The Drake Relays

The 99th running of the Drake Relays was held recently in Des Moines at Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University.  My cousin Tom Wehrle had an extra couple of tickets and asked if I wanted to join him, his brother John and his friend Bobbie for one of the days.  I was going to be in Des Moines anyhow, so I said I'd go.

I hadn't been to the Drake Relays in 30 years.  It's been an annual ritual for the Wehrle family since the mid-60's when John ran on the Newton High School track team during the relays.  My uncle Jack kept getting tickets and finally moved his front row seats up to the near top rows at the finish line.  They were great seats.  After Jack moved to Florida, Tom kept getting his tickets.  I'm sure Tom will get tickets forever, as well. 

It was a blustery, yet sort of warm morning when we got to the track.  However, a strong cold front came through in the late morning and the winds came up out of the northwest and temperatures dropped 16 degrees to the mid-40's.  Had it been raining, as they initially said it might, it would have been a truly miserable day.  Sort of like the first time I went to the Drake Relays in 1965.  It was cold - in the low 40's - and rainy.  I had just turned nine years old and I wasn't happy being cold and wet.  After the morning session ended, I ended up going off with my sister Nancy who was a freshman at Drake at that time, and we went to see Mary Poppins at one of the downtown theaters.  It's funny how I remember stuff like that. 

Since my last visit 30 years ago, Drake Stadium has undergone a stunning transformation.  In 2005, the stadium was completely renovated to conform to national and international parameters for track and field.  Much of the original stadium was torn down and the track was made wider.  They moved the stands back so the spectators wouldn't be on top of the runner in the outside lane.  It's quite the showplace for track and field.  So much so that it will host the NCAA Men's and Women's Track and Field Championships in June of this year; and will host the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 2010.

I got to the track and into my seat just as the first event of the day was beginning.  The crowd was understandably sparse as most of the early events were preliminary races for the high schools.  Still, it allowed me to get a good look of the stadium and all the upgrades they've done. 

Sometimes I amaze myself with the pictures I get.  Here's a shot of Davenport North's A.G. Bradford effortlessly going over the last hurdle during her preliminary race in the 100 yard hurdles for high school girls.  Bradford later won the 100 meter hurdles final, as well as winning the 400 meter hurdles in a record time later during the relays.  She was named the outstanding high school girls performer for the meet.

The sun came out for a bit before the cold front moved through brightening the track.  One thing that I noticed is that the sun sort of washed out the televised images on the scoreboard.  Tom said, "This scoreboard sucks.  It's too small and you can't see the results very well."  I remember the old scoreboard to be nice and large at the north end of the track.  But with the renovation, they've put a bunch of corporate tents along the north end where the scoreboard used to be.  For as nice a facility Drake Stadium is, the scoreboard does, indeed, suck.

And a couple of other things that I noticed after not being around for 30 years.  First of all, the P.A. announcer was horrid.  He got names wrong, he got leaders in races wrong, he was all over the place with his announcing.  They're going to have to do something for a new announcer by the time the NCAA championships come around. 

And I also remember the relays being run like clockwork.  There was little to no deviation of time for the schedule of races.  It used to be that they had to stop the meet for a few minutes to allow the schedule to catch up as they were ahead of schedule many times.  The day I was there they got woefully behind in the afternoon session.  I believe they were supposed to finish around 4:00 p.m and clear the stadium for the night time session that started at 5:30.  But they didn't finish until about 4:35.  It would have been fine if it were sunny and 65, not cloudy, windy, spitting rain and 44. 

After the morning session, the tradition in the past was to go to Noah's Ark for lunch.  But with little time in between sessions, we just ended up going up the street to the infamous Peggy's Tavern.  Peggy's is a legendary Drake University watering hole that has served thousands of students over the years.  It's truly a dump.    But they've got a captive audience during the Drake Relays as it's the only bar in the area of the stadium.  And they featured $5.00 16 oz. tap beer.  Ouch!

We went back for the afternoon session, most of which comprised the preliminaries of the 4X400 meter relays for high schools, colleges and universities.  Tom said, "Now, this is what we pay money to come see."  It is very fun to see the baton hand-offs after each leg.  It's somewhat controlled mayhem at times.  The above picture shows the runners lining up in order of their positions on the track to receive the baton. 

Tom had tickets for the evening session which was going to feature some pretty good races.  But given that it was in the low-40's and I had a three hour drive home, I didn't want to stick around.  Given the centennial Drake Relays is next year, I hope Tom has an extra ticket or two again.  I wouldn't mind going back.  And hopefully the weather will be a lot nicer.

Comments

[Norman]

Will,
The only part of the stadium that was torn down were the original rows 1-3 to make room for the "9th lane" on the track so the no runner is up against the wall. My old top row seats were row 25, now the top row in 22. Those rows were used to build up the walk way between the media tent and press box, and create handicapped seating--there's a new elevator up to the press box/handicapped as well. I'm going to try to get my Friday tickets moved from row 19 to 22 next year as well, I like having the extra room behind us. My NCAA tickets are there. I'll have Drake tickets for a long, long time....there's a Friday ticket for you next year.