This past weekend marked my first and only visit to the city of Eugene, Oregon a.k.a. "track town U.S.A." Erica had a meeting down that way so we decided to make a weekend out of it. Before going I contacted Where's Waldo race director and Western States 100 guru Craig Thornley. Since I am one of the 1,685 people entered in the lottery for this year's race I figured I could get some valuable information about the nature of the lottery, the race, and everything in between. I had a great time and really wish I could be down there today to witness AJW attempting a sub five minute mile on the Hayward Field track as part of a challenge/bet. I'll definitely head down again sometime soon though for some good trail running and good ultra running conversation.
Saturday Craig, Dan O., Larry and I headed up Spencer Butte and at the summit we could see the entire city and the snow-capped Sisters Mountains off in the distance. It was a beautiful run on a sunny November day with some good elevation change. Sunday Erica and I were planning on just hitting Pre's Trail before heading back to Portland. Craig contacted me just before and agreed to meet us down there. It was really nice to have a "tour guide" and we navigated the trails that Steve Prefontaine used to train on back in the 70's. We even climbed up to Pre's rock and stopped for a second to observe the site of his auto accident death.
Thanks for showing me the ropes Craig and great getting to know you guys better! I feel grateful to be representing the state of Oregon and would be absolutely ecstatic to be randomly picked in the Western States Lottery on December 5th. If not I may try to head down to help pace/volunteer/crew. After hearing about the awesome event it seems like a great place to be late June.
The summit of Spencer's Butte (top), Pre's rock (bottom)
Eugene was probably a little quiet this past weekend due to the fact that the huge college football town's team was in Arizona narrowly escaping a loss in overtime. Go Ducks! (uh oh...I'm not turning into a Ducks fan already am I?)...and does anyone know how they got the name Ducks?
After the drop back week in Eugene I am ready to start building my way back up and exploring some more epic places in this great state of Oregon!
Congratulations to all the racers at JFK 50-miler this past weekend.
Quote of the week: "You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement." ---Steve Prefontaine
5 comments:
I like how you left it at, "Erica had a meeting down that way." Gotta protect that sugar-momma :-)
Fun running with you this weekend.
Oh, and the AJW mile was, well, interesting yesterday. Thought we were going to get kicked off the track but they indulged us.
HA! Yep gotta protect! I embarrass her enough in other ways...don't need to do it on the blog too! ;0)
Looked like fun down on the track on Monday! It would've been even better if you got some time toward the 10-year bet out of him losing but oh well...good times!
Yassine, sorry I missed you this weekend. I'm glad you enjoyed your weekend in Eugene. Hopefully, I can hook up with you for your second tour of Eugene.
See you on the trails.
Matt Lonergan
Matt!...would've loved to run w/ you but heard you were out on like a 25-miler! I hear you're rarin' to go for Bandera?!! I think you'll do really well there... Keep in touch...I'll let you know when I'm coming back down to Eugene.
Good Luck with the lottery.
Yes, I'm still taking lots of photographs.
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