The 4th annual Club 124 meetup was to be held on January 29th with the Seattle Kraken visiting the Islanders in an afternoon tilt at UBS Arena. A couple of days before, the weather forecast turned nasty, and a few people who had to fly in decided to cancel. That was the smart move because by Friday, it was clear that Long Island was going to get blasted by a quick moving storm, and that night, Saturday's game was postponed. I felt bad for those in our group who managed to get here under the wire, as there was no game for them to see. Unless, that is, they had an interest in track and field. For the Millrose Games, one of the premier indoor athletics events in the world, was being held at The Armory track in Washington Heights despite the snowstorm.
It was the 114th running of the games, with last year the first that they were not held since their debut in 1908, thanks to COVID. Until 2011, the venue was Madison Square Garden, but declining popularity led the organizers to move them to The Armory for the 2012 edition. Originally built as a military installation in 1911, this historic building was refurbished as a track and field center in 1992 and is now one of the premier indoor venues in the country.
Although NYC was also under a state of emergency, this was really an overreaction as much of the city had received only about 6 inches of snow by early morning, and subways were still running. I took the 1 train up to 168th Street to add a new sport to my list. Yes, as hard as it to believe, I had never attended a professional track and field event before. After showing my vaccination credentials, I went up a colourful spiral staircase (above), which has records that have been set in the building along the walls. This would be a sign of things to come as the building houses the National Track and Field Hall of Fame and is bursting with history. Immediately upon reaching the third floor, I saw two display cases of memorabilia from the past century of track and field.
Just a sampling is shown below, with the singlet worn by Ralph Metcalfe when he finished second to Jesse Owens in the 100m at the 1936 Olympics, while the F.J.V. Skiff trophy was presented to Archie Hahn, winner of the same event at the 1904 Olympics. Truly an incredible collection and I was suddenly glad that pedestrian NHL game was postponed so I could see these games instead.
Records are always being broken in athletics, with so many events and levels, and those that were set at The Armory can be found on a board here. This floor was extremely crowded as there are hundreds of athletes warming up while those that have finished meet with family members or official photographers for pictures. It is really a unique atmosphere, and I hadn't even stepped in the actual arena yet.
The fourth floor is where you can find your seats, with the track itself on the third floor below. The good seats run along the sides of the track and are rather expensive, starting at $125. But there are end zone seats for $35 and that is where I sat, along with Bill and Matt, two Club 124 chasers who had joined me on this day.
The facility consists of a 200m banked track surrounding a 60m track for sprint races, with a high quality scoreboard above.
There is also a long jump, a pole vault pit, and a cage for throws such as the shot put, which is barely visible in front of the fans to the right in the below photo, which was taken from my seat.
The venue is also used for university competitions, and several local schools use it as their indoor track; there are banners along both sides such as Albany's below. I was surprised that I had never even heard of this venue, but then again, NCAA Track and Field is not an event I really follow.
As for the games themselves, they were started in 1908 by employees of Wanamaker's department store, who formed a track club to hold an annual meet. The name Millrose comes from the country home of company president Rodman Wanamaker. Apparently these were a big event back when I was a kid, but in those pre-internet days, I had missed out. The men's Wanamaker Mile is the final event of the day and is considered a premier event, and the last two hours are broadcast by NBC.
Of course, there are dozens of other events for all levels, with high school, club, university, and professional athletes all on hand for the proceedings. After a few throwing competitions on Thursday night, things got under at 10:25 Saturday morning with the Women's Club Distance Medley Relay, the first of 56 events on the day.
I spent quite a bit of time wandering around as you get quite different vantage points of the various sites, and can generally stand along the very narrow walkway along both sides. There is a camera box right at the finish line and the last row of seats beside it is open because the box blocks the view, but you can stand here for a bit to see the end of a race or two.
Although only one track event can be held at a time, there was little waiting between them and you really needed the free program to keep up. Meanwhile, the non-track events would last several rounds. Above is Emily Grove clearing 4.45 metres in the pole vault, good for second place among six competitors. Winner Sandi Morris later cleared 4.75 meters, the world's best mark this season.
The women's 60 metre hurdles is above; Jamaica's Britany Anderson won in a time of 7.91 seconds. Amazing to watch. The results even have each runner's time at each hurdle; the technology on display is such a contrast to the old building. Each runner was wearing some sort of GPS device that they had to hand back to an official after the race; these were used to measure the distance between each runner as they ran the race. This information is displayed on a small scoreboard above one end of the track. It is not so meaningful on a sprint, but in a mile race, it really adds an interesting element for those watching.
There was one world record set on the afternoon, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Reigning Olympic champ Ryan Crouser (above) recorded a shot put of 23.38 metres, a centimetre longer than his existing record. This information was displayed on the scoreboard, but Crouser showed a surprising lack of emotion. I was pretty excited to have seen history, but the next day, while researching this post, I learned that the laser measuring system had malfunctioned and all shot put results were scrapped.
That was about the only disappointment for me as I found the entire afternoon to be completely fascinating. As this is an annual event, I will plan to visit again next year and would highly recommend any sports fans in the area who have yet to attend to consider spending a few hours at the Millrose Games in 2023.
Best,
Sean