishing.

Keep the lanes open! It seems some people are in such a hurry to get the meets over you wonder why they are even involved in track.

We always leave four lanes open for the 3200 in MS. Just stack the hurdles for lanes 1-4 on lane 5 ready to move as soon as the race is finished and you still run an efficient meet.

If your track will allow, place 3 or 4 hurdles inside the track edge and 3 or 4 outside, have the height preset, two workers per flight and it's all set with in 2 minutes. One worker per flight and it's all set in about 3 minutes, either way it's fast. All you need is one kid to crash into a hurdle and get hurt and the meet is stopped for at least 10 minutes and; "you've got a lot of splaining to do" as Ricky used to say. And, who needs that?

in all seriousness, the guys and girls that work middle school meets really do like track, and they do like to keep the meet moving (we got done at Lowell last week at 6:25 and two nights later on our own track we didn't finish until 7:50 because we have a s tarter that is very deliberate with each race), Daryl - it sounds like the race described above was quite the exception to the rule (maybe 4 people finishing at 11:50); if this was the case maybe the coaches could have quietly suggested to keep a couple more lanes open, if you have girls that can beat the boys this would probably be something to remind meet officials of every time you take the track.

We keep four lanes open during the 3200 run (and we have a girl in our conference who can beat all of the boys), we set up one hurdle in 8,, and 6, , and lane 5 has 5 hurdles in it, after the race we slide the hurdles down into lane 1, lane 2, lane 3, and lane 4, we also set up a few hurdles on the HS girls marks behind the start of the 55m hurdles for kids to warm up on. Good luck the rest of the spring.

JOhn~ Sorry - I didn't mean to imply the girls were overtaking the 1st and 2nd place boys, I was just numbering them to keep them straight. The boys were probably in 3rd and 4th position at the time. Regardless, if there are a number of boys on the track, there is a strong possibility the 1st and/or 2d place girls will be catching them on their kicks.

But really, it could be anybody - it doesn't have to be a top finisher. Every racer deserves to have enough room to race, to maneuver, to pass - from first to last.

I was just wondering what the "standard" protocol for hurdle set-up was. From now on we will definitely be leaving at least 3, maybe 4 lanes open. It's tough enough to get kids to love the 3200 on the track - but when it appears to them like everybody else is ready to move on with the meet...well, that doesn't help!

As a parent who has a child who is a distance runner and has seen my fair share of races over the last several years. I suggest following the advice above saying to have at least 4 lanes open if not 5 and just stack the "preset" hurdles up on the next lane or just off the track. The most time in setting up the hurdles usually involves setting the height. Seems there is always one or two that just don't want to cooperate. This part can be done ( at least for the first race) before the hurdles are even put on the track. (and reset when they are removed from the track)

This especially applies to the home stretch, as that is where any critcal passing is going to take place. Especially at the end of a race.

It seems as though the distance runners tend to get the shaft compared to the sprints because the races take longer. Just remember it takes all of the kids to make the team and everyone should be given an equal opportunity.

Good luck and have fun