London 2012 Olympics: putting the new Olympic track to the test

Today I ran on the London 2012 Olympic track – that sea of red rubber that will next year bear the weight of much faster, skilled and experienced champions such as Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Allison Felix and Sally Pearson.

On the start line of the 100m I was trying to channel them all. I had the obligatory chain around my neck (how do they race with jewellery swinging like a pendulum?) and  I attempted to concentrate, while being fitted with a video camera on my head: keep head down, power off the track, pump arms.

That was until the starters, Seb Coe and Hugh Robertson decided it would be a 400m race – actually 500m. So my moment on the track became a concerted jog all the way around to take in the atmosphere of an empty stadium that appeared anything but soul-less.

This Olympic Stadium is cosy, with the seating at ground level creating a feeling of intimacy other 80,000 capacity stadiums lack. All of the seats were covered with biodegradable seat covers to keep them pristine, but it had the impact of softening the black seats to grey – which looked classy. The infield was green, and throwing circles still filled with water to ensure levels.

Down the back straight there was a particularly robust headwind that had swirled around to a sidewind by the front straight. If the London Olympic organisers want world records at the stadium they may have to rethink the stadium wrap that currently features a bunting style twisted triangle look, rather than a solid wrap.

Yet a couple of stadium workers revealed that while it has been quite windy on most days over the past few months the prevailing direction has tended to be a tailwind for the 100m sprinters.

Earlier in the day Ato Boldon rightly pointed out to me that as a civilian I wouldn't know much about the hardness of the track or its technical abilities, but I did ask the experts, the Mondo company specialists who spent 75 days laying it down. And what they said Ato won't like. Instead of being rock hard for the sprinters so that they can notch up slick world records, the track has been made slightly softer to deal with the complaints of distance runners who previously found the Mondo track injury-inducing.

So how did it feel? Well through my joggers (no high heels or spikes allowed) the track felt much harder than I anticipated, less spongy than the tartan tracks I had experienced, but surprisingly it offered quite a bit of bounce. Mondo project manager Joe Hoekstra described the track nap as being manufactured to produce a rebound – almost like a rubber band being stretched.

He said while the endurance runners won't be disappointed, the sprinters will have finished their race before they even think about it. So while I puffed a bit more than I wanted, I got the chance to see more than I expected. This was one experience I didn't want to finish too soon.