If you love the excitement of a track meet, or have kids that want to race in high school or college, definitely make plans to attend the Teddy Twilight on Saturday, March 7.
The Teddy Twilight track meet, organized by local runner Jake Stout, is run at Roosevelt High School and will kick off with a men’s 3k at 5p. After the men’s 3k will be the women’s 3k, followed by the men’s and women’s 2k Steeplechase.Targeted to start at 6p is a coed 4 x 800m, the men’s distance medley, and the women’s distance medley. At 7p, the men’s 4 x 400m is set to start, then the women’s, followed by the women’s mile and the men’s mile. There may be multiple heats depending on the number of participants; runners will self-select into the heat where they’ll be most competitive. The last event, a 10k race starting at 8p, has a cash prize and will be an exciting race to watch unfold.
As of February 7, 15 different clubs have confirmed their athletes will be racing. The exact lineups are still to be determined; but you’ll see a lot of familiar logos on singlets as well as people racing unattached.
Spectators are encouraged to dress warm and bring something hot in your thermos so you can stay to watch the entire meet. If you’re new to watching track events, other spectators would love to tell you what to watch for and explain strategies to you. (Track nerds unite!) It can be really fun to watch a distance race on the track, like the 10k, especially if someone can tip you off to who’s holding back and whether the pace is fast or slow for the participants.
If you’d like to race in an individual event, you can register at the track starting at 3:30p. Relay teams are asked to register by March 6 so batons can be chipped for timing. Individual events are $12 for the mile, 2k Steeplechase, and 3k; and $20 for the 10k. The relay events are $30 per team.
Speaking of timing, friend of the blog Jeff Huber of Huber Timing will be there to provide not just finish times but splits for each quarter-mile. He also provided timing for last year, and if you want to get an idea of how fast these athletes are, check out the results from 2019’s Teddy.
Parking is available on surface streets near the track, which is on the corner of N. Burr and N. Smith. There are metal bleachers on the home stretch of the track, so bring an extra blanket to sit on as well as many, many layers to keep you warm. There will be an MC announcing events and to call athletes to the track, plus some great music – good for spectators and awesome for the runners.
