The Irony of Closing Athletics Tracks

The athletics tracks are closed because of COVID-19 social distancing measures. This is completely baffling, because they are outdoors and enormous, and so it is entirely possible and practical to be socially distanced. Meanwhile, people can mill and dither and horde to their heart’s content in the surrounding paths and parks.

As I said, baffling.

Within my running club, we’ve gotten creative with finding roads in North London that are quiet enough to run a speed session without pedestrians or cars, and also mimic the oval layout of a track. Bonus points if it’s actually 400m in circumference. It’s not ideal to be pounding 3:30 per kilometre into concrete roads with speed bumps, but it’s better than nothing. I guess.

And it feels good to still get the speed sessions done. Who knows when the track will reopen, after all? So that’s great. But what I’m really missing is the atmosphere of the track. There is a deep irony to the tracks being closed to stop people coming into contact with each other, when it is the very place I love being in order to get away from people. Hampstead Heath or Regent’s Park may be swarming with people, but at the track, I could be in my enclosed, special place for runners, with my own lane and my own session planned out.

I find track meditative. Maybe it’s simply due to the hypnotic act of running round and round in circles. But mainly, in focusing on my pace and form, and holding that consistently until the end of 400m, 800m or 1200m, I lock in to the rhythm, experience and inconsistencies of the way my body moves. I find its potential. Without getting too hippie about it, I find my potential. An athletics track is the right place to be for this activity: everyone else who is there is doing the same thing. I won't be in a pedestrian's way, or have to stop for a car or traffic lights. There are no distractions, besides the crows that taunt you as you pump your legs through the 10th rep at your dream 5k race pace. 

It’s my favourite place to run a no-fuss 3km. It’s faster than running on the road, which makes it more fun, of course. But it’s also an hour of nothing else. I think the same can be said for swimming pools. 

What I miss most of all is the Thursday track sessions with my running club, Mornington Chasers. The rest of the week, depending on what tier or lockdown we were in, we could only run in groups of six or two. But when it came to track, we could have fifteen people per time slot. I got to know other members of the club who I hadn’t met before and we could cheer each other on through gruelling 1 mile time trials from the sidelines. We stood and chatted in a big group before the start of the session, shaking our legs and rolling the working day out of our shoulders. Afterwards, we drifted homewards together, peeling off when it came to our turnings. 

I’d only joined the club in October 2020, so it’s fair to say I haven’t yet had the “full” experience of what being in a running club is normally like. But the track sessions are what I’m most looking forward to getting back to. I want that space in my head back. 

And, I really want to get my 400m below 1:24. I need some cheering on.