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Facility Name
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Year Constructed | Legal Curb? | Steeplechase information |
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Cross streets or directions
Notes on unique situations and security problems Credited Manufacturer or installer Type of Surface |
Finish direction "Imperial" if track is measured in yards. | Number of lanes
Straightaway length
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Aerial photo link courtesy of Google
Altitude |
| Arlington High School, Riverside | (repeat offender) |
| Bellflower High School | (multiple repeat offender) When visited them again it still had a huge puddle. More recently during track season they had improved a little, but there was not a single lane on the track that was not muddy from the sprinklers the night before. Those same sprinklers were just starting up that night and had not yet reached the track when I saw them. |
| Belmont High School, Los Angeles | (multiple repeat offender) Worse than my last visit--apparently flooding on this track is so common, neighborhood joggers use plywood bridges to step over the immense flood zones. Even during track season--during a track meet, they had dried it out but the damage was beyond repair. |
| Bishop Montgomery, Torrance | (repeat offender) Always puddles in lane 1 |
| Bonita Vista High School, Chula Vista | Sprinklers going out to lane 5. |
| Chatsworth High School, Los Angeles | Puddles in lane one. |
| Crespi Carmelite High School, Encino | (repeat offender) Better, but still showed signs of repeated damage. |
| Damien High School | Their lawnmower must be possessed, they sprayed lawn clippings so much it burried the inner two lanes of the track, no curb was visible anywhere. |
| Eagle Rock High School, Los Angeles | Managed to have lane 1 under water the entire circumference when I visited. |
| Fairfax High School, Los Angeles | Several spots of full width flooding |
| Francis Poly High School, Los Angeles | Three spots of full width flooding |
| Frazier Mountain High School, Gorman | A relatively new high school, so obviously the facilities are also relatively new. I will concede they have snow at this elevation for portions of the year. That does not excuse letting the weeds grow across several lanes. The garbage cans and soccer benches look like a permanent fixture on the track. I can only assume the puddles to be part of the regular mess that I saw mid-summer. |
| John Glenn High School, Norwalk | (repeat offender) Was flooded, under water the full width when I visited it the first time, it was better the next time but still is poorly cared-for despite being locked behind two fences. During track season it was better but still showed signs of the damage. |
| Katella High School | One whole end of the track was flooded full width. |
| Lompoc High School | (repeat offender) This is the worst example of both problems: When I saw it last, the sprinklers were watering just the track (turning it into a mud bog). They were so screwed up they missed the grass completely. Of course, nobody could get in there to do anything about it, the track is surrounded by a 12 foot barb wire fence. While I was there, I asked around. Apparently they were flooding the football field during the winter rains, to solve that (rather than just changing the sprinkler programming) they turn the sprinklers onto the track deliberately to keep the excess water off the football field. |
| L.A. Harbor College | (multiple repeat offender) After ruining the length of their track--see below, they apparently don't care about flooding it, large portions were mud. |
| Monrovia High School | Apparently a perrenial huge puddle on the north turn. They dried it out during track season but the residual damage was still noticible. |
| Mt. Carmel High School, San Diego | (repeat offender) |
North High School, Riverside |
A big puddle in lane 1 during track season. I also have to wonder about a place that has marked, staggered relay passing zones on the home stretch--trackos think about it. And these were the State Champions. |
| Norwalk High School | They use the track to dump their yard waste. |
| Ramona High School, Riverside | Big fences protect a poorly attended-to track. |
| San Dimas High School | Used to be a nice place now trenched from excessive water runoff. |
Santiago High School, Garden Grove |
Baseball is the sport here. In addition to flooding the track, they store their baseball bleachers on the track. |
| Tustin High School | Lots of mud and bicycle tracks hardened into what was recently mud. |
| Villa Park High School | Repeat offender, my most recent visit showed the signs of six separate flood zones, several that cross the entire track. |
| Las Vegas Academy (downtown Las Vegas) | had a short track that went under the corner of a building. The track has now been removed (see also the other Las Vegas notes above) |
| Rancho San Antonio (Boys School) | apparently used to have a proper length 2 lane track but they built a fence in the way and diverted the track the long way around through two openings in the fence Its hard to see what I mean here but the track goes south of the tree line on the south side of the picture. There is a right turn to get there (the gap at the south end) and another right turn to get back into the north turn. |
| Loma Linda University | has a two lane dirt path, marked by rocks as a poor excuse for a running track (it used to be about 400m, but has been shortened to make more room for a soccer field) |
| Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station | has a half mile track that has an internal cut off for a quarter mile distance |
| Flamson Junior High School (formerly Paso Robles High School) in Paso Robles | paved over the track and made it a still runable path around the fenced football field. |
| Emery High School (San Pablo Ave. and 47th St.) in Emeryville | You have got to see the shape of this one. This is an all-weather track with a right turn and an odd angle in it, I kid you not. See what I mean Additional notes above. |
| Bishop Montgomery High School, Torrance | has just over half a track, one turn, one straightaway, part of a curve with the theoretical remainder of the curve passing through the dirt infield of the baseball field. The other straightaway cuts across the right field grass. See what I mean. |
| Campbell Hall in Studio City | was similar. They now have installed a multi-use fake grass field, so the one turn now runs into a gate. If the gate is open it now runs off into left field of their baseball diamond or the football end zone. Instead, they store the football bleachers on the remains of the track. See what I mean. |
| Orange Lutheran High School, Orange | apparently once had a 300 meter track. They tore up more than half of it replacing it with a wider parking lot that sloped into where the track used to be. Now they have constructed a new All Weather but because of size limitations its a weird one. 4 lanes with different kinds of turns to accommodate other sports. See what I mean. |
Woodbury University, Burbank |
once had a track--3/4 of the remnants remain neglected, minus the curb. They tore out the curb and one end of the track to build tennis courts and to make the field better for soccer. This is a private college so this isn't as much a community resource destroyed. I just can't see why they couldn't have moved the new construction a few yards north of the track and left the facility rather than destroying it. See what I mean. |
| Golden Gate Park Polo Field, San Francisco | had a large track around the grounds, with a smaller quarter mile dirt running track with chutes on the opposite axis inside. |
The
Bottom Ten. These are the worst tracks I've seen in California, rated by the
apparent neglect, inconsistency of the surface and obvious need for repair.
I am trying to be diplomatic here, I am not listing poor tracks here just
because they are old, but because they are in a state of disrepair or are
bad for the runners who use them. As I look at the list, I certainly dislike
badly done repairs.| 1. | San Jose P.A.L. Stadium | The is in such bad condition the surface was unrecognizable. Most of the all-weather surface (that wasn't much more than painted asphalt to begin with--I can't feel any rubber in the pieces that chip away, the only soft part was the thin layer of paint) has been broken through so it is a mess of mud and broken pavement. Unsafe, unusable. |
| 2. | Palomar College, San Marcos | Worn out so most lane lines are invisible. Lane one is down to pavement. Lane two and part of lane three (which has a seam about a foot into the lane) are relatively thin though worn rubber asphalt and the outer lanes apparently older surface is badly cracked. They are aware of the problems, signs warn of the danger and paint marks some of the problem spots. |
| 3. | Cypress College | Most of the lane lines are worn off. Little cunks of rubber come off on your shoes. Several places are worn through to pavement. |
| 4. | Solano Community College, Suisun City | Badly neglected, the surface has disintegrated into powder in many spots around the track. The inner lane (with soccer benches and garbage cans) is overgrown with weeds. Lane lines imperceptible in many sections of the track. |
| 5. | Allen Hancock College, Santa Maria | They resurfaced it in the mid 90's. Since then, the new surface has again worn away, the lane lines and finish line are invisible. The finish area is in the same condition as Cypress College with loose flecks of rubber coming off on your shoes (though the coach recently swept it off to try to use the track for the team). |
| 6. | Grossmont College | This was ruined by a school that doesn't care about track at all. They deliberately slurry sealed (an asphalt layer) over the All Weather surface. The new surface doesn't stick well to the rubber below, so in addition to having the feel of pavement, it has the stability of a gopher tunnel in some places. |
| 7. | Southwestern College, Chula Vista | The inner lane lines have disappeared. Outer lane lines are slowly fading. A 50 yard section of the backstretch is missing all lane lines, obviously from being flooded every night. |
| 8. | San Jose State University | This was one of the first and one of the best All-Weather tracks in the world. Due to outright aggressive destruction (well beyond accidental damage), this great track barely survives its hostile environment--the attitude of the management of this facility (my Alma Mater). They treat it as though it is a nuisance. Not only do they use it as a parking lot, these idiots have painted parking lines on the Tartan track surface. Sections have been plowed by heavy equipment, some portions are just plain missing. Runways have overgrown, the curb, bleachers and other field event facilities have been removed. But still the now almost 40 year-old track survives despite the abuse it is getting-a good reference for the original Tartan process. |
| 9. | St. Mary's High School, Berkeley | This was already at a disadvantage because it is a weird, triangular shaped track. That is not why it is being criticized. The condition of the surface, pock marked with repairs and cracks is just no good any longer. |
| 10. | Elsie Allen High School, Santa Rosa | This is loaded with cracks, the subsurface is apparently breaking apart and taking the track with it. |
