The Blackout Relay

The Bates Field House was hit by a power outage on Saturday night February 10, 2001 at 9:11 p.m. It was a windy wintry night and the field house lost all 40 flood lights while the leadoff runners were 70 meters into the 4x800 relay.

"When the lights first went out we were on the back straightaway about 20 meters before the turn," remembered Bates runner Erik Knackmuhs. "I kept running hard for a few steps figuring that the lights would come right back on. When they didn't, everyone started letting up and there was a lot of yelling and confusion. Then the Colby guy ran by us to the inside. I wasn't sure exactly where I was on the track until he went by. Once our eyes adjusted we could kind of make out the inside rail because the metal reflected a little in the dark."

"When the lights went out, everyone slowed right down," remembers Bowdoin leadoff runner, freshman Steve Franklin. "It was pitch dark on the backstretch, and we were just guessing where to run. Then this Colby guy took off, and we all went after him."

The Colby guy was Andrew Lizotte. "At first I was alarmed that I couldn't see where I was going. Within seconds of the lights going out, the crowds that were cheering the runners actually bordered the track so that their voices became an indication of where to run. After that, I was sort of nervous and started sprinting."

What made Lizotte pick up the pace with the lights all out? "The other lead-off guys all slowed down except for me, not because I'm heroic or even a good 800 runner, but because I had no clue what was going on. The best option seemed to be to continue running."

Two small emergency flood lights came on at the finish area, and helped radiate a little light around that end of the field house. Meet officials were caught in a confusing situation. The field house was dark. There was no power in the public address system. The officials couldn't tell what if anything was happening in the race. Then out of the darkness the ghost runners came flying down the homestretch. Lizotte in the lead with all three other runners right behind sprinting to make up for lost time.

Teammates and spectators rushed to the side of the track to cheer as the phantoms ran by. Coaches and officials were a little slower to rush, wondering if the race would stop on its own, or if someone should stop it. But how could it be stopped without a public address announcement? An official stepped close to the track and called for the runners to stop, but he could not be heard over the frantic cheering that developed as the crowd recognized the shadowy forms of the runners continuing the race in the darkness. After that there was no stopping the race. It was too dark to see where it was, and it was too loud to communicate anything.

"Everyone followed the Colby guy and then the race continued as if nothing happened," said Knackmuhs. "I don't think anybody really cared about the lights after that. Everyone crowded onto the track and it was just a wall of people along the backstretch standing in lane 3. It was so loud everyone raced harder even though you were forced to slow down on that side of the track because the visibility was bad."

"I didn't hear or see anyone try to stop the race," said Knackmuhs. "I've been told they did make some sort of attempt to stop the race but I just plowed through. I mean Colby was ahead of us, so I had to take care of that."

The backstretch and back curve were entirely dark, but the runners flashed through the two small lights at the finish line. As they began their second lap the glow from the finish line illuminated the white stripes of the track enough so that teammates and spectators stepped up to the edge of lane one to watch the race. There were enough people, estimated at 400 athletes and spectators from the 4 teams, to line the entire track. The crowd recognized the courage and the excitement of the event, and the cheering was wild throughout the field house as the runners sped along in the dark.

"I remember being really frustrated with myself after the third lap," remembers Lizotte. " I had never run an indoor 800 before so, initially, I wasn't very relaxed. When the blackout occurred, I bolted and didn't run intelligently, and it caught up with me at the end. It was an intensely surreal experience."

The second runners took the exchange in the dim light of the relay zone and headed into the darkness around the first curve.

"I thought it was the most incredible experience, like running in a dream," recalls Bates second runner Justin Pagnotta. "Spectators lined the track-- all around the inside of the track, and also, they gathered as close as lane 2 so they could see us running by. It was like running through a dark narrow tunnel with fans screaming right at you. I was so fired up."

The third runners were waiting for the 3rd lap of the second leg when the clerk began lining them up on the track.

"They've only run three laps," said Bowdoin junior Matt Mellen.

"Get on the line," demanded the confused official. No one could see the race, so it was easy to understand the confusion in a close race on a 200 meter indoor track that the runners were circling every 30 or 31 seconds.

"I was on pace for a personal record," remembers Pagnotta. "Josh Dyer of USM and I were head to head, but our teammates were blocking the way. I was certain that I had another lap, but we couldn't really see the guys until we were right on them. Dyer and I tried to wave them off, but there was no time and it just happened that we handed off. We knew we had another lap, but there seemed to be nothing else we could have done. Now I wish I'd run around them, but that may have messed things up more because I wasn't sure if Dyer would have handed off or not. It worked out for the best because if one of us had handed off and the other not, then it wouldn't have been an equal race. All teams ran the dark 3000 meter relay. I'll never forget that experience."

"With the chaos of the lights out, I didn't know what was going on," said Colby's third runner Trent Lierman. "When the official threw me out on the line, even after just 600 of the second leg, I was ready to go. I felt like it was a real race. No times or splits, just me against my competitors. The screaming fans and unlit track made it a pure adrenaline race."

"People were taking flash photos," remembers Matt Mellen. "Our eyes were wide open to try to see where to run so the flashes were blinding."

The lights never did come back on. The anchor leg was contested furiously with some dramatic lead changes and frenetic cheering. In a very close finish Bates took first with Bowdoin second, USM third, and Colby fourth. All four teams finished within three seconds in the race that lasted 7 minutes and 35 seconds.