Marathon #23: Eugene Oregon, 2008

The Eugene marathon is one of my bottom feeders, i.e., one of my least favorite marathons, which is why it is taking me so long to write about it. 2008 was my year of living with plantar fasciitis as well. Most, if not all distance runners encounter PF at least once during their running lives, I know this from selling running shoes at Luke's Locker. Every single day I had at least one customer afflicted with it, looking for a cure. If I knew the cure I would be very very rich. But I digress. The PF impeded me from doing Napa in March, then I waited too long to register for Bayshore in Michigan before it filled up, so I looked into Eugene in May as an alternative. My foot allowed me to train well enough, so I was good to go. Toby decided to run the half.

I can blame a lot of my disappointment on expectations. We would be running in the footsteps of legends, such as Prefontaine himself. I imagined narrow roads or dirt trails lined with evergreens and ferns, heavily shaded and peaceful. I imagined morning fog or mist. The race map indicated that at least half of the course would run along the Willamette river, which I held high expectations for as well.

Locked out

This marathon was pretty new. I think it was their second year. We would be starting outside of famous Hayward field, but not allowed inside, which has changed since then, in fact now this is the location of the finish line as well. Our finish line was in the parking lot of the Autzen stadium. The course zig zagged about these two buildings along with the river stretch.

Although Eugene was fun to visit, I was taken aback by the lack of scenery. Eugene is your typical run down little college town. Also, standing at the start, I felt like I was attending some local 10K race, and that we were the only two that had traveled from out of town. I used to tell people that it felt like I was running a Thruston race, which means nothing to most people now. (Thruston used to put on very low cost no frills local races here in Dallas).

I couldn't complain about the weather, 40 degrees and dry. What little cloud cover we had (no mist or fog) was long gone about an hour into it, so we had full sunshine for the majority of the race. Not bad, but not what I expected, and too, the roads were largely residential with little to shade. The park areas were wide open with not much shade either. I remember feeling beat down mentally about halfway through the race. We were on this little black asphalt bike path going nowhere really, just in a large circle out in this field and I thought to myself to just hold on because we would hit the river at mile 14 and it would be great. Well the river route was along yet another boring bike path, and this one was concrete. It was pure torture for my foot! There was a lot of fanfare on this part of the course, which helped, and a man was playing the bagpipes at the river turnaround (mile 20). Luckily, the bike path on the other side of the river was asphalt, and did have more trees for shade, as it was more residential. Still, those final miles involved dodging people walking their dogs, no fan fare, and was really quiet and boring until the end, where we crossed a bridge into the stadium parking lot.

I ran a 3:52, which I was happy with. I do have a disturbing memory though, that preventing me from enjoying the finish line food or festivities. There was a narrow passage way to get from one point to another and this girl decided this was where she would stand and projectile vomit. That did it for me. We were out of there!

An idea of scenery on roads

Onward to finish line

Eugene was my only marathon in 2008, due to my PF. I spent a lot of time that year with my foot in an ice bucket! I am glad I ran Eugene though. It taught me not to build up high expectations for a race, even if the race reads well. It also taught me how to mentally fight to get out of "the ugly place" in my head and focus on moving forward.

Here are some pictures from the coast! We drove there after the race and yes, it was beautiful!