DeAnza College
This is shooting toward the north. In its old (asphalt) days, this was the
first track I saw with the now common Olympic finish line (at the end of the
straightaway). In its new installation, that has been offset by 19 meters. An
extra lane of the old surface remains arount the outside of most of the track.
They also built this with a sunken dirt warm up lane. That hasn't been used
too much lately, as the lane is used for storing garbage cans and encroachment
from the now wider pole vault pits.
Based on my last visit in 2001, I had taken this track to task for the terrible
conditions I observed. Now that I get back with a camera, the damage I documented
does not seem so significant. I don't know if they repaired it in the interim
or I have exagerated the problem in my recollection. But the problems I observed
do still exist to a small degree (are they back?). Most of the lane lines are
higher than the center of the lanes. At the common finish line, the bend in
(particularly lane 5 and lane 6 in this picture) show the bend--that is not
a optical distortion. The center of the lanes have collapsed the subsurface.
A similar phenomenon is happening at Cerritos College, home of the High School
State Meet (the best attended meet in California each year). I took lots of
other pictures that just don't show the problem, but you can feel it. Two years
ago I noted cracks and deep grooves like this.
The steeplechase pit is always a source of liability paranoia. Here is the
DeAnza solution.
As you can see the curve ends just into the relay zone.