Drake Relays really are a ‘Classic’ this year

CEDAR RAPIDS — Blake Boldon has been running the Drake Relays since 2016.

“America’s Athletic Classic” has been around since 1910.

So Boldon hasn’t seen everything from every past Drake Relays. But he lives and breathes Drake Relays these days and didn’t hesitate to rank this year’s event on a recent stop at The Gazette.

“Top to bottom, (this is) the biggest and best Relays we’ve had probably on record, but no doubt in 10 years,” he said.

Boldon is excited for a number of reasons as one of the state’s top athletic events gets ready to kick into high gear later this week.

The Relays actually started on Sunday with the 5K, 10K and half-marathon road races in Des Moines. They continued Monday with a pole vault competition at the Jordan Creek Town Center. Tuesday will offer the first of many “world record attempts” during the Grand Blue Mile. Another world record attempt will happen Wednesday during an indoor shot put competition inside the Drake Fieldhouse, the same day the heptathlon and decathlon kick off outside in Drake Stadium.

Things really get rolling Thursday with the inaugural “Thursday Night Throwdown” along with the annual “Distance Carnival.” Friday and Saturday are a track-and-field fan’s nirvana if the weather cooperates with professional, university, college and high school athletes competing on the same track and same fields.

It really is a special event, but this one may top all of the previous.

“This my first Olympic year,” Boldon said, noting for the first time as director this event is happening just months ahead of a Summer Games not affected by COVID.

“It’s exciting,“ he said, adding all involved have an ”unbridled enthusiasm” for this year’s event.

The demand to compete in the Relays is “unprecedented,” but also a little different — “a lot more work,” he said with a laugh — because the best athletes can be “very selective” where they want to compete before the Summer Games.

But ...

“If you’re someone who has a shot to be at the Olympic trials, you are scrambling to try and get every possible opportunity ... every good opportunity,” Boldon said.

He’s learned “how picky the big stars are” while also discovering “how desperate the Olympic hopefuls are. Just looking for any opportunity and Drake’s among the very best.”

He’s really excited about Thursday night’s field extravaganza joining the Distance Carnival. Some of the best javelin and hammer throw athletes in the world will showcase their talent during the “Thursday Night Throwdown,” including three Chilean athletes and American Rudy Winkler, who is ranked No. 3 in the world in the hammer throw. The javelin field includes Curtis Thompson, who holds the third-best throw in U.S. history.

“There is some beauty in these competitions,” Boldon said. “It is the exact intersection of ancient Greek warfare and the implements that originated as tools for war.

“Now, it’s so well coached and the footwork is so precise, it’s like ballet. It’s explosive and exact. We’re going to have the world’s best out there.”

There also are several elite fields on the track, but the big one quite possibly will be the return of Lolo Jones, the former Des Moines Roosevelt prep and three-time Olympian.

Jones, 41, was set to return to be inducted into the Drake Relays Athletes Hall of Fame, but has returned to training and will compete in the 100 hurdles.

“We reached out to her about the Hall of Fame ... I knew that (competing) might be a possibility,” Boldon said. “She left track, but maybe didn’t use the ‘R’ word.

“Since the day she graduated from high school, there’s always been a lane at the Drake Relays for Lolo Jones.”

So Saturday on the track could be something special, as usual.

“If weather cooperates you’re not going to be able to squeeze into a seat,” Boldon said.

And, of course, that’s not all. The high school athletes will put on quite a show, too, as well as the collegiate and university standouts.

The Drake Relays are an Iowa “gem,” that could sparkle even brighter this week.

Comments: (319) 398-8416; jr.ogden@thegazette.com