My buddy teaching at the velodrome

[d_douglas]

I will keep this short, but my good buddy (best man at my wedding) is a teacher in Vancouver's downtown east side - one of the poorest neighbourhoods in North America. He has taught an alternative education program to highschoolers for years now and uses physical fitness as a mechanism for instilling discipline and confidence in his kids while also teaching conventional academic subjects as well. He is a social sciences teacher that happens to be an incredible athlete.

This past weekend, he ran the Vancouver marathon with a group (he is well known for this program) and this prompted me to look at his website. While looking at it, I noticed that he took a group of kids to the local velodrome for a rip. Check out the video clip he made - pretty daring for a bunch of kids with zero experience.

Personally, I think it would be pretty dodgy to get a bunch of very volatile young kids on a track, but what the hell, they looked like they were having fun. Trevor is a role model for me - a good person doing good things for people who need help :)

https://streetfrontalternative.wordpress.com/?s=velodrome

[paredown]

That velodrome is close to where I grew up.:beer:

It's great to see young kids trying it out--anything to create interest. My friends tell me that there has been pressure to close that track (yet again) because the volleyball players that share the facility think it is not used enough.

There's a long sad story about how Vancouver's original outdoor track--China Creek, built for the 1954 Commonwealth Games was left to deteriorate (an outdoor track in a high rain climate--hello???), then it was restored while I was racing in the early '70s. Even in its modified form (bankings were not as high as original) it was a fast, 250m wood track with perfect 45 deg. bankings.

Because you could only ride when dry (still no roof), the Vancouver Parks Board--claiming it wasn't used enough after the restoration, sold the rebuilt track & property to the Vancouver School Board. So the beautiful original wooden track with its yellow cedar decking was torn down in 1980 to build a new location for Vancouver City College. The decision was made in an non-public meeting and everyone in the racing community was out of body about it.

A law suit was launched by cyclist groups and was successful because the restoration had used Federal grant money. So the Vancouver School Board was required to fund a new-construction track, that was built in the present location in Burnaby.

Then it almost got torn down again, except public pressure (in part by folks like Alex Stieda) got a rebuilding project approved instead and it reopened in 2001...

So tell everyone to go and try it out!

[cachagua]

That track looks beautiful. What a tale, I didn't know all that sequence of events. Have to go see it next time I'm in the neighborhood.

Sounds like your friend is doing very good work indeed.

[TMB]

I used to ride that track, many years ago.

20 years ago I moved out of GVA and now live 4 and bit hours away. They will no longer let me ride the track, instead I have to "get certified" to show I know how.

OK.

I ask when the classes are, usually Wednesday nights, for 4 weeks running. 6 to PM.

I say ...... Umm, it takes me 4 and bit hours driving to get here. Can we do this on a weekend? I will come down, stay the weekend, I I will even pay one of the instructors to run me through the qualifier on a weekend.

Even better, I have a friend who lives in town who is certified who will run me through, even better he is one of the club grey hairs.

Nope, has to be Wednesday nights.

I haven't ridden the track in years and it looks like I never will again.

Sad.

[paredown]

I used to ride that track, many years ago.

20 years ago I moved out of GVA and now live 4 and bit hours away. They will no longer let me ride the track, instead I have to "get certified" to show I know how.

OK.

I ask when the classes are, usually Wednesday nights, for 4 weeks running. 6 to PM.

I say ...... Umm, it takes me 4 and bit hours driving to get here. Can we do this on a weekend? I will come down, stay the weekend, I I will even pay one of the instructors to run me through the qualifier on a weekend.

Even better, I have a friend who lives in town who is certified who will run me through, even better he is one of the club grey hairs.

Nope, has to be Wednesday nights.

I haven't ridden the track in years and it looks like I never will again.

Sad.
Maybe next time I'm home, I'll wander down there on a Wednesday night to get certified. I've never been on that track--by the time it was rebuilt my interest was elsewhere.
(I'm so slow now though, that I might fall off the bankings.:banana:)

It sucks that there is no flexibility on times for the certification.

At China Creek we used to climb over the gate (if it was closed) and have at it. I guess people worried less about lawsuits in those days.

[d_douglas]

Interesting stories. I've never ridden here.

I would love to have seen my buddy race on a track. At one point in his university days , he sprinted (on a running track) against Bruny Surin and a few other Olympic sprinters. He said he was fodder, but had fun trying to stay with them. I think he ran a 10.25sec 100m sprint!

He'd have been an insane road racer - lean, tough and relentless.

[ultraman6970]

47 degrees, wood... excellent!!!. You guys have no clue how much I miss the track. Someday when Im like 90 we are going to get a velodrome here hehehe

The one in London, Ontario is rad more than nothing because was built in a budget and in a place that nobody was using. That one is cool :)

10,25??? your friend rocked those 100 meters, my best at 16 y/o that was the last I did 100 was tad under 11, at that point i was totally commited into cycling so left track and field forever. Either way 10,25 is a super good time.

[d_douglas]

Yes, somewhere below 10.50sec. I now think I have overstated his ability at 10.25 - that's crazy :). Of course, the record is now below 9.80, so he was always last off the track when sprinting with the big boys, but he loved the challenge.

[ultraman6970]

Any guy that can do between 11 and 12 in 100 meters is a pretty good time In my books, under 11 and closer to 10 is because the dude was insanely fast.

[TMB]

Maybe next time I'm home, I'll wander down there on a Wednesday night to get certified. I've never been on that track--by the time it was rebuilt my interest was elsewhere.
(I'm so slow now though, that I might fall off the bankings.:banana:)

It sucks that there is no flexibility on times for the certification.

At China Creek we used to climb over the gate (if it was closed) and have at it. I guess people worried less about lawsuits in those days.

To be clear, that is Wednesday night, each week for 4 weeks. $ weeks to get certified!

By a kid who was not alive the last time I rode that same track.