By Keenan Baker
June 6, 2025
I couldn’t see the finish line.
Two rows deep in the crowd, and it was flashes of fluorescent yellows and oranges.
Forest green here, a little bit of Bowerman red there.
Runners enveloped by fans, footsteps clacking by to the tune of sub-four mile pace.
I felt the crowd roar as the runners flew into the last lap.
I finally pushed to the front, just in time to witness Lopez Lomong fly down Meredith College’s homestretch and break the tape juuuuuuust in front of the three-wide pack of Johnny Gregorek, Sam Prakel, and Pat Casey.
Three minutes, 53 seconds, and 86 milliseconds. For a MILE?
If you’re reading this right now, you’re probably already a track and field fan. You might know that a sub-four minute mile is—and will always be—fast. You may know who Lopez Lomong is: his incredible story of perseverance as a Lost Boy of Sudan who became one of the greatest talents in American distance running ever. You might know the names of Johnny Gregorek, Sam Prakel, and Pat Casey.
I didn’t know any of this.
I was a rising sophomore in high school, about to enter my second cross country season.
All I knew was that my friends dragged me to this race in Raleigh, North Carolina, and that I’d never seen anybody run that fast for that long in my life.
And that, from that race on, I would never stop loving the sport of track and field.
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My name is Keenan Baker and I’m a senior journalism major at UNC-Chapel Hill.
I’m also a rabid track fan.
I didn’t grow up in a track and field household. For the longest time, all I knew was that my mom would go to the YMCA to run. I would go to community 5ks with her and get smoked.
My first 5k was a Color Run at Wakemed State Park, where I got blasted with a color packet running up the finishing hill. That was enough to both diagnose me with asthma and keep me from running for another few years. Soccer was enough—no flying powders, and even though I was a center midfielder, plenty of time to find respite.
But, caving to my friend’s requests, I made the move to track and field in 8th grade. I was slow.
I did cross country that fall and enjoyed the team environment and the post-race chocolate milk. Still slow.
Fast forward to the end of my middle/high school running career: I was a slightly large fish in a very small pond. COVID years, odd injuries and sicknesses, and subpar focus meant I simply ran.
To clarify: I’m not fast. I wasn’t fast. I’m still on my own trek to break five minutes in the mile (5:03 this spring, a PR five years in the making) and my high school cross-country PR rests at 17:51.
Damn if I don’t understand the feeling, though.
That odd, almost paradoxical joy found in making workouts, talking shoes, finding trails, simply running miles upon miles. Watching minutes and hours click past to the soundtrack of shoes pattering away. Of trying to find one’s limits—and push past it.
Running, exercise, track and field all become forms of therapy. I’ve been in it for years.
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So many people run. A fraction of those people competed in track and field. And a smaller fraction end up being track and field fans. In the smallest, last matryoshka doll lies those who are passionate enough about track and field to want to tell its stories.
I’m a part of that last group. And yes, I’ve made it abundantly clear I wasn’t predestined to be a running god.
But talk to five-year-old Keenan and now 22-year-old Keenan, and you’ll find that we share common interests: reading and telling stories, not slowing down, and a love for sports.
It just so happens that track and field lies at the intersection of all three.
My earliest recollection of consuming sports content was in kindergarten—staying home from school, sick, and watching UNC basketball throttle Michigan State in the 2009 National Championship game.
From then on, I would read every youth sports book I could find: Mike Lupica and the works. I played every sport imaginable as a jack of all trades and master of none. It was awesome.
But track and field still lingered unnoticed. Just one step removed, ready to pounce.
It was that 2018 Sir Walter Miler meet that hooked me, finally connecting the dots between my love for sports, storytelling, and committing to doing both myself.
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It may not have propelled me to become a star, but it definitely instigated this years-long love for all things running and track and field.
First you start looking at Milesplit. Then you get a pair of running shorts. Then you get your first pair of true running shoes. Then you go to meets where you debate about professional runners and how Eliud Kipchoge is a better athlete than LeBron James. You research times, you talk about workouts, you keep a diary.
You make a running playlist, you read Born To Run, you try to run barefoot, hurt yourself, stop keeping a workout diary, start leading workouts, watch Tinman Elite, NCAA Cross Country recaps.
You flip out about the Olympics—realize just how insane the Rio 1500 meter race was—start reading websites like CITIUS Mag (it’s true, I did). You look at Diamond League results, wait for FloTrack to upload results for meets that happened the day prior… rookie mistake.
You hear about the new supershoes—no way it’s 4% faster, right?—you drop off your resume at a running shoe store. You start working there during the summer of 2020, and keep working at running shoe stores. You figure out your favorite shoes. Saucony Freedom 3, first Saucony Endorphin Pro, and Asics Novablast 4 and 5.
You read every running book you can, from Running with the Buffaloes to The Longest Race. You read Once A Runner, and keep reading Once A Runner. You get a tattoo of a quote from Once A Runner.
Seven years of track and field. Seven years of being a fan. How fun is that?
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It’s hard to remember a time in my young life where track and field had this much public momentum. Running is experiencing a post-pandemic boom, and track and field has to take advantage of it.
Leagues like Grand Slam Track and World Shot Put Series give other ways for people to cheer on the sport, working alongside the Diamond League.
Technology is developing. Times are getting faster. Throws are going farther. Debates will grow louder (which is #goodforthesport).
I know there will always be a fixation on times, meets, scheduling, shoe tech, streaming, bicarb, doping accusations, and drama. There will always be people reminiscing of eras bygone, of the records set on cinder tracks without these newfangled carbon plated cheater shoes.
And don’t misinterpret what I’m saying, I love most of the intricacies of being a track and field fan. Again: shoe nerd; “Wail On” tattoo; club runner. It’s part of the track-and-field obsession starter pack. I can’t wait to see what these next few years have in store for all aspects of the sport—technology, training, fueling, and observing.
But what keeps me coming back, what gets me excited for track and field’s foreseeable future, is what has always made the sport special: the stories, and the people that make them.
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There are the expected role models in the professional levels.
People like Eliud Kipchoge and his quest to run sub-2 hours in the marathon—finding the limits and breaking them.
Like Faith Kipyegon becoming the best women’s miler of all time—an equal inspiration as an athlete and a mother.
Like Neeraj Chopra winning gold in the javelin for India in the Tokyo Olympics—the country’s first ever track and field Olympic Gold medal.
But we can also look at the colleges and high schools. At the times and records being set at all levels—all parts of track and field.
The discus world record: Mykolas Alekna following in his father’s footsteps and then clearing them.
UNC Chapel Hill’s storybook indoor season: Ethan Stand and Parker Wolfe obliterating record upon record upon record.
Athlos 2024: a celebration of women in track and field worldwide, through the lens of track and field.
THE PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS: Don’t get me started. I won’t stop.
And it’s not just the stars.
I watched my friends track-and-field their hearts out at NIRCA Club Nationals in early April. I didn’t go for the times (shocker) but I cheered myself hoarse as people ran the final race of their semi-organized track and field careers. It was a meet full of steeplechase face-plants, ridiculous race strategies, and brushes with heat stroke and sunburn. Team flags, morning 5ks, extremely small hotel pools, and lasting memories.
One month later, I had a front-row seat at the ACC Track and Field Championships in Winston Salem, North Carolina. I don’t know how I found a front row seat, but as I lugged my one-size-fits-all camera and my small pocket notebook around, I was reminded how crazy fun watching track meets can be. I saw:
Parents, cheering their hearts out for any and every athlete, but especially their child.
Coaches, rotating through the first row to yell out splits and encouragement in equal measure.
Athletes, competing for themselves, their teams, and their families. (Side note: A big shout-out to the Clemson twin duo of Jalen and Ian Johnson for taking 1-2 in the Men’s 200m.)
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I look to the future of track and field and see countless stories shining through.
The NCAA track and field championships are right around the corner, and I can’t wait to watch every second.
And the professional meets this summer—you better believe I’ll be tuning in.
As the summer progresses, we’ll witness these talented athletes push themselves and their sport to their highest potential. Records will be broken. History will be made.
But at each of those meets, somebody in the crowd or online, will have turned to track and field. They could’ve been dragged there by their friends. They could’ve just started running and wanted to see how the pros did it. They could already be fans. They could be searching for motivation, inspiration, positivity. At the end of the day, all we want is something to cheer for.
They’ll see the bell lap ring. They’ll watch as the jumpers take center stage. They’ll feel the thrower’s roar and watch objects launch into orbit.
And just like I did, they’ll fall in love with track and field.
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Keenan Baker
Keenan Baker is a track fan. He’s also a journalism major and writer at UNC-Chapel Hill. Putting both of those passions on the page together is the goal, and he looks forward to covering more track and field with CITIUS MAG this summer!
