Eugene Marathon (Inaugural)

I arrived Saturday afternoon in time to pick up my packet and attend the Olympic Athletes' presentation at the expo. Ms. Runyan was there, as was Kenny Moore (Olympian and author of the above book), and also Bill Dellinger (winner of the 1964 5000k Olympic Bronze) was there. This was exciting for me because my father ran against him in the mile in high school. They were from the same district and finshed 1 & 2 at that meet.

I then wandered around and found Pre's rock, and stopped to take a picture or two and pay homage. Then I went to Hayward field, the site of 3 Olympic trials and numerous, famous, record-setting races. There happened to be a high-school track meet going on (The XO Invitational), so I went in and watched for a while. Though there was little crowd, I could see how a packed stadium would be quite exciting there. The town and University district itself is VERY cute. Lots of cute little cottages nestled in hills and overgrown with trees and flowering bushes of every sort. The dogwoods and azalias were in fierce bloom all over. It is the perfect time to have a marathon in Eugene.

The course is advertised as flat, but the front end has a couple 50-ft hills. They ramble you through the University and the cute houses for the first six miles, then it crosses the Williamette via foot bridge and rambles around Alton Baker Park and more cute neighborhoods until the half-marathoners finish as you pass by Autzen Stadium. The the course follows the Williamette downriver for 6 miles, crosses another foot bridge, and heads back to campus on the other side of the river. Most of this section is on treed trails with little interruption from housing and suburbia. Past Skinner Butte on the right and then cross another foot bridge for the last mile to finish at Autzen stadium. It is a surprisingly fast course. I was cruising along doing 8:00s when I was trying for 8:20s. The miles just swept by (early on, of course). Really a beautiful run, and I may do it again.

Pre's Rock: This is the rock where Steve Prefontaine's car overturned and he died. Runners from all over come to deposit shoes, race numbers, medals, etc. I didn't leave my hat. I just took a picture of it there.

XO Invitational: High school track meet at Hayward field. I'm sitting in the old wooden grandstand, about 2/3 up and near the middle. I got to watch the 400 and 800 finals for the men and women.

Bowerman: This statue of Bill Bowerman stands at the NW corner of the track, 100 meters from the finish line. They call it the Bowerman turn.

West Grand Stand: This is the new grand stand.

East Grand Stand: This is the famous East grandstand. It's mostly wood, enclosed on 3 sides and, as you can see, sits very close to the track. A runner in lane 8 could easily high-five everyone in the front row of the grandstand. And the roof covers clear out into lane 6. Imagine this full of 5000 screaming fans echoing all the noise directly down onto the track.