Track Meet Friends

1983 Plainfield, NJ

Jr. Olympic Track Qualifier

by Lyle Smith

Mark entered me in a meet to try and get a quick mile time toward the end of my freshman year. They were having a Jr. Olympic state qualifier over on the new Plainfield track.

I was so excited to get over there and see the new rubbaturf surface. They said it was “tuned,” which was a thing at the time. I’m still not exactly sure what that meant except the marketing insisted each lane was ever so slightly banked independently of the other lanes.

Hayes takes it out on the first lap.

This was the place that produced John Marshall who ran 1:48 in high school. And Tony Valentine, who I’d come to know at Villanova later, but watched go head-to-head with Dennis Mitchell over and over again at so many meets in the 400m.

Thinning out the field. John Hayes, Lyle Smith, Hal Hamilton.

I got in with Mark’s after school to head over to Plainfield. It was a Friday afternoon meet and he drove me over in his little car. We listened to Neil Young most of the way, but he introduced me to Arlo Guthrie for the first time. I’d never heard Alice’s Restaurant Massacree before and he played it for me in its entirety.

Driving to the finish.

When we arrived, the turnout was small. Hardly anyone there. But the track was absolutely gorgeous. Orange and springy and firm. Six of us in the race. And three of us started to really get to know each other. John Hayes from Randolph. Hal Hamilton from the hometown Plainfield. And me.

I honestly don’t remember the race much. Or the times. But I got to know John a bit and really hit it off with Hal. From that day, we ran into each other at meet after meet and really became, if not true friends, at least track meet friends.

And that, I think, is one of the greatest things about our sport.