A Layman's Guide to the Balch Field House Experience

The redeeming feature of distance events at Balch is that each turn is something less than the exercise in sheer terror that the sprinters must endure. Colorado Track XC file photo by Alan Versaw.

If you look closely at the calendar for this weekend, you'll see two meets here in Colorado. Friday's meet will be at the Cadet Field House. But, it's Saturday's meet we want to talk about right now.

Saturday's meet, the Fort Collins Track Club Invitational is in Balch Field House. And, let's just say that venerable Balch takes some getting used to. Read on.

Some of you are wizened veterans of Balch. We know who you are because you reflexively reach your hand up to grope about in the darkness the moment you enter the field house. Neophytes, on the other hand, just sort of just stand there with a stunned expression on their face (but don't worry if you drool when you're stunned, because nobody on the inside can make out the features of your face against the backlighting as you stand frozen in the doorway).

Eventually, you come to the realization that if living organisms can make a go of it 100 or more feet below the ground in Carlsbad Caverns, you'll probably come out of Balch alive--if only you don't walk into a support pillar first.

But, before we deal with the particulars of the interior of Balch, let's talk about how to find it and where to park.

The first thing you need to know about Balch is that it sits directly beneath the press box and the luxury box seats at Folsom Field on the campus of the University of Colorado. The difference between these areas and Balch Field House is a lot like the difference between the upper deck and the steerage of a ship--in more ways than you care to count.

I've snared a quick Google Earth image of the area around Folsom Field here for you:

Balch Field House is under, way under, the red roof on the left side of the frame, just above the west stadium seating for Folsom Field.

Also important here is the parking lot in the upper right corner of the frame. Parking can get pricey in Boulder, so pay attention closely. You will get dinged handsomely to park in this lot Monday through Friday, but parking is free on (most) weekends. There is no better place to park for a meet at Balch.

Assuming no construction more recent than the photo take above is impeding your path, hike up the hill to Balch and enter through either the north or south doors.

Actually, come to think of it, given the construction going on around Folsom Field these days, I'm not sure this parking exists any longer. Could we have an update from a local on the feasibility of parking anywhere near Balch these days???

Once inside, and once your eyes have adjusted to the dimness of the lighting, you will note a three-late Mondo track running around the outer perimeter of the field house. Due to some ambient light penetrating through the north window, you can make out PAC-12 school banners hung from the roof. You should not, however, interpret the presence of the banners to mean that any of the PAC-12 schools so honored has ever had a track team compete here.

You will also note a balcony on the south end.

Unless you're competing, the balcony is where you're meant to sit. You are safe from all sorts of things in the balcony that you are not safe from on the competition level. One of the things you are safe from is seeing much of anything at all that is going on below. You have a commanding view of about one-quarter of the 200-meter track.

I have no idea what the fire code lists as the capacity of the balcony, but it's a question that may cross your mind while you're up there.

If you think things are interesting at the observation level, you haven't really yet begun to appreciate the competition level.

I mentioned the three-lane Mondo track. I should have specified petrified Mondo. Oh, it's definitely fast (if you can get any purchase), but maybe just a hair difficult to take a turn or slow down on.

The 60 meter dash and hurdles take place down middle of the field house, north to south, and between the pillars. If you want to attempt some low-light photography, standing squarely behind a pillar and poking your lens out to the side is decidedly the safest place to position yourself. Thus far, the pillars have won, and that rather decisively, all collisions with runners.

Steel pillars are dependable that way.

It's also important that the 60-meter races go north to south. There isn't much room to slow down before you run out of field house, so the doors on the south end of the field house effectively function as crash pads. In this case, you can take the expression "crash bar" literally.

It should be noted, however, that temporary blindness ensues when you hit one of the doors and suddenly emerge into full sunlight. You may realize you just won the race, but you'll be hard-pressed to see anyone you just beat. They'll be dealing with esssentially the same difficulties.

Any race longer than 60 meters, of course, circuits the outer perimeter of the field house. Save for a brief shaft of sunlight (and accompanying glare off the metal bleachers of Folsom Field) in the southeast corner of the field house, the circuit is a little like riding a roller coaster in the dark, only without the up and down (save for a brief section of track toward the northeast corner where the petrified Mondo does have a ripple or two to it).

Things you want to be especially careful of include an elevator shaft (near the aforementioned undulation in the track surface), pillars, people straying out onto the track surface, and rapidly-approaching walls on every turn. Holding your lane on the turns quickly turns into a high-adrenaline experience. The sheer terror of slamming into a wall keeps most folks on the track, but there's that moment of doubt on every turn...

And, it's a safe bet that nobody has ever set their 200 meter PR inside Balch Field House.

How hard is the track surface inside Balch again? My assistant cross country coach, who ran at the University of Colorado, tells stories about Coach Wetmore lamenting the fact that running a distance workout at Balch too often meant that someone was going to get hurt.

Field events, you ask?

The high jump inside Balch will become an order or two of magnitude easier if someone ever invents a glow-in-the-dark bar and if the field house would borrow a clue from airlines with respect to aisle lighting.

The shot put, perhaps, is slightly less challenging under conditions of subdued light.

If you sit in just the right spot, you can watch the flight of the shot put against the north field house window. Seeing where it lands, however, is another matter altogether. For the most part, however, the shot put legions of Colorado have abandoned Balch for places where they don't lose as many implements in gloomy corners.

And, normally, any shot put activity has to wait until all other events are done because, well..., things are just a little cozy down on the competition level at Balch. It would be highly unfortunate should a long jumper ever get pegged by a stray shot put.

It is worth noting, however, that Mason Finley once pitched a shot put 68 feet inside Balch (bonus points if you recognize the man measuring the throw in the video).

The long jump is fine as long as you don't mind landing next to an elevator shaft. The main challenge of the triple jump is keeping the shortish runway clear of traffic long enough to complete a series of jumps.

There is no good angle from which to photograph the long and triple jump, even if there was enough light to take a picture.

So, yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is track and field you will witness inside Balch Field House. But, it's track and field as you will find at no other venue in Colorado. The old middle school field house at Lake County most nearly resembles the features of Balch, but it's been a while since that indoor track hosted a real meet.

This winter may be your last year to get an opportunity to witness the spectacle at Balch, so be careful not to let opportunity slip away. Ten years from now there will be those people who can say, "Yes, I remember what a meet in Balch was like!" and those who can't. If you're in the latter group, you'll be asking those of us in the former group to tell you stories.