Running With the In Crowd

Setting his feet in the starting blocks, coiling himself against a sallow afternoon breeze, Maurice Greene stares down the track at a ruthless summer.

The defending gold medalist in the 100-meter dash will be a marked man at the Olympic Games in Athens. First, he must survive the U.S. trials in Sacramento, which begin this week. Greene’s workouts have been getting serious, if not downright edgy.

But before he explodes into a 40-meter training run, focused on body placement, legs churning in fierce strides, he must wait.

Two women on their lunch break are walking across his lane.

Gold medals get you only so far at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, a place where sprinters trying to shave a few hundredths of a second off their personal bests must coexist with joggers trying to shed a few extra pounds.

On a given weekday, the likes of Greene, Ato Boldon and Torri Edwards run alongside university workers and noontime walkers from the neighborhood. Shotputter John Godina and pole vaulter Mary Sauer practice amid clusters of summer camp kids.

“This is a public place,” Greene says. “They’re trying to get something done. I’m trying to get something done.”

Imagine the Lakers running fastbreak drills beside guys from the local YMCA. Or the Dallas Cowboys dodging flag football players on their practice field.

The professionals have the right of way at Drake. But that didn’t keep a young man wearing headphones from wandering blindly into the middle of a sprint session the other day.

Boldon winces.

“Most of the time people understand this is what we do for a living,” he says. “You wouldn’t want someone coming into your cubicle at work.”

A while back, a sign warned the public to keep off the track while the pros were training, but everyone pretty much ignored it. Although some athletes at the highest level of the sport carefully guard their routines, the sprinters at Drake joke about the openness of their surroundings.

“Hey guys,” one of them will say, pointing to a stranger at the top of the stadium. “We’ve got a spy.”

For Greene, the advantages clearly outweigh the hassles at this 35-year-old track.

Start with ocean breezes that take the edge off summer and a Tartan running surface that he says is neither too hard nor too soft, just right. Add pleasant surroundings, the stadium terraced into a hillside, bordered by trees.

Drake’s reputation is another plus; as word of the assembled talent spreads, more arrive.

“If you want to be the best,” Greene says, “you go where the best are at.”

Some of the pros, such as Godina, a three-time world champion, competed for UCLA during their college days and have been here a decade or longer. Boldon, a former Bruin, says “it’s like our second home.”

Nobody has more invested in this place than John Smith, who spent the better part of three decades at UCLA as a quarter-miler and coach. He now works with the HSI track club and its stable of sprinters, including Greene, Boldon, Edwards, Jon Drummond and Inger Miller, at the stadium.

Though he ranks among the best speed coaches in the world, Smith isn’t above playing traffic cop.

On a recent afternoon, dressed in gray sweats and a floppy white hat, he patiently directed joggers away from orange cones he had placed down the middle of the track.

“Excuse me, sir,” he called out. “Will you stay on the outside lanes, please?”

If nothing else, Smith hopes that training in an open facility is good public relations for a sport beset by headlines of steroid abuse. He says he has come to know the regulars at Drake, notices when they lose weight, roots them on. “It keeps you in touch with reality,” he says. They, in turn, watch his sprinters progress over the course of each season and offer encouragement.

Similar relationships can form between the pros and younger athletes who use the track.

Josh Rider, a sophomore shotputter for UCLA, chose the Bruins after spotting a few recognizable faces, most notably Godina’s, on his recruiting trip.

“Being able to train with these guys and have them in your locker room is great,” he says. “When you’re able to talk to them and see that sometimes they have an off day, it makes your workouts seem more real.”

Last week, Rider served as counselor for a youth throwing camp at the stadium. Toward the end of the day, he gathered the teenagers to watch Godina and cheer his last few attempts.

“We watched him throw 71 feet,” says Jenica Hadley, a 15-year-old camper from Santa Cruz. “It was really exciting.”

This kind of interaction suits Greene just fine, playing to his reputation for brazenness and showmanship.

“The kids ... they ask you questions,” he says. “We give everyone tips. When you see them do well, you feel like you have some small part in that.”

These days, with the U.S. trials and Olympics drawing near, there might be a little less give-and-take. The mood turns anxious some afternoons, HSI teammates snapping at one another. “Like a funeral,” Boldon says.

Still, during off moments, Greene pauses to sign an autograph for a teenage girl. He poses for a snapshot with a boy.

And waiting for two women to walk across his lane? Apparently a small price to pay.

“That’s the beauty of it,” he says. “Anyone can come and work out here.”