Flashes of Panic

Tremendously early for the Reebok Grand Prix, we find the grounds crew trying to at least minimize the standing water on the track after (relatively) heavy rain all day. There’s one vehicle which looks like a floor-buffer sweeping the runways for the pole vault, but a few minutes ago a golf-cart sized gator pulled out a trailer with what looked like a small jet engine on it. A 90° nozzle on the back directed the output at the ground. They parked this machine over the shot ring, and blasted it dry in under a minute. I wondered why they weren’t doing the whole track with it—at this point, there are still puddles on the backstretch—but on further thought, I suppose the heat could hypothetically damage the track surface.