Our trip to Eugene Oregon was everything we thought it would be and more.  We arrived very late Thursday Sept 27th.  The next morning we met up with Joe Henderson at his house.  Joe was my editor of Runner's World magazine from 1970 to 1977.  Before that he started writing for me when I called the magazine Distance Running News.  After 1977 he was our West Coast Editor and we published articles in every issue.  Don't know why, but we had not hang out much for 35 years.  We spent most of Friday with Joe and had lunch with his wife Barbara.  They really work well together.

Joe and Barbara at their house.  We talked about so many things and like always Joe has so much to say.  We captured it all for our movie.

There is so much history between Joe and I.  There were only a few marathons when we first started working together.  The Boston Marathon had less than 1000 runners.  Things have changed....

Joe and I looking at Pre's Trail map after lunch.

After lunch we went over to the Pre trail.  Steve Prefontaine was a world class runner in the '70s.  There has been a least two major movies made about his life.  On May 30, 1975 he crashed his car and was killed.  He died way too young.  There were so much more he wanted to do.  But his legend lives on.  Joe currently has a calf problem but we walked some of the trail dedicated to Pre.

I got so inspired that I just had to run on Pre's trail.  Even through I would be racing on Sunday I just couldn't hold myself back.  I am sure I was running sub 6:45 pace.

Then we visited Pre's Rock where he crashed his car.  Chills ran up and down my spine just being there.  Even after 37 years runners come here and leave race numbers, shoes and other things.  As we were packing up everything to leave I saw a woman in her garden near by.  I asked her if she was living there the night of the crash.  She was living there and in fact her husband was the first on the scene.  She called 911.   She shared some information with us that we had not heard before...

Thanks Joe for spending most of Friday with us.  It was a total pleasure...

Race director Ken Vendley and the Oregon Track Club  Masters put on a good race.  The Ten Miler held Sunday September 30 went off perfectly.  The course ran along the river and was mostly flat.  The weather was perfect and there was no wind.

There were 152 finishers.  I like the big races but I love these smaller races too.  Chris Yates (no 215) went out strong and finished first in 52:41.  Lots of runners told me that they ran good times on this course.  (If you are looking for a fast 10 mile race, put this one of your calendar.)

We had dinner with second place finisher and top Master runner Everett Whiteside on Friday night along with race director Ken Vendley.    Everett finished in 54:25.  We could tell he was ready to run well Sunday.

I tired to keep Trisha Kluge (a Ujena Fit Club member) in sight during the race.  We ran the first two miles together and at one point she pulled ahead 50 yards.  I closed the gap a little but she just keep pushing.  She finished in 69:05.  Thanks Trisha for helping to pull me along.

Just about 20 yards from the finish.  I placed 38th overall...first 60 plus.  I ran this race a little different than normally.  I liked to push it the first three miles but today I backed off a bit.  My legs were not totally fresh and I thought this was the right approach.  I hit the first mile in 6:39 and the second in 6:51.  At half way I was at 34:24.  I knew that I was going under 70 minutes which was my goal and maybe even 69.  But I slowed the last couple of miles.  My worse mile was 7:05.  I finished with 69:19.  I was happy with the time but I hope I can run this pace for the San Jose Half Marathon this Sunday. 

At the finish line was Joe Henderson, the Eugene Marathon director Richard Maher and Olympian Bridget Franek (steeplechase).  I really enjoyed talking with them.  It was great that they came out.

There are so many people in Eugene who love running and racing as much as I.  Always an honor when I am asked for an autograph.

Everything worked out so well in Eugene.  I am now 1:27 in total ahead of pace.  I have 13 races to go and I am really feeling that I can finish my 50 race challenge at under 7 minute/mile pace.  Thanks everyone for making our film crew feel so welcome.  photos by Catherine Cross