The Armory Foundation

My organization The Y of Washington Heights and Inwood invested in this facility to introduce our after school participants to track and field. This facility is magnificent, the staff is helpful, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. The participants of our programs receive individual instruction to enhance skill and form by the staff. The locker rooms and rest rooms are clean and brightly lit. The children love the time they spend here. There are many events for the community and families in the neighborhood.
This was a great investment.
Bring the kids.

I wasn’t here to run, but honestly, I wished that was the case. I was really salivating when I saw the track, and then when I had a chance to walk on it, I was so in love. Softness was under my feet and I could think about was how my knees would really love the extra padding when I run…
I was here for a graduation event and it is interesting how a track and field can turn into a graduation event. We were seated on the main area and our families and friends were in the seating area one floor up.
The acoustics are terrible in here, and it was really hard to decipher what people were saying. Never mind that the former president of Chile was speaking, because I couldn’t understand much.
After the graduation, there was a reception right on the floor of the track. The catering was well done, but not enough vegetarian options. But I am not going to complain about a FREE event.
I am now very curious about running here. Going to look into the details, grab my trainers and hit the track pronto!

The Armory is a gorgeous facility with a super fast track and a track and field «hall of fame» set up in the hallways. As reviewers have mentioned, you can pay to practice here for a season (their schedule of when it’s open for use is on
). Those 4 Thursday night meets hosted by New York Road Runners in January/​February are a blast! For $ 20, you can run a bunch of events (varying from 800m, 1500m, mile, 1600m, 3000m, 3200m, 2 mile, 5000m, 4×400m, 4×800m, 10,000m 10 person relay, 10×200m relay, and so on…). There are some really speedy people there (former Olympians!) and also random old guys wearing no shoes and khaki shorts. Such a blast!

Easily the best indoor track facility I’ve been to. Granted, most of the indoor tracks I’ve been to are down in the south and newer, but this one is laid out great for spectators and coaches (me). My only problem, is that the walkways on the top are ridiculously narrow, which makes it hard for people to move around at times and causes log jams. The fact that the building is really old, but newly renovated, I can look past that. I was here for the New Balance Collegiate Invitational, which is THE largest indoor track meet of the year, with over 120 colleges. I thought the throwing events were run very well and smoothly, even with sometimes over 70 entries per event. There’s a ton of track and field history here, it’s basically the Mecca of indoor track. If those walls could talk, the stories they could tell.

The Armory really brings amazing track and field competition to NYC and is known for being one of the «fastest tracks in the world.» For that, you will pay a premium of $ 20 to watch elite, collegiate, high school, etc. athletes and potentially see records fall! To work out here, you can pay $ 15 a session of $ 300 a «season,» which runs late November until mid April, minus a few days that are reserved for other meets.
There are four glorious thursday nights in which anyone can pay $ 15 and enter one, some, or all of the three races that are held at New York Road Runner’s Thursday Night at the Races. Or you can come watch anyone from college runners getting in a fast time to a 40-​year old running a 7 minute mile in a cotton v-​neck, cargo shorts, and converse. It’s like a carnival-everyone’s welcome.