Shielded under a network of onramps and highways that connect The Bronx, Queens and Manhattan, Randall’s Island is quietly spared the bustle of a city that is constantly powered by its own industry of ambition.
It’s nestled between the Harlem River and East River and last month, a long time vestige of recreation — the track at Icahn Stadium — began a replacement project to boost the surface back to being among the fastest in the world. It had been well over a decade since the worn track was the newest of all of those in New York City’s parks. And despite coming at the tail end of the track and field season, local runners still used it for speedwork and the next installment of the Athlos showcase was again ready to add a moment of flash to the entire venue.
Reborn as Icahn Stadium in 2005, the revamped venue debuted as a smaller capacity, but modern successor to the hulking — and aging — Downing Stadium that was one of the city’s showpieces of the nation’s Works Progress Administration projects of the 1940s. The former stadium held prestige, housed professional teams as tenants, fielded legends and built it reputation as a track and field haven.
The current iteration of the stadium boasted a performance-focused Mondo track and joined the nearby indoor venue, The Armory, as one of few locations in the nation with the super surface.
But Icahn’s version was ready for a refresh.
On Wednesday, city park officials, community leaders and stewards of the stadium gathered for a ribbon cutting, seemingly unleashing the next generations of runners to aspire to inch their way to personal records.
“Today’s ribbon-cutting is not only a celebration of the newly installed Mondo Super X 720 track, but one that commemorates over 20 years as a partner with Icahn Stadium,” Michael Tovar, Track Division Director at Mondo said. “We look forward to continuing our mutual commitment to innovation and stability and watching athletes push beyond their limits on this high-performance surface.”
With the finishing touches coming in the form of laying the last pieces of surface along the long jump runway and newly-painted lines defining the lanes, the rhythm of fast steps returns.