The UCCS track and field team has over 100 student-athletes on it, and I’m one of them. I have been doing track and field since seventh grade, yet I still find myself explaining different events to my friends and family.
Track and field is one giant umbrella with many events, each with their own intricacies, strategies and jargon. In the winter months, athletes gather inside giant man-made bubbles to jump and run around while people scream at them. What is going on over there?
There are over 15 events, some specialized, some only meant for the men’s or women’s teams respectively.
Table of Contents
Jargon
- Personal record or personal best: A PR or PB is a lifetime best time or mark for an athlete in their event.
- Season best: An SB is the best time or mark an athlete has hit in that respective season.
- Raw time: The time it takes for an athlete to complete their event. Raw times are always slower than converted times.
- Converted time: Raw times are converted if you are competing at a high altitude or on an indoor track. This is because of the decreased amount of oxygen at altitude compared to sea level. For indoor track, conversion happens because of the tighter turns indoors which forces runners to slow down to maintain balance. Each indoor facility has their own conversion formula.
- The board: The board is the spot that long and triple jumpers use to determine where they jump off before landing in the pit. Stepping too far past it results in a foul.
- Starting Blocks: Used by sprinters to start a race by pushing off with more forward momentum than a standing start.
- Multi: A multi is an event with a variety of events usually held over the course of two days. Each event is scored individually and put towards an overarching score with around 30 minutes between events.
- Prelim: Used to determine which athletes will make the event’s final based on who finishes the fastest in the heats. Preliminary heats are usually for sprint to mid-distance races.
- Waterfall Start: Runners start on the same curved line, shoulder to shoulder but can cut into the center lane as soon as its safe. A waterfall start is reserved for distance events.
- Staggered start: People are staggered in different lanes on the initial curve of the track. This is used for the 400-meter dash, the 400-meter hurdles, the 200-meter dash and the 800-meter dash.
- Lead and trail leg: For hurdlers and steeplechasers, the lead leg is the leg that goes over the barrier or hurdle first and the trail leg is the leg that you jump off.
- Anchor: An anchor is the last leg of a relay race. Typically, you want your fastest runner on the anchor.
- Redshirt: Most of the time, athletes get four years of eligibility to run in uniform for the school, meaning athletes travel with the team officially. Some programs don’t want to use a year of eligibility on an athlete who may not be able to immediately contribute to the team’s success, so they redshirt, basically taking a training season and saving their eligibility. If you redshirt, your redshirt year is typically denoted as your year in college minus one. Indoor and outdoor are separate seasons as well, meaning you could redshirt one and not the other.
- Medshirt: A redshirt who took a year off because of an injury. As opposed to training, you are recovering and saving your eligibility for later.
- Unattached: An athlete who enters a track and field meet on their own accord and pays the fee to get in and compete individually.
The difference between indoor and outdoor tracks
The indoor season is a winter sport and the outdoor season is a spring sport. The biggest difference is the facilities themselves, but events are tweaked to better fit the venues. Outdoor is much older, so adaptations are usually made for the newer indoor tracks.
Outdoor tracks are always 400 meters long and flat. The measurement is taken from the first lane because the outer lanes are longer. In distance events, it doesn’t matter as much, but in sprinting events, you’ll have a staggered start to make up for this discrepancy so that everyone is running the same distance.
Indoor tracks can run the range on how long they are. Most indoor tracks, like the one at the Mountain Lion Fieldhouse, are 200 meters exactly, but some go over or under with some 300-meter tracks dotting the country. Some 200-meter tracks are banked, meaning the outer lanes are raised so that they are at an angle. The banks are meant to make it easier to run the curves. Banked indoor tracks are widely considered some of the best indoor variations to run on for all running events.
With indoor tracks being smaller, running events typically require a harder lean in on the curves, making some indoor sprinting events strategically different from outdoor events. The limitations of the smaller space also change the event distances that are run from indoor to outdoor.
Sprints
- 60-meter dash: The 60 is an indoor only event. The key to a good 60 is the athlete hitting their top end spend as fast as they can after a good start, ideally 40 meters in.
- 100-meter dash: The 100 dash is an outdoor only event that requires a combination of a good start and high-top end speed. Athletes aim to hit their top end speed 70 meters in.
- 200-meter dash: Sometimes called the “half lap” race, the 200 dash is considered more of an endurance sprint. It’s more technical on an indoor track due to the tight curves. It can be split into four phases. The start, the acceleration, the “float” phase where you maintain speed, and the closing phase.
- 400-meter dash: Called the “1-lap” race on the outdoor track, it is the longest distance to use blocks and results in many runners’ legs feeling like they’re “made of bricks” according to runner Andrew Muncy. Like the 200, the 400 becomes more technical on an indoor track due to the tight turns, usually resulting in athletes slowing down to remain in control on the curves.
- 800-meter dash: Sometimes called the “2-lap” race on the outdoor track, the 800 is usually a more specialized running event.
Distance
- Mile run: The mile is an indoor only event. It is about 1609 meters, or approximately 8 laps on a 200-meter indoor track. The mile is the longest distance that requires a prelim at the national level in the indoor track in the NCAA.
- 1500-meter run: The 1500 is the outdoor counterpart to the mile and is started after the first curve of a 400-meter track. 1500 exists because the second Olympics in 1900 had a 500-meter track, meaning the 1500 was a perfect three laps.
- 3000-meter steeplechase: The steeplechase is an outdoor only event. It is 7 and a half laps, and each full lap contains 5 steeple barriers: 5 regular ones, and 1 water barrier. Unlike hurdles, barriers don’t move if an athlete hits them, so if an athlete hits one, the athlete usually falls. The water barrier is a 12-foot-long water pit that runners jump off the barrier to clear. The water pit is sloped, and in its deepest spot is over 2-feet deep. Steeple barriers are 30 inches high for women and 36 for men.
- 3000-meter run: The 3000 is the indoor cousin of the steeplechase without barriers. It’s a longer burn than the mile but is still considered on the shorter side for distance events.
- 5000-meter run: The 5K is 12 and a half laps on an outdoor track and 24 laps on an indoor track.
- 10,000-meter run: The 10K is an outdoor only event, and it is the longest event in track, consisting of 25 laps and about a half-hour of running. The 10K is a battle of patience with an exhaustive closing stage of the race.
Hurdles
- 60-meter hurdles: The 60 hurdles are an indoor only event. The athlete’s dominant leg is supposed to lead every time. Most athletes take around three steps in between each hurdle. Women’s hurdles are 33 inches high, while men’s are 42.
- 100/110-meter hurdles: The outdoor counterpart to the 60-meter hurdles, the 110 hurdles are for men and the 100 hurdles are for women. The difference in distance is due to the higher hurdles for men and the spacing between the hurdles being different.
- 400-meter hurdles: The 400 hurdles are an outdoor only event. Athletes need to be comfortable swapping lead legs over each hurdle. The hurdles are 30 inches for women and 36 for men.
Relays
- Sprint medley relay: An indoor only event where every athlete runs a different distance. The relay order is 100 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters.
- Distance medley relay: An indoor only event where every athlete runs a different distance. The relay order is 1200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters, 1600 meters.
- Outdoor relays: There are relays for the 100, 200 and 400-meter runs. All of them consist of four athletes handing off a baton after running the same distance.
Jumps
- Long jump: In the long jump, the athlete gains a running start of about 16 steps before jumping off the board to land in a pit of sand. Athletes try and jump at a 45-degree angle. Getting a fast run up is pivotal to jumping further. Athletes get three attempts in the event.
- Triple jump: Triple jump has athletes jumping for distance, but it is more technical than the long jump. Many jumpers use different legs for triple jump and long jump. On triple jump, athletes jump off the board, and complete a hop, a step with the same foot they hopped with and a jump with the opposite foot before jumping as far as they can into the pit. Some triple jump athletes prefer to start the first two steps with their weaker leg and leap to the pit with their stronger leg, while others prefer to complete the two first steps with their stronger leg. For women, the pit is 33 feet from the board and for men its 40 feet.
- High jump: In the high jump, athletes try to jump over a bar without knocking it down. The modern high jump technique involves jumpers contorting their body around the bar, with their body parallel to the bar and their belly facing the sky in the peak of the jump.
- Pole vault: One of the most technical events, the pole vault has the athlete bend a pole to propel them over 10 feet in the air.
Throws
- Weight throw: The weight throw is an indoor only event that involves throwing a weight with a strap handle for distance. Weight throw is the indoor counterpart to the outdoor hammer throw. The weight is heavier than the hammer and the handle where you throw it is shorter than that of the hammer.
- Discus: This outdoor-only throwing event centers around throwing a discus as far as you can while staying inside of a circle. Discus throwers need to consider the weather and wind conditions on every throw, unlike shotput and hammer.
- Javelin: Javelin is an outdoor-only event that involves throwing a long spear for distance. Javelin is a more specialized throwing event and it’s typical to be the only event the athlete competes in. In javelin, the athlete runs up to a line and throw the javelin, using their arm like a whip to transfer momentum into it. Weather conditions affect javelin throws.
- Hammer throw: The hammer throw is an outdoor only event that consists of throwing a ball with string attached so that the athlete can swing it around for momentum and throw it for distance. Hammer is not affected by weather like discus and javelin.
- Shotput: Shotput consists of throwing a weighted ball for distance. The shot differs from other throwing events because the optimal way to throw it requires having the weight closer to your center of gravity.
Multis
- Women’s pentathlon: The women’s pentathlon is an indoor only event, and it is the only multi held in one day. It consists of the following events:
- 60-meter hurdles
- High jump
- Shotput
- Long jump
- 800-meter run
- Men’s heptathlon: The heptathlon is the men’s multi for the indoor season.
- Day 1
- High Jump
- Shot put
- 110-meter hurdles
- 200-meter dash
- Day 2
- Long jump
- Javelin
- 800-meter run
- Day 1
- Women’s heptathlon: This is women’s multi for the outdoor season. It consists of the same events as the men’s heptathlon except the hurdles are 100 meters instead of 110.
- Men’s decathlon: This is the outdoor multi for the men. The winner of the decathlon is given the moniker “world’s greatest athlete.”
- Day 1:
- 100-meter dash
- Long jump
- Shotput
- High jump
- 400-meter dash
- Day 2:
- 110-meter hurdles
- Discus
- Pole vault
- Javelin
- 1500-meter run
- Day 1:
The following athletes provided information for this story: Andrew Muncy, Krissie Sanders, Kane Fobare, Madissyn Moore, Richard Safoh, Joseph Hamilton, Jagger Zlotoff, JJ Nsubuga, Daryn Ofori-Kuragu, Realiti Smith, Willie Tran, Kathryn Carroll, Victoria Farinas, Kate Hedlund, Savannah Jorgens, Jaedyn Kohn, Alyssa Lopez, Dyanna Parra and Logan Cole. Logan Cole is a photographer for the Scribe.