This Track is BREAKING Track And Field

[@RunnerBoi]

I know people might bring up The Track at New Balance that was just recently built, but from what I’ve read, it doesn’t seem to hold a torch to the Track & Tennis Center that has the *true* Highfill design. NB’s track *does* use plywood, but the frame of it is made by steel/aluminum. Not to mention the banks aren’t asymmetrical and the bank angle itself is only 12 degrees (which is amazing for women’s races, but men’s times won’t be *as* fast on paper). Nevertheless, the facility looks fantastic and apparently the air quality is much better too, but it’s definitely not “the fastest track in the world”, nor the fastest track within a 30 minute walk lmao. Edit: Some of the records in the all-time lists labeled as "Boston, MA" may also be done at the Reggie Lewis Track right nearby BU. While this does mean the number is a bit lower on both sides for the stats, it still doesn't take away the main point at hand (e.g. the physics of the track(s) at hand).

[@fishflake1209]

Speaking of New Balance: you’re probably mis-attributing some of the fast times set in “Boston” to the BU track. Until 2020, the New Balance Grand Prix was held at the Reggie Lewis Track on Northeastern’s campus across town; Tirunesh Dibaba’s two 5000-meter indoor world records were run at Northeastern, for example.

[@RunnerBoi]

@@fishflake1209 When I scoured the top 100 lists, I made sure to exclude records that were specifically said to be done at the Reggie Lewis Track. However, I may have been a bit too presumptuous implying that the ones labeled as "Boston, MA" were done at BU's track, so you're right, the number is probably a bit lower on both sides looking back (particularly on the women's side), but the main point still stands haha. Good catch though.

[@brickZr]

as a highschool runner who has had the privilege to run at all 3 of these tracks, New Balance, in my opinion, takes the cake. BU is amazing but the air quality and overall atmosphere at New Balance is unmatched. As I don't understand the physics of the tracks themselves, nor claim to do so, just based off of feel ranking these 3 tracks from experience i would have to put New Balance at 1, BU at 2, and Reggie at a LOW 3. Reggie has a pretty bad rep in high school track in mass lol.

[@jakerussell135]

@@brickZr I raced at reggie last weekend and it was great, and I'm from MA, where do you get the pretty bad rep from?

[@brickZr]

@@jakerussell135 the dry air, the cramped stands, everything about it is a meme at least on my team and in surrounding towns lol

[@michellevey9608]

I set a school record 5000m there 40 years ago that still stands third all time. A truly magic track!

[@ChrisPtoes27]

That’s awesome

[@blurhawk6188]

that’s so cool, what was your time?

[@michellevey9608]

@@blurhawk6188 14:25.8.

[@victordelgado4974]

@@michellevey9608 damn

[@moneyourself5954]

@Michelle Vey faster than me 40 years ago 😅

[@undeadfury55]

I love the engineering aspects of the track field, I never knew so much went into it. Thank you for sharing this with us!

[@jacobkoontz7991]

Yeah really puts into perspective the outer reaches of track and field

[@superdriver777]

I watched 52 runners run sub-4:00 miles there in a single day last Saturday. Absolutely insane!

[@BillyBob-wh4sq]

I think the reason BU is so fast is probably a mix of all the reasons mentioned. Yes, the track might be more optimal for running fast times, but environmental factors are helping too. It's the reason so many fast times are run in places like Monaco: the atmosphere is good, the athletes are good, and the track has a reputation for being fast. It's also worth noting that indoor distance isn't the only area to have lots of good times recently (road running comes to mind), which makes me think that super shoes are playing a role.

[@trygsolberg]

I almost tore my eyes out every time you put a picture of *not plywood* whenever you said "plywood"

[@clawsoon]

lol, me too.

[@imgoingtoresettheuniverse4171]

My entire track team for my highschool are freshman and we just recently ran on this track earlier in the season we always loved how the curves and dips are shaped and I didn’t even know it was this popular. It’s cool to see a video on it lol

[@Kenaz2226]

BU is legit my favorite track. I pr’d my very first time on that track in the 200m.

[@jamesromano3288]

My pet skunk pr'd too papi.

[@CarnyJared.]

You have a gift for content creation, keep killing it man💪🏻 Love to see the success after branching out, no surprise

[@dsc5957]

I raced here regularly in high school. I wasn’t at the level to notice any major difference but it was certainly a great facility and I enjoyed running here!

[@faulypi]

Wouldn't the banking be less critical for long-distance races where most of the race is in lane one? I believe it should be more of an effect of the plywood.

[@Patashu]

The bank angle thing is super interesting

[@Glenintheden]

The world's steepest banked indoor track has to be the one at Carlton College in Northfield Minnesota. I don't know exactly what the angle of the banks are but I would guestimate them to be about 45 degrees. They're so steep because the back and homestretch are so close together because the track had to be squeezed in underneath the outdoor stadium. The times were rather slow there from what I remember having run in some meets there way back in high school. It's an old 220 yard track on poured concrete but with a synthetic surface of some kind.

[@Gpdragon99]

Competed on this track a number of times. It’s super bouncy

[@ytjho]

Same and agreed. The bounciness and energy return is quite noticeable and fun

[@softsoundsCL]

I love the BU facility, I've been there so many times as an athlete and as a coach. Great throwing area too

[@zavtparticles]

I really love the addition of sound cues in the video. very nice.

[@charlieparrish3579]

This was incredibly well done, thank you

[@TiloDroid]

very well researched! i especially love the phisics of the bank angle!

[@thesaltyspoon7483]

I like the extra sound effects

[@natelastname3423]

I would even argue that in the sprints the track is crazy. Last year I ran a 200m PB out of lane 3 in there by half a second. This year out of lane 5 I again PB’d by another .2. If you look at the all time 200, 300, and 400 facility records as well they’re all extremely fast. Lalonde Gordon ran 20.49 and 45.17. Onwuzurike from Stanford ran 20.61 there a couple weeks ago and Kersulis from Cornell ran 45.78 this past weekend!

[@kallasfilm]

Great video. Great research

[@-levathan-1638]

Nice video👍

[@matthewmori1340]

Boston is the indoor tracktown of the US

[@cpy]

How do you not have more subscribers with videos like this. Wow! Well done. We were just heavily debating the 'magic' of BU. Honestly placebo must be a (small?) part of it, as my son also had a massive PR at Hayward field and everyone was talking about the "Hayward magic". He also practices and does meets at the New Balance "the track", and no, it's just not as fast based on his times vs BU. Interestingly Harvard was also not as fast as BU. That aside of course it's an incredible facility compared to BU.

[@ChristopherAlexander-v5w]

I ran there several times in college (including my 400 pr). the bank makes you feel like a hot wheels car

[@L_Train]

Its secretly only 190m long

[@run2659]

I ran my mile PR at BU, 4:17.78 at IC4As

[@jplaystrueskate]

This needs more views

[@princevamp1546]

these videos have been 🔥🔥🔥

[@dustykh]

As someone who has never had any connection to track, this is actually really interesting.

[@leocossham]

Fantastic content this is really good stuff

[@MeepMeep88]

Oh... SLOPES and bouncy wood floors Thought it was going to be about how the lights guide their timings or something.

[@DonnerRunningFitness]

I’m surprised there is not a regulated standard indoor track. Like how all football and baseball fields are exactly the same (other than where the wall is in baseball).

[@Brockthedog315]

Very interesting and great video. Thanks.

[@toone1562]

what happened to your vid about your surgery? i swear you had it up somewhere.

[@AmbitiousHooligan]

BU is a fast track. Maybe its the bounce, idk. But it was a sure PR at BU in college. They literally have a last chance meet to qualify to NCAAs, ppl always do lol

[@appa609]

I just wanna say that outdoor track and field is obsolete. If the resources are available to build indoor full size tracks then all world-class competition should be hosted in such venues. Then there will be no more would-be record breaking performances arbitrarily disqualified because of wind the athletes can't control. Athletes will no longer be burdened by moisture or extreme weather or bugs.

[@MrBeast-1]

I would like to see a video of someone measuring that track. The 52 sub 4 minute mile is insane.

[@bsl17]

Great video!

[@SPVLaboratories]

All of my PRs have been set on this track lmfao. Great surface, great gym

[@bloodspartan300]

The first think is to make sure they are running the full distance!!!

[@dedgar6161]

makes me wonder if the straights are longer... A high school near me had a track (outdoor) with 130m straights and 70m curves... basically if you ran any race longer than 100m you would often Pr there because you were running straight more then you were turning

[@Captainsparkist]

Also where Spencer “Athlete Special” Brown tan sub 4 for the mile

[@mr.mastermine7083]

fantastic video.

[@TomPrefontaine]

has anyone measured the actually length?

[@quengmingmeow]

I thought the same thing, but it’s such low hanging fruit that it seems impossible to not be legit length.

[@jakemartinez6894]

TomPrefontaine My god you’ve cracked the code…

[@pullt]

Why wouldn't there be a standard for the bank angle?

[@nelocarbon3284]

8:45 Funnily enough the track of the Berlin WC in 2009 was criticised for being slow. Good for us that Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele/ Zersenai Tadese don't know about the placebo effect😂

[@classicclassi6146]

Unfortunate every one will leave you with that dry feeling

[@Aeolus_ca]

Why is Monaco so fast?

[@wrizu]

wait is this etterna?

[@Mngalahad]

so its softer and bouncier? and we really shouldnt mind too much that it is better?

[@tangarz5357]

I’m going to make a 400m track so I can or. How you may ask. Very carefully

[@KrahyzHD]

contractors just accidentally missed a half a meter in the construction lmfao

[@chrishumetewa1658]

as a new mexican, it is completely inaccurate to call tingley coliseum renowned

[@Robert_McGarry_Poems]

Make a track that is all corner, a complete circle... Or maybe two tracks that share a single straight. Then runners could do figure 8 races, making it so that turning right was also a thing. Then we could see the real talent shine through, not just the good runners...

[@Robert_McGarry_Poems]

I mean, it takes someone a whole lifetime to get good at turning left... What could we disrupt by adding right hand turns into the mix...

[@masterpillow5952]

what would be real talent here? Corners hurt performance so a full straight track would really show true performance.

[@Robert_McGarry_Poems]

Yeah because I was being super serious...

[@piclesmcflubber]

+1 to algorithm

[@tristansmeets6086]

"just" get a straight track no?

[@werdwerdus]

really interesting 🤔

[@williamstreet4304]

How do we compare times on BU track using Nike super shoes with the times run when I competed on a cinder track in the 1960's? It's just a question. Could the sub-4 milers deliver those times on a cinder track wearing 60's Puma shoes? We all know the answer. Should there be some scale to compare results? BTW, I was nowhere near the times run then or today. I just wonder.

[@RunnerBoi]

Conversions of that caliber is just general ballparking unfortunately. It'd be great if we had a way to formally calculate stuff like that with very little margin for error, but there just isn't enough longitudinal/robust research on shoe/track technology to do that. Sure, we know that super shoes increase performance by 1-3% and that BU's track increases performance by a similar value, but at the end of the day, they're estimates and not solid figures. Not to mention that the combination of super shoes + BU isn't necessarily additive performance-wise, but rather they vaguely compliment each other (which is also speculatory at best) As much as it'd be great to see what someone like Eamonn Coghlan could have run in a pair of super shoes and at BU's track, it mainly just boils down to "yeah, he probably would have been faster", but time conversions in particular are guesses at best. Training approaches are also changing which can help; there's just too many factors at play to convert anything properly haha.

[@williamstreet4304]

@@RunnerBoi I completely understand. I just wonder what Cunningham would have run the mile in current Nike's on BU track. We often look at new world records and consider them the merit of the athlete. Yet they may be as much the merit of technology as they are of the athlete. I consider current technology to encompass the entirety of gear, surfaces, training, and psychology in performance. As an aging athlete (although not a top performer - my former spouse was a much more competent performer), I wonder how the athletes of the past would perform if they had current advantages.

[@Robert_McGarry_Poems]

What about recreating an old school cinder track? You know, maybe find ways to modernize it, while still maintaining the mystique of the old surface. And specifically hold a "classic" event there. (Ye ol' cinder classic). Create the venue, and the meetings will take care of themselves. It would be an interesting way of putting to rest some of these arguments.

[@runewine4828]

coomback to vsrg pls

[@DonnerRunningFitness]

The track is a trampoline. These modern athletes are amazing, but this track is a trampoline. One can very clearly see it with slow motion video zoomed in on shoes hitting the track with each step.

[@grantnguyen9749]

Super track???

[@pendremacherald6758]

Have y’all discovered that banking allows the cars to go faster lol? Wrong racing. I know

[@DiceCraftChannel]

Abby Steiner

[@heater1237]

yeah boston we take these

[@jamesromano3288]

The track is a bit short,,,,,thus times are less....simple....

[@huckfin1598]

It’s shorter than it’s supposed to be

[@communistpropagandist4608]

I reckon I could beat Bolt's 100m as long as the track is sloped enough.

[@davidohara7669]

Anybody measure it?

[@dr.mohamedaitnouh4501]

The best reason is an evolution in cheating.

[@cpy]

Track was built 20 years ago, but alright

[@16nowhereman]

Cheaters!😅😂🤣

[@SharpPlays]

no record on a banked track should stand, period, ever.

[@Menstral]

Rubbish

[@SharpPlays]

@@Menstral whats rubbish is literally changing the physical playing field that the sport was invented on, and all previous records were attained on. If you dare tell me you have a right to own a gun, but ignore the intentions of the founders of a sport, you're a hypocritic dipshit