Don Fields says it was a perfect day for sprinting in Tampa, Florida — 90 degrees, no problems with his left Achilles’ tendon or right hamstring. No wind either. As Fields recalls it, his hand-timed 10.4 for 100 meters at the BAYTAF meet on May 27 was a long time coming. And perfectly timed for a masters athlete. He turned 40 just last September. But his shocking mark — a potential American record — raised eyebrows as well, including on this blog, which headlined his feat “Too good to be true?” Fields insists it was all too true.

“I know everybody is wondering who I am,” said Fields, who took my phone call this afternoon as he was wrapping up a gym workout near his home in Orlando. “I’m not the Willie Gault or Sam Graddy that everybody knows.”
In our phone chat, Fields was more than willing to confront the doubts and suspicions that attended revelation of his BAYTAF mark — which first gained wide attention when he submitted a time of 10.38 to Dave Clingan for inclusion in his USATF masters rankings.
He began by tracing the interrupted journey of his track career. He says he began running track at age 9 or 10 in summer and AAU track meets in Orlando. As a ninth-grader, he ran 10.2 for 100 yards, he says, and 24.0 for 220. In his senior year, he said he clocked 9.5 for 100 yards. And he had a best of 10.3 (electronic) for 100 meters at Florida A&M University — also the alma mater of sprint legend Bob Hayes and Munich Olympian Rey Robinson.
Fields said he had hopes of competing in the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Trials but decided not to handicap his career preparation. So he put competition on the back burner and instead earned a bachelor of science degree in construction engineering. Today he’s deputy chief of construction plans examiners in Orange County, Florida.
Fields says he’s kept in training over the years, but suffered some injuries along the way — including a serious hamstring pull in 2003 and an Achilles’ injury (while pulling a weight sled) that grew out of compensating for his bad hammy. He said he had planned to compete at last year’s Decatur masters nationals but that his doctor forbade him from going after he aggravated an injury in March 2004. “(My) doctor said the Achilles’ was so swollen it was in danger of popping,” Fields said.
But with rest and treatment, he was ready to go this year.
He said that his 11.33 in mid-April at Savanna, Georgia, was not a true indication of his speed. He said it was 45 degrees that day.
In weather twice as hot, so was he. At 5 feet 8 (and 175 pounds), the former Rattler from FAMU rattled some potential rivals.
“To everybody else, I’m the new kid on the block,” Fields told me. “I’m a man of God, and he has blessed me.”
Of that May 27 breakthough, he said simply: “It was a perfect day for me.”
Fields said he called USATF headquarters in Indianapolis to see if his 10.4 hand-time would qualify for an American record in the M40 age group. (The listed record is 10.87 by Eddie Hart, but Willie Gault has bettered that time twice this season.) He said USATF said hand-times were acceptable (as suggested on the record application). But I’m not sure the mark will be submitted, since I doubt a wind gauge was used. Also, meet organizers never did get back to me on whether they submitted a record application.
Married but with no children, Fields says he hopes to prove his 10.4 was no fluke by entering the 100 at the Hawaii masters nationals in early August. (He likely won’t run 200, since the turn is hard on his left Achilles, he says.)
With another perfect day, what can Fields run the 1 in?
He says “10.5 electronic, easy.”
Stay tuned.