Video: The Mystery behind BU’s Record

The Mystery behind BU’s Record-Breaking Indoor Track

An indoor track race at Boston University is a symphony. First, there’s a buzz of anticipation in the crowd, until the explosion of the starter’s pistol launches the performance. That’s followed by the percussion of runners’ feet stampeding across the rubber-coated plywood surface. A surge of cheers follows the athletes around the oval, like the wave circling Fenway Park during a Red Sox game. And in the most magical of moments, the cheers build to a crescendo when a single runner crosses the finish line and the clock freezes on a new American or world record.

The 200-meter, six-lane track at the BU Track & Tennis Center on Ashford Street—which celebrated its 20th anniversary this academic year—has hosted so many of those moments that it’s regarded by many runners as perhaps the fastest indoor track in the world. Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia ran a 3:47.01 mile at BU in 2019—the fastest indoor time in history. The men’s 4×800 meter world record was also set at BU, as were countless national, conference, collegiate, and school records. When elite athletes want to run their best during the winter months, they often circle a BU meet on their calendar.

The track is so fast that some people don’t believe it’s legitimate. “We’ve been accused, formally, of having an illegal track,” says Gabe Sanders, BU’s director of track and field and cross country. When a representative from the NCAA told him about the accusation, he countered with the NCAA’s own certification paperwork. Still, he says, some coaches bring their own measuring wheels to meets, just to confirm that it’s a full 200 meters around. “I take that as a compliment,” Sanders adds.

BU’s indoor track combines optimal physics with an exciting atmosphere. The result is often collegiate, national, and even world records.

An asymmetrical bank that reaches an 18-degree slope helps runners conserve energy as they round the turns.

(left) BU’s indoor track combines optimal physics with an exciting atmosphere. The result is often collegiate, national, and even world records. (right) An asymmetrical bank that reaches an 18-degree slope helps runners conserve energy as they round the turns.

What makes BU’s track so much faster than others? It starts with physics. The turns on the BU track are banked, meaning they slope up from lane 1 to lane 6 at an 18-degree angle. That helps runners round the turn without losing energy to the centripetal forces that pull them toward the outside of the track. Those turns are also wider than on most tracks and the banks are slightly asymmetrical—a little steeper going into the turn and more gradual coming out.

Aside from the geometry of the track, it’s built from wood—specifically, a wood frame covered with rubber-coated plywood—which provides a higher energy return than a banked track built on a metal frame or a flat track laid out on a concrete floor.

But it’s not just science that creates fast times: BU’s atmosphere “makes this a perfect recipe for fast times,” Sanders says. The Track & Tennis Center seats 1,500 people, but at a bustling meet the building might reach its 4,800-person capacity. With thousands of athletes and fans crowding around the track, a deafening roar accompanies each big race.

After attempting to run an American mile record in 2013, two-time Olympic medalist Galen Rupp gave BU’s indoor track experience the highest praise: “It was pretty close to as loud as the Olympics,” he told the media. “The people here were unbelievable.” Though he missed the record by one second, Rupp returned to BU the following year and ran American records in the 2 mile and 5,000 meters.

Sanders credits Rupp with boosting the track’s reputation to a new level, and, he says, over the past decade the number of entries at BU meets has exploded. Approximately 5,000 athletes signed up for the 2023 David Hemery Valentine Invitational on February 10 and 11, traditionally the largest meet of the year. The schools attending read like a March Madness bracket of elite college track schools: Oregon, UCLA, Texas, Florida, Virgina, Villanova. Joining the college athletes were pros sponsored by the likes of Nike and New Balance.

The Valentine Invitational brought the 20th season at the BU Track & Tennis Center to a close. Thousands of athletes competed in the six meets held between December 2022 and February 2023, and once again, the facility played host to history. American men’s records were set for 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters, and a new NCAA men’s 3,000-meter record was established, as was the NCAA women’s distance medley relay record. And at the Valentine Invitational: 52 men broke four minutes in the one mile, doubling the previous single-meet record of 26, set nine years ago on an outdoor track.

And although the track will go silent for a few months, come December a new wave of athletes will be ready to put on a symphony of their own.

The BU Track & Tennis Center isn’t the University’s first banked track

Photo by Albert L’Etoile

The BU Track & Tennis Center isn’t the University’s first banked track. From 1979 to 2002, BU hosted meets in the Commonwealth Armory. The oval there was also built on a wood frame, featured steep banks, and saw some fast times. But it wasn’t a permanent structure. The track was constructed from a series of independent sections that could be taken apart and moved to allow for other events. The building, a Massachusetts Army National Guard armory before BU purchased it, was demolished in 2002 for construction of Agganis Arena.

Video: The Mystery behind BU’s Record-Breaking Indoor Track