Bob Mackin

A discus props open the side door of the old ICBC claims centre on West Broadway. Some things have changed since the Crown corporation moved out.

More than a dozen sleek Thunderbirds are inside. Some are parked, some are moving. None of them are dented, scratched or crunched Fords. They're all Vancouver Thunderbirds track and field athletes and this is their makeshift fall and winter nest. It's the best place they could find to train during this chilly and soggy time of year because Vancouver has no indoor track and field centre.

A ceiling heater blasts a comfortable stream of warm air at the starting blocks below. The 60-metre track on the concrete floor is made from the underlay padding salvaged from Eric Hamber secondary's old artificial turf field.

Sets of hurdles, borrowed from St. George's school, and large high jumping and pole-vaulting cushions flank the track. Tables for physiotherapeutic and chiropractic adjustment stand outside the offices once occupied by insurance claims adjusters. There are washrooms, but no showers.

During spring and summer, Vancouver's elite athletes must travel to Richmond's Minoru Oval or Burnaby's Swangard Stadium, the nearest 400-metre competitive tracks. In fall and winter, improvisation is the name of the game.

Thunderbirds head coach Laurier Primeau often explains why his athletes shouldn't be running, jumping or throwing outdoors in a city where golfing, sailing and snowboarding is possible on the same day in the dead of winter.

"It's really an injury factor," he says. "The warmer we can stay, the more limber we can stay, and the less likely we are to get hurt. That's a huge factor."

The nomadic Thunderbirds count Celtic Shipyards and Bridgepoint Market (now River Rock casino) as former homes. London Drugs is the current landlord, but the retail chain wants to tear down the ICBC building and erect a store and condo complex. City council's nod is expected before spring.

"We're always a bit wary of where we might be next season," says Primeau, a St. George's teacher and former national team 400-metre hurdler. "If this is gone, what do we do? It's certainly a tough one to top."

A dedicated indoor facility with a 200-metre track, similar to ones in Edmonton and Toronto, would be ideal.

"For us, right now, the fact that there's not even an outdoor facility in this city is problematic," Primeau admits.

Primeau and Thunderbirds' coach Graeme Fell, a 2004 B.C. Sports Hall of Famer and former national team steeplechaser, are among those lobbying Vancouver's parks board to include track and field in the capital budget to be considered by voters next fall.

An outdoor track would cost a million dollars or more, but it's an investment that's needed in a city suffering a dearth of sports facilities, says parks board commissioner Suzanne Anton. Running tracks are popular with all ages and skill levels.

"For track people, when they go out to practice it can be swarming with community members," Anton says. "It is an issue, but a good issue to have which means the facility is really well used. When people think about track, they should not just think about track and field athletes."