Tim Weaver, Kansas Relays meet director, said there would be two types of people this weekend: those who were at the Gold Zone and those who would say they were at the Gold Zone.

I feel like I should have a new mug shot taken for this column, to prove that I’m one of the ones who was at the Gold Zone.

Believe me, the sunburn is awful.

For those of you who can only say you were at the Gold Zone, it was a three-hour window on Saturday in which the Athletics Department crammed every imaginable final or invitational event together. The new event’s claim to fame was that 39 Olympic athletes were supposed to compete. While several, including Stacy Dragila, backed out at the last minute, crowd favorites Maurice Greene, Marion Jones and Leo Bookman all showed.

They drew an announced crowd of 24,200, Weaver and Athletics Director Lew Perkins said. They said it was the second-largest crowd in the 78-year history of the Relays.

In my estimation, that count probably included every member of the media — and there were quite a few — as well as any number of volunteers and Relays committee members.

Whether the number was inflated doesn’t really matter. The Relays certainly garnered more attention than they have in recent years.

Congressman Jim Ryun, KU alumnus and holder of several track records was on-hand for what he estimated was his 40th Kansas Relays. Ryun competed from 1963-72, he said, and continued to attend through the meet’s heyday, when the Relays were highlighted by Cold War battles between the United States and the Soviet Union.

He gushed over the intensity of the crowd and the great hanges that have come to the event. But even Ryun side-stepped the issue of whether this was truly the second-largest crowd in Kansas Relays history.

“It was just a great crowd,” Ryun said. “It was a tremendous turnout, and I think it represented a lot of hard work and a growing interest.”

Not exactly a clear answer as to whether this crowd was as big as it was during his day.

But regardless of the actual numbers, everyone seemed happy with how the event went and seemed ready to commit to the same format next year.

Perhaps most telling as to whether the Gold Zone will return was what Perkins said at the meet. Notorious for bolstering the bottom line, Perkins was reported as having scraped together $100,000 to pay the elite athletes to compete. When he was asked whether the Kansas Relays were worth the investment, his answer was short and telling.

“Without a doubt,” Perkins said.

Regardless of whether the Relays have regained the popularity they once had, the Gold Zone has at least given the Kansas Relays an opportunity to endure for many more years. And as long as Weaver, who said one person had referred to him as the Don King of track and field, is in charge, there will be no shortage of new ideas and changes.

“A woman came up and leaned over my shoulder and said, ‘Look up into the stands. Would you ever believe this is a track meet?’” Weaver said. “This is year one of the Gold Zone. With more people getting on board, I’m already planning how to blow this year out of the water.”

I only hope my face can make it through it.