Fall Creek State Park

Session Saturday was again upon us and today we decided to combine one of the training sessions with a visit to another of Oregon’s scenic parks. The ‘Fall Creek Run-Around’ race started at one end of the Fall Creek Reservoir and ran to the other end. That was for us 15km participants. For the lucky souls doing the 20miler, one whole lap of the reservoir was to be completed.

We had decided that I would run in the 15km as a training run - so a hard but not flat out effort, whilst Chris would bring the bike and have a bit of a bike-around. The state park was very scenic and very quiet. The route followed the road around the lake and it was a bit of shame that there were high trees at either side of the road which prevented you from getting a good view of the reservoir whilst you were running. On closer inspection following the race, it was interesting to see that despite it seeming to have rained a lot of the time that we have been here, the reservoir was very very low. Apparently much lower than it has been at this time of year previously.

Anyway, back to the race, it was pretty enjoyable despite being quite undulating with a one mile of pure uphill right at the end. It wasn’t a really big race so I ran most of it alone with only some random cyclist with a camera who kept speeding past me, taking a photo and then speeding off again, for company. It turned out to be quite a bit longer that 15km but we weren’t really that bothered it wasn’t accurate as it was a good workout anyway and a fun morning. I finished 2nd overall so came home with a jumper and a medal - I would have been pretty happy except I am already going to have to wear multiple layers on the flight home to avoid paying the heavy luggage fee!

I had quite a restful afternoon recuperating whilst Chris spent a long time making a video of the race. Then it was off to the track for another reps session. As Saturday evenings are when everybody goes out and does fun things we felt obliged to join in the excitement so headed to Wal-mart for our weekly grocery shop and then sat watching TV in our apartment until about 9:30pm…bedtime…

Below is the video that Chrissy spent half the afternoon editing. I personally like the camerawork after mile 5. Hope you enjoy it ;)

Stress Tests and the Crazies

We had plans to go to some of the state parks in the vicinity of Portland this morning, however the rubbish weather put those plans to rest. Instead we hit a local shopping mall. Lui was looking for some shoes and we just fancied a general browse before heading to the cinema to watch a new horror film - the Crazies.

As we were wandering around the mall we stumbled across a stall for ‘free stress tests’! Obviously there was more to this than a free stress test and the game was given away by the tower of ‘Dianetics’ books by author L. Ron Hubbard - a science fiction writer who started the cult of Scientology in the 1950’s. Lui didn’t want to pass up an opportunity like this so immediately gave it a go. They got him to hold onto a little contraption called an ‘E-meter’, which scientologists claim measures stress, and then asked him a series of questions about stressful periods of his life. Lui enjoyed the experience but was annoyed that he didn’t ask them any probing questions about their beliefs. A missed opportunity perhaps.

Fully converted to Scientology Lui rejoined us and we went to the cinema to watch the newly released Crazies. Set in Iowa the film follows events in a remote farming town over the course of three days as things get drastically worse for its crazy inhabitants. We all enjoyed it. The mark of a good horror movie is whether any of the characters did anything stupid in it. The crazies wasn’t too bad for that apart from a few times the lead characters saying to one-another ‘wait here’. Why would you separate from each other when there are all these crazy things going on! No rational person would do that!! Suitably scared we got ourselves some lunch in the mall and a milkshake in a 50’s style diner before dropping Lui off at his hotel and heading back to Eugene. A fun few days in Portland.

The Raging Bull

The day started early for Chris and myself as we headed out first thing to explore Forest Park in Portland - America’s largest in-city park. It was reported to have over 70 miles of hiking trails so we were looking forward to an enjoyable early morning run before Lui surfaced. We got lucky with the weather, it wasn’t raining for a change, but we were in for an unwelcome surprise with the trails. They were long and pretty, but very hilly and after a tough few days training I did wonder if it would be quicker to walk up some of them. After an hour of shuffling/waddling/crawling we decided enough was enough and made our way back to our airport motel where Lui was waiting.


Forest Park

Yesterday, despite visiting Nike Town, we hadn’t quite satisfied our need for Nike so as a matter of priority we first went to the Nike Factory Outlet which was near where we were staying. My quest to find a snazzy racing singlet to make me run faster is still ongoing and we were again out of luck here, despite almost hitting gold with a bright orange top which we discovered (fortunately prior to purchasing) it was actually a tennis top. It was fortunate that we went though as despite not finding the vest, we suddenly realised that we actually urgently needed other stuff…in this case a new watch for me and a mini basketball for Lui.

With our wallets feeling lighter we left the shop quickly before we ended up buying other stuff we desperately needed like a pair of shin pads or tennis skirt. The weather was still nice-ish so we headed down to Portland’s Japanese Garden which is situated just West of Downtown Portland. Although the garden’s weren’t particularly big, they were pretty and I enjoyed being chief photographer - a rare event due to my amazing ability to take a terrible photo. Below are some of my best attempts!


Pretty tower thingy in the Japanese garden


My first arty shot!


Chris totally unaware i snapped him!

Finally in the evening we made our long awaited trip to Duke’s Country Bar and Grill, a local establishment found on the internet and an extremely exciting prospect for boys because of the presence of a mechanical bull. It turned out to be a great place and despite being three hours (!) too early to ride on the bull, we entertained ourselves with a few games of pool, dinner, and a free line dancing lesson (Maybe I’ll stick to photography after all). At 9pm, it was the main event. At the front of the queue to ride the bull were Lui and Chris. Chris went first and made a reasonable attempt at staying on the bull, but Lui stole the show. Despite looking like a cross between a raggy doll and a sack of potatoes, Lui stayed on the bucking bull absolutely ages before finally being dumped on the landing mat. To make it even more entertaining he had a massive grin on his face the whole time!


Lui owning the bull-ride

Portland

Today we went to Portland to meet Lui, a friend of ours from Nottingham. He had been at a conference in San Diego and then had flown to Portland University where he had had a meeting with some people he is collaborating with. We decided to meet up in Portland for a couple of days before Lui flies back on Saturday.

In the morning Andrea did another track session. In yesterdays scheduled session Andrea had felt bad and so we pulled her out after a couple of reps. With this time of year being pretty important for transferring base fitness to more specific racing fitness we thought it would be a good idea to give the session another go. Thankfully it went a lot better. However, doing the session meant we were a bit late for meeting Lui and so we had to rush to get our stuff together before hitting the road for Portland.

We then picked Lui up from his hotel on Portland campus and dropped off all of our stuff at where we would be staying for the next couple of nights. We then drove into downtown Portland where we visited the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It was really interactive and a lot of fun. We later found out from the Lonely Planet that it was highly recommended for kids! Maybe that was why we liked it so much. We then went on a walk around the shopping district in search of the worlds largest independent bookstore - Powell’s. Of course we stopped at the Nike store on the way - after all Portland is the home of Nike!! We eventually found the bookstore and spent some time looking around and then a lot more time looking for each other! It really was that massive!


Lui playing with the water rockets


Andrea and Lui playing with boats


Me as a South Park character

In the evening we found a Hawaiian restaurant near to the hotel for dinner. The food was great and the staff really friendly. The only thing that spoilt it for me was that even though my food tasted great it was insanely hot! I ended up drinking 3 glasses of water with my meal and was still suffering. I think tomorrow we’ll find a proper American diner for Lui - he has to have a proper greasy American burger before he leaves doesn’t he!! Burgers aren’t going to be as hot as well surely?

Two for the Price of One

The last two days have been fairly uninteresting, so rather than risk my fingers in the thick treacle covering the keyboard, for one day only you will be treated to two blogs in one. I suppose it’s not really a treat, as there is still not very much to say, but maybe it is. A day off from Racing Around the World. Haha don’t get used to it!

We have had a couple of low key days. After our adventures last week we have kind of run ourselves into a bit of stop, not going outside Eugene, not even going in search of new kinds of weird and wonderful wildlife. No particular reason. Perhaps the prospect of our trip to Portland tomorrow for a couple of nights has meant we wanted to save a little money, or maybe we just wanted a break from seeing stuff.

The time has been spent…can you guess? Yep training. Lots and lots of it as per usual. Combine that with getting either very cold or drenched every time you step out of the door to train, and hence long periods of time sat directly in front of the heater in the apartment, and suddenly you find time passing you by.

One thing we have done which was quite interesting was go to the cinema to see ‘Crude’, a documentary about an ongoing lawsuit between the indigenous people of Ecuador against Chevron -Texaco for the mess left by the company and the resultant effect on the health of the people living in those areas. It was quite interesting to see how the lawyers on both side went about proving their respective points, and the case rumbles on. It wasn’t my usual animated film (my favourite) but was pretty thought provoking all the same. The fact that we got in for $4 total for two of us made it all the better. Tuesdays is buy two for the price of one, and may mean our Tuesday evening for the rest of the trip are taken care of!

Below are a couple of videos you may be interested in. The first is a KiwiRun promotional video but together by the KiwiRun team. We think it’s great but we were there afterall.




The second video is of my 10000m. I think the camera is primarily focusing on the men, but I was in the race so you may see me. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to moderate the video and check if I am actually in it. If you do get to watch it let me know! Enjoy!!

Buddy's Diner

We had been deliberating all week where we would go for our Sunday lunch this week. We wanted to go somewhere different to back home, somewhere typically American if possible. In the end, we stumbled across Buddy’s Diner, a 50’s styled diner serving your typical burgers, breakfasts, omelettes and steaks. We went for lunch after we had done our long runs/cycles in the morning and had to fight past all the other guests to find ourselves a table (it was a bit of a free-for-all). We both ordered milkshakes and burgers - what else!. Both of the burgers were a little disappointing, but the milkshakes were awesome, definitely some of the best we have had. I went for a standard chocolate option while Andrea went all adventurous (not like her at all) and went for peanut butter! Both were amazing and despite the awful sounding combination, Andrea’s was definitely the better of the two. We needn’t have bothered ordering food as the milkshakes were huge. In the end neither of us finished our meals but we both made a point of finishing the milkshakes. See we are proper athletes!!


Andrea posing with both our milkshakes - she wasn't being greedy - promise!!

We then headed straight to the Cascadia state park around 50miles away from Eugene. There are so many beautiful parks around Oregon, we are trying to see as many as possible. Cascadia was by no means an exception to that rule. The park was really quiet as we only saw two other people on our walk. We followed the trail which took us up to the Soda (Water) Falls. It was a fantastic forest with lots of rock outcrops and fallen trees. It would have been great for bouldering or if I was a bit younger - hide and seek.


Andrea enjoying the forest


Me looking for inspiration from above

In the evening we watched American Wedding (American Pie 3), both of us were bored after about 30minutes of the brain dead humour. It was then that I decided that it was about time Andrea watched all of the (nearly) 200 episodes of South Park starting tonight. We managed one episode before falling asleep. Maybe we will get through two tomorrow…

Cinnamon Roll Saturday

Okay, Okay so it’s not perfect alliteration and neither does it rhyme. But that’s what the University of Oregon running club call it. It basically means that today is the day the running club meeting for a run which is then followed by cinnamon rolls and other tasty treats round at Tom, the club coach’s house.

I had my own session to do this morning but that didn’t stop us from partaking in the festivities, so after my workout and a quick shower back home we dashed round, luckily arriving before everything was eaten. We had a good couple of hours getting to know a few of the athletes, who were also able to advise us on the best eateries in the area - our list of fast food restaurants to visit before we leave is getting longer by the day.

It was also interesting to chat about some of the differences between UK and US university sports clubs and we learnt that there are actually two different National university running championships….the NCAA’s (for the athletes on ‘the team’) and then the NIRCA’s (for athletes belonging to university running clubs). The NIRCA’s sound much more like the BUSA’s we have in the UK where every and any student can compete whereas the NCAA’s are more elite. I wasn’t so sure I liked the idea of having such a divide between the elite and not so elite athletes - we all experience the same pain after all! However, I suppose that having the NIRCA’s may encourage more athletes to compete in races as it takes away the pressure and fear of racing all the serious super speedy people. Also at Oregon, whilst the team and the running club do not train or compete together it was still good hear that they do seem to all know each other and socialise together….so it’s not as though their paths never cross.

The afternoon was spent at the track (in an attempt to become super speedy myself) and then plotting which restaurant would have the pleasure of feeding two hungry post long Sunday run/cycle athletes tomorrow. I also wrote a pleading email to a meet organiser asking to be let into a 1500m(!) race. Must be something in those cinnamon rolls….

Silver Falls State Park

After our successful trip to Coos Bay on Wednesday we wanted to visit some more of the state parks around Oregon. We planned a trip up the interstate to the Silver Falls State Park around 80miles away where we would walk/hike part of the 10 falls trail at the silver falls state park.

Running low on petrol we stopped just before we left Eugene to fill up. For some reason Oregon has a state law that prohibits people filling up their own cars, maybe because there has been a history of people driving off without paying. As a result you have to wait for an attendant to fill your car up and in a busy time, like it was today, it took ages. Added to that we were waiting for a pump that some old people, who considered a trip to the petrol station as a day out, were using. Annoyed and slightly stressed by our 30 minutes at the petrol station we headed north.

We eventually got to the state park which was awesome. The Silver Falls State Park is famous for its redwood forest and many waterfalls. We took a walk along one of the well marked tracks which weaved over rivers and under waterfalls. It was great. Hopefully all the state parks are like this.


South Falls - one of 10 natural waterfalls in the park - which stands around 60m high.


Our trail

DuckTales Part 2

Making the most of the University sport scene over here we got our Ducks jersey’s on and headed down to MacArthur court to see the basketball for the 2nd time in the last few weeks. This time the men’s team were facing Stanford, and we knew straight away that there was considerably more interest in this game than there had been for the women’s due to the fact that campus was heaving. So much so that we missed the start of the game whilst hunting for a car parking space.

Whilst there were still a few empty seats on the courtside, unlike previously the whole upper tier was open and almost filled and the atmosphere was even better than last time. Despite missing the first six minutes of the game the two teams were pretty close when we found our seats, and the game was fast. Much faster than the women’s and with a bit of slam dunking to boot.

I didn’t have to wait too long before I saw what I’d really come for though. Eyes searching the crowd, whilst some people played basketball, I eventually managed to pick out the Duck. He was watching the game intently with some of the fans and appeared to be really enjoying himself. Meanwhile Oregon had begun to falter in the game and Stanford were starting to pull ahead quickly. We began to wonder if it was all over as Oregon began to fall apart quite dramatically. However a well timed time out and the team seemed to get it together to, still lose the match, however only by a few points rather than the landslide that could have been with ten minutes of the game remaining.

My highlight has got to be halftime though. The cheerleaders were entertaining the crowd with some back flips and other gymnastic type stuff, and the Duck started to get involved. The mascot’s attempt at a back flip was simply hilarious and actually not half bad…for a large fat cuddly duck anyway!

Athletics Weekly

Check out page 24 of this weeks athletics weekly for Andrea's first ever article in print. Enjoy!!

Athletics Weekly

Coos Bay

Today we went on a day trip out of Eugene and Springfield to the Southern Oregon coastline to a little town called Coos Bay. In the world of distance running Coos Bay is pretty famous as it is where the legendary American distance runner, Steve Prefontaine, was born and began racing in his early years. Prefontaine was a middle and long distance runner during the early 70’s and in his short career broke 14 American distance records before tragically dying in a car accident at the age of 24. During his running career Prefontaine gained national recognition for his aggressive front running style, never happy to sit in second place he would always force himself on the lead and make sure that everyone in the field had to run hard to beat him. He was quite a character, brash and popular amongst his peers. There are photos of Pre during his time at the University of Oregon where the whole stadium was packed with many people wearing “Go Pre” T-Shirts - while his rivals fans wore "Stop Pre" T-Shirts! We certainly don’t get enthusiastic fans like that at track meets nowadays! Pre’s legacy now is as much about his quotes as it is about his running style. The one which me and Andrea like the most is

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift

We find it very inspiring and something which we both try to live our lives by. Not just in sport but in the many other aspects of our lives. There are many memorials all over Oregon dedicated to Steve, with the majority of them in Coos Bay. Not to forget mentioning the Prefontaine Classic, named after Steve, which becomes a part of the inaugural diamond league this year. Today we wanted to see a few of the memorials as well as see some of the national parks surrounding Coos Bay which we had heard were very nice.

We were lucky as we got a great day for it. The weather has been a bit miserable for a few days but today it was around 17C and really sunny (almost shorts weather in fact). On the way to Coos Bay we stopped at ‘Eel Lake’ at the Willliam Tugman state park. We had our lunch and then took a walk down a track which winded through a beautiful redwood forest around the edge of the lake. It was very peaceful and was being enjoyed by fishermen and walkers alike. One of the most beautiful places we have seen so far in the US!


Eel Lake

It was then onto Coos Bay. We headed straight to some of the memorials and the art museum where they have a permanent exhibition dedicated to Steve. They had a lot of memorabilia from his running days as well as photographs and artwork by local and national artists who had been inspired by him. We then took a visit to the track where we stumbled across the high-school coach of the school that Steve had been to in his teens. It so happened that the coach had trained with Steve when he was younger and so he enthusiastically told us some stories before we headed back towards Eugene.


One of the many plaques dotted around Coos Bay


Steve Prefontaine memoribilia

On the way back we wanted to check out the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, which boasts the tallest sand dunes in North America. The park was right on the coast so we got our first views of the ocean since landing in the US. We took a short walk around the park which took us up one of the more tame sand dunes before driving three hours back to our apartment.


Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

Owls and eagles

If you take off the racoon we spotted whilst running over a week ago, we haven’t seen any interesting wildlife since we have been in the US. So today we decided to rectify the situation and go in search of some kind of unusual creatures to brag about in this blog.

We decided to go up towards Spencer Butte park - the scene of our tough hill climb a couple of weeks ago. We had only walked a few paces from the car before we made our first discovery…an American red kestrel! He was quite small, but seemed also quite tame. I wasn’t going to risk getting my eyes pecked out though so kept my distance. We walked a little further and strangely enough a couple of bald eagles were sitting on a branch dozing. They looked pretty mean. Further along the track we couldn’t believe our luck as there were a bunch of owls (in the middle of the day!) long eared, snowy, barn…all different varieties.

Ok ok so maybe you had already guessed, we didn’t by chance stumble randomly upon a whole load of these birds. Last week whilst at the visitor information centre, I noticed a leaflet for a local Raptor Centre, and we had decided to give it a try. All the birds that we saw were all rescue birds, birds that had been injured by cars, wires or windows for example and were not able to fly or hunt properly so had been placed in this sanctuary. The centre relies on donations and where possible they release the birds back into the wild where they have recovered sufficiently to fend for themselves. Last year they helped over 250 such Raptors.

In addition to the above we also saw Gold Eagles, crows, and falcons but Chris’s favourite spot was….yep you guessed it… a tiny lizard we randomly saw on the path on the way to one of the enclosures. Unfortunately it looked a bit dopey, possibly not a very healthy lizard. It was a strange sort of brown colour, very unlike any of the lizards we saw in Oz.

The Raptor centre was pretty good. It was a bit strange that one of the meals we saw being given to some of the birds were small Quails. It seemed a bit bizarre to save one bird to feed it a different bird. I guess these quails were bred specially for eating at the sanctuary, but it did pose quite an interesting question!


Bald Eagle


Sick little lizard

Ihop Monday

How could we come to America and not go out and have pancakes for breakfast at least once? We have been asking ourselves that question until today when we finally fulfilled a lifelong dream and went down to Ihop at around 9am after training. The pancake options were good; banana and strawberry, chocolate chip, original buttermilk and harvest grain options were all available amongst others. Me and Andrea went for the double blueberry and cheesecake choices instead - the others looked good, but hopefully there will be other opportunities. We weren’t disappointed as both tasted great, although as you have probably guessed, as we are in the land of the fatties, they were also pretty huge portions. Full and fulfilled we headed back to the apartment.


Mmmmmmm pancakes

In the afternoon, Andrea met up with one of the Oregon University running groups. We had been in contact with the coach of the group, Tom Heinonen, who recommended we go down and join in with them on the steady run his group was doing. Everyone was very welcoming and Andrea managed to explore some new routes around Eugene - this one was nicknamed the finger (because it’s shaped that way!) - while I went to the bike shop to get some gear for a newly flat tyre.

In the evening we went down to the coffee shop at borders where we met up with pro-coach Brad Hudson, who we had met previously when out and about in Eugene a couple of weeks previously. Being a geek I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity so found him on facebook and bombarded him with messages until he agreed to meet up! A slight misunderstanding meant that we were waiting for each other at other ends of Borders for around 20 minutes, but when we finally saw each other we ended up chatting for around three hours. Brad was really encouraging of the setup we currently have and gave us lots of good advice and things to think about and incorporate into Andrea’s future training program. We will probably end up incorporate some of the stuff he suggested straight away! At around 10:30pm we got back to the apartment, with our heads still buzzing. Both of us have felt a bit sleep-deprived lately and with so much stuff going round our heads I’m not sure that tonight will be any different…

A Scintillating Sunday

After the weekend’s excitement, today was a fairly quiet day. We were both pretty tired after the long drive back from Seattle after the race last night, and I felt like my legs may fall off at any moment so we didn’t feel up to anything very energetic.

We did a long run down at Pre’s trail (of course with obligatory famous runner spotting - we saw two other girls who raced in Seattle) after which we did grocery shopping and gave our little apartment a right good clean. Exciting stuff I tell you!

We have decided to go and watch ‘the Ducks’ in another basketball game this week, this time a men’s match. So to get into the swing of things we watched the NBA match on the tv whilst supping ’Root beer’. or should I say we had it on in the background whilst we did other stuff, hence I still have little clue what the rules are or how the scoring works. I am looking forward to seeing my favourite Duck mascot again this week at the game though.

At the moment we are thinking about staying in Eugene until mid-march. It is just so good for training, we like our apartment and this week I am also going to join in with the university running club for some training so hopefully we will get to know a few people too. We have a fairly busy week ahead planned so it was good to recuperate today and we are now back and raring to go again.

Husky Classic

Today was one of those days that doesn’t come round very often. Opportunities that are unlikely to arise more than once in a lifetime. For those that haven’t seen some of the latest blogs I’m talking about the Husky Classic indoor track and field meeting in Seattle, Washington. Arguably the biggest and best quality indoor meeting in the USA, and a far higher standard and depth than any races available to sub-elite athletes in the UK. So it was very disappointing when last Sunday Andrea had to pull out of training due to an Achilles injury. Tears ensued and we were both concerned about the severity of the injury. Fortunately it only required a couple of days rest before it felt recovered. Under normal circumstances we wouldn’t have risked Andrea to race if she wasn’t 100%, however as I mentioned previously opportunities like this do not arise very often. They are the sort of meetings that you want to be able to look back on at the end of your athletic career and be really pleased that you were a part of. We had been in two minds about what to do for a couple of days but as the weekend approached we both knew that Andrea would race.

So we arrived at the Dempsey Indoor facility on the University of Washington campus around 5 hours before Andrea was due to compete. We were both much more nervous than normal as the race was a lot more high profile and intense than anything we have done so far this winter. Our preparation hadn’t done much to calm the nerves either.

The field was strong, Andrea was about mid-pack on seed times so we expected a competitive race. The race started pretty steady - none of the athletes went with the quick initial pace of the rabbit - which meant that the race had turned from a time trial into a much more competitive affair. In the early stages Andrea was in a bit of trouble with all the shoving and barging about, but as the race progressed she made progress through the field until with around 3 laps remaining she sat in second place, in isolation and a fair way behind Jordan Hasay, one of the US’s biggest rising stars - she even has her own wikipedia page, click here! By this point Andrea was driving hard and managed to hold her position through to the line to finish in a big personal best of 9:17.82min (nearly 11 seconds off her previous best). It was a big relief to both of us that things had gone well. The race wasn’t as fast as we had expected but it probably played to our advantage as a fast early pace may have come as too much of a shock considering the week we had had.

I have embedded a video of the race - filmed by the enthusiastic guys at flotrack (Andrea is in the bright pink singlet). You can see how busy it was at the meeting and for the fastest sections of each event it was a fantastic atmosphere to be a part of. You will actually get a better view than I did (even though I was there). I was located on the straight near the start but could hardly see anything when the athletes were on the other side.



Hope you enjoy the video, it is a record of what was a fantastic experience for us and one that I’m sure we’ll never forget.

The Space Needle

Today was our only real opportunity to get into Seattle (in the daylight) and explore the city, so despite the rain we braved the buses and headed in. We decided to walk from downtown Seattle to the city’s viewing tower - called ‘The Space Needle’. This would be our third visit to such a tower in as many cities, however this one was the smallest so we were both a little pessimistic that it would be as good as the others we have done.

We were absolutely drenched when we arrived, however we were actually pleasantly surprised with the good views we got from the top of the needle. Chris particularly like high rise buildings and we were able to get a good view of those, as well as the harbour and the mountains in the background. We saw a bit of everything really. Despite not being so tall, the space needle had a walk way outside which you could go onto and walk right round the circumference of the needle. It was well enclosed with ‘fencing’ but still a little scary nonetheless, and had a fairly big impact on Chris’s photo taking ability!


View from the Space Needle

After a bit more of a stroll around downtown Seattle, and after purchasing some Rocky Road and Strawberry popcorn (highly recommended) we squelched our way back to dry out.

This evening was the first set of races at the Husky Classic, and when the 5000m was being run, which we both wanted to see. We were both amazed that there were seven 5000m races with over 20 people in them (at home you maybe would get one women’s and two men’s at most, all with smaller fields). The races were all pretty close and exciting to watch. It has made me feel a little nervous about my race tomorrow but hopefully it will be ok. Bring it on!

Seattle

First thing in the morning Andrea did a short tester session to see if the Achilles and calf would be fine for the race at the weekend. It involved a short tempo run and then a few repetitions on a school track nearby. We found an awesome place in South Eugene to do the session as Andrea was able to do a couple of loops on a European style trail and then immediately jump on a running track. Perfect!! It all went well and we are now both looking forward to Andrea’s race in Seattle on Saturday.

Soon after finishing we hit the road to Seattle. It is a five hour drive so we wanted to get going early so we could at least have some daylight when we got there. The journey was pretty uneventful as we were mainly driving through farmland - the interstates aren’t concerned with taking you the scenic way!

When we arrived in Seattle we found ourselves a cheap motel by the airport - to the south of the city. We got ourselves sorted and then Andrea did another short easy run. This meant that by the time we headed into downtown Seattle it was already dark.

Driving on the freeway and emerging over the hill the first image we saw of Seattle was amazing. The high-rises office blocks in the middle of all the low-rise apartments near the waters edge was spectacular. Unfortunately we couldn’t take photos because we were driving, but even if we had managed the camera makes every night-time image blurry. The traffic around Seattle was really busy and very disorientating, however we eventually managed to find a way down to the harbour and have a walk around there and up through a part of the city. Along the way we amused ourselves in an arcade where Andrea played her first game of air-hockey - needless to say that I won.

Tomorrow we are having a full day of sightseeing around Seattle (in the light) before heading to the Husky Classic in the evening to watch the first part of the meet. There are a few Brits there that we know, so it should be a fun evening.

Umming and Arrhing

Today was spent deliberating. Deliberating about many things, or shall I say deliberating about many things which are all really the same thing.

Having spent the last couple of days drinking half the water at the swimming pool next door, my Achilles has felt much better. However, with only four days until the race on Saturday, we had a bit of a decision to make as to whether or not it was recovered enough. There were many things going through our minds - was it completely recovered? Would it come back once I tried to run hard? Would racing this weekend mean I would have to take more time off and be detrimental to my preparation for more important races in April? If I didn’t race would it turn out to be fine and then I have wasted probably my one and only opportunity to do this particular race?

Ah decisions! Being one of the great decision makers of all time, I spent a lot of time thinking about all these things today. I did a couple of easy runs which both went well and I had no pain, and I was leaning towards thinking it would be fine. But I always say that, and I just couldn’t get the April races out of my head. Coach Chris tends to err on the side of caution so we had a bit of a dilemma on our hands, but towards the end of the day even he was thinking that racing was a definite possibility.

To cut a long story short we decided this evening, having seen that I had felt no adverse effects from the runs I had done, that we will go to Seattle with the intention of racing. Of course, we will take each day as it comes but hopefully it will be fine. We hope to do a mini reps session tomorrow as another tester and if it is ok, then I’d say the race is definitely back on. Fingers crossed!

The races will all be shown live online on the following link. If anyone is burning the candle at both ends or suffering from insomnia, my race will be between 12:30am and 1am on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Watch the Husky Classic 2010 HERE!!

How will we ever compete?

Monday was a really quiet day as Andrea had some Achilles pain so we wanted to rest up and make sure that we gave her the best possible chance of the injury passing quickly. It meant that we ended up lounging around the apartment and only ventured outside when Andrea went to the gym next door and when I went cycling. Exciting stuff. It did mean we were able to watch some a fair amount of rubbish American television, which seems to be mainly repeats. We did manage to watch a lot of the American Office though, which despite not being as good as the British version is still a great show.

Yesterday we took a tour around some of the University of Oregon sports facilities. They really are absurdly good and from what I have seen put almost every university in the UK (bar Loughborough) to shame. From indoor American Football pitches to the 54,000 seater Autzen stadium to the 10,000 seater MacArthur Basketball Court to the historic Hayward Athletics Field. It is simply fantastic facility after fantastic facility here. We walked around mouths dropped and totally in awe! When we asked some of the grounds people around the indoor football pitch they said that these sort of facilities were pretty normal for the large American division I institutions! From what we have seen they are very well used as well. Every time we have been onto the University Campus there have always been people training or competing. While having great facilities doesn’t mean you will have great athletes - just look at Kenyan and Ethiopian domination of endurance running events - it certainly does enable you to do so.

As I have mentioned previously college sports over here are treated very seriously. Many of the sports teams have professional college coaches who organise practices and racing schedules for their top guys and girls. This systems helps make it a smooth transition for the kids that are used to training at home with a local club to training with a team at college. As most of you will know it is massively different to how things work in the UK. At most universities there is little structure within the majority of university sports clubs. This is mainly because they are run by students, who move on every few years, providing little continuation and no incentive to set up a program which will gain results a few years down the line. It is tough for any sports club to recruit and retain first-years who have been used to a more professional environment at home. With the large proportions of kids going to university now, not having a structured university sports system will do little to cultivate a set of world beating athletes. Instead of providing a platform for success within universities the governing bodies in the UK focus their limited funds on a select few ‘elites’ with money from the lottery. What is needed are structures and platforms that motivate all levels of sporting ability - from your beginners to your Olympians. UK Sport doesn’t have the resources and power to do implement what would be needed to have such a broad college system. However just focusing on the beginners and Olympians misses out a huge section in the middle and is where we in the UK generally goes wrong and is where in the US they generally get it right.


The indoor (American) Football pitch

Superbowl Sunday

Before this week, I had absolutely no idea what the super bowl was. Infact I didn’t even know it was anything to do with American Football. I would have guessed it was something to do with bowling or the like and didn’t realise it was one of the biggest sporting events in the US all year.

To further our experience of the USA we decided to watch the game. This would be pretty easy as it was luckily being shown on one the channels which we can access at our flat. It also handily followed the highlights from the Boston Indoor Athletics meeting so we would be suitably warmed up ready. In order to do it properly we bought the mandatory Root Beer and crisps in and then we were ready.

About half an hour from the start we realised our error that, unless the superbowl was actually a college basketball game, we didn’t have the channel we thought we had. By chance however, I had joined the gym next door on a week’s temporary membership deal (aggravated Achilles=no running), which by chance had the channel, and a few smiles at the reception meant that we could both go in for free and see it in the lounge area which had a wide screen tv and really comfy sofa’s.

So comfy that within minutes I was sound asleep. I didn’t miss any crucial points of the game (I don’t think) but it was a little unfortunate that I missed the guy sat on the sofa behind explaining the rules to Chris. I spent the rest of the game trying to work out what was happening. Not sure I totally get it even now, but it seemed good and I have perfected, the ‘looking interested whilst baffled‘ look! Apparently there are a lot of tactics involved, but I couldn’t explain any of it.

It was quite good fun though, and we saw some funny adverts in the breaks. Apparently the adverts are a major part of the event and the one where some guy gets stabbed by a Dorito was probably my favourite.

Ducktails Woohoo!

Being in the USA and around one of the biggest colleges in the country - the University of Oregon - we wanted to check out some of the college sport. As we are big followers of athletics in both the UK and US we were already well aware of some of the differences within our own sport, but didn‘t know too much about some of the American based sports. We got the feeling though that university sport was taken much more seriously in the US, especially as there seems to be college basketball and American football on TV most of the time.

Even so, we were slightly surprised when we went to a women’s college basketball game at the MacArthur Court at Oregon University and there were over 4000 people there! It wasn’t even as if it was just other students supporting or families of the players, there seemed to be actual members of the public there! No-one gives a monkeys about university sport in the UK so why do people care here? Well when things got going we saw why. The whole experience was really professional, the players were all really good, both of the teams had full-time coaches and both teams even had their own cheerleading teams with them! There was even a band playing before the game, during time-outs and half-time and then after the match. To our amusement they played a bit of theme tune from ducktails because of the University of Oregon’s nickname - the ducks! Classic! It really was a great atmosphere and it meant that the whole crowd got into the spirit of the game.

When the game got going the ducks began to dominate proceedings against local rivals and fellow Division 1 side Oregon State University. The University of Oregon got off to a great start before things evened up, although in the end it was still a comfortable victory for the ducks with the final score being 82 -62. I had a rough idea what was going on throughout the match, but I’m not sure Andrea had too much clue - she was too busy being distracted by the Duck Mascot running around and hugging fans.


The distracting duck



Ducktails!!

Siuslaw National Forest

Fridays = easy running day, so with only one nice short run to do it seemed like a perfect opportunity to get out of Eugene for a while and explore one of the national parks on the Oregon coast. It wasn’t raining either which was a bonus.

We decided to drive to Siuslaw National Forest which is about 2 hours drive north west of Eugene. We hadn’t decided on a specific place within the forest that we would go to, but it’s a forest so there is bound to be a whole load of walks and trails right?

So we got to the forest pretty easily and decided to stop off at the first likely walk. So we drove, and drove and drove some more. After another hour of driving we were starting to get a little worried that we weren’t going to find anywhere. Other than an odd car park between the road and river for fishermen (and with no walks leading off from them) there was absolutely no where to stop. We eventually decided to call it a day and begin to head back as it was soon going to get dark. We did see a lot of the forest and had a couple of stops for photos but we were pretty disappointed not to find anywhere to park up and explore. The national park did look pretty though with it’s very tall leafless tress and roaring river.

We decided to cheer ourselves up by stopping for a hot chocolate when we passed an appropriate café. It really wasn’t our day though and other than a McDonald’s (and we’ve seen enough of them recently thanks to the free wi-fi) there was nothing tempting. So it was back to Eugene empty handed with a plan to visit the tourist information in the next few days to see where we went wrong!

One for the geeks

Our initial plan was that today was going to be a quiet day. We would go out for a couple of training sessions and then plan some of the activities that we would do over the next few weeks. Unfortunately these things never seem to work out that way and we ended up doing zero planning! Skype and catching up with friends seems to get in the way!

By the time we had got back from our first training session of the day and wasted time talking to family back home (just kidding), it was time for lunch. After that we took a drive down to the Nike store in Eugene to get ourselves kitted out in some Oregon gear. For those that don’t know, Nike was born in Portland Oregon, just a few miles up the road from Eugene. Nike still has a strong affiliation to Eugene and Oregon University because the founder, Phil Knight, used to be an athlete training under legendary running coach Bill Bowerman. We have been told that Nike pretty much bankrolls athletics in the US, and particularly athletics in Eugene (the Oregon Track Club and Oregon University see the fruits of this) and is part of the reason for their recent upturn in success. Its nice to know that every dollar you spend on running shoes is helping out US distance running ;)! Some of the stuff in the Nike store is awesome and you could easily spend a load more, but we stayed restrained and got a hoodie and hat each. My bro has put in a request for some college gear so I’m going to have to see what I can do (especially as, at this rate, our luggage allowance is going to be about 3kg over on the way back home!).


Andrea outside the Nike Store

Whilst out at the mall (I’m learning the American lingo) we saw a sign for the Eugene Running Company. Being geeks anything with the word running in it draws our attention, so we decided to investigate. It turned out to be a dedicated running store with loads of memorabilia from some of the top US distance runners based in the area. It was whilst looking that I got chatting to one of the store attendants about this stuff. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about distance running in general and his knowledge of UK distance running was also really impressive (although he hadn’t heard of me or Andrea so couldn’t have been that good ;) ). It turned out to be top professional US coach Brad Hudson, author of the bestselling book ‘Run Faster’ and who until recently coached Dathan Ritzenheim (who set the American record for 5000m this summer and placed top 10 at the Olympic marathon). He was really nice and encouraging when we told him what we were doing and recommended a bunch of races to do. It did amuse us later on that one of the first questions I had asked him was ‘do you follow athletics?’!! How was I supposed to know who he was!

Later in the evening we donned our new Oregon gear and headed to a sports bar to resume our Thirsty Thursday tradition that was put on hold whilst we were in Australia. Beer prices in Oz were twice the price of those in the UK so we couldn‘t justify it. In the end what was going to be a quiet day turned out to be a really cool one.


Thirsty Thursday arrives in the US

P.S. Sorry for this blog being a bit running biased, but we are in ‘Track Town USA’ so meeting famous runners could be a regular occurrence. We’ll be more rounded in future ;).

Spencer Butte

The weather in Eugene has been wet. Infact we haven’t had a day when it hasn’t rained so far. So when we got up this morning and it was fine we decided to take the opportunity to get out of the town and head to one of the many surrounding national parks for a walk.

So we got up and went out running. Just the one training session for us today so we hoped we could go out for the whole day once we got the run out of the way. However, just over half the way into the run, the rain started to pour down once again and for a moment I thought I was back in Manchester. Sodden and cold when we returned to our apartment, we decided to give it a couple of hours to see if it cleared up. To fill the time we decided instead to head to Wal-Mart to muse over the Lucky Charms, Peanut Butter Goober and Twinkies. Restraint was in force today though and we settled with the standard healthier groceries.

Fortunately, the rain cleared up in the afternoon and we were finally able to head South of Springfield to Spencer Butte Park, where we decided to climb up to the Spencer Butte Summit. This is our kind of hill, or so we thought. The summit is about 2000ft, although we were only required to climb 700ft of it from the car park, and there were well formed paths taking you to the top. It was a fairly steep climb on the dirt trail but we made it to the top fairly quickly. Just in time for it starting raining infact, and armed with non waterproof jackets (we didn’t bring any with us on the entire trip…school girl error), we didn’t linger too long before beginning the descent.


The view from the top

By this time however, the dirt track had become a mud slide and so we had plenty of unwelcome chances to perfect the art of a form of side ways ski-ing from one mud slide to another. Whoever fell on their behind would lose out on the Snicker doodle cookie (yes it is actually called that) which was waiting for us back at the apartment. Thankfully it didn’t come to that, as I am the balance queen and Chris cheated by sitting on his hands when he slipped. I must remember to be more specific with the rules next time.

Despite the rain, it was a worthwhile trip as we got some cool views of the area around Eugene and the forests are pretty amazing. The only disappointment is not having seen any blog worthy wildlife so far…oh apart from all the red squirrels..


Chris' sparkly new bike

A new set of wheels

In the morning Andrea did her first session in Eugene. We headed to Alton Baker Park in central Eugene. A hub of bike networks and running trails. I marked out a 1km course using the garmin along the river - so at least if things weren’t going well there was some nice scenery for Andrea to look at! Andrea set out with the prospect of doing 9 if things went well. In the end it did - despite some severe jetlag when she woke up.



Running through Alton Baker Park

Since we are in America for three months I wanted to get a bike so that I may enjoy some of the trails around Oregon and California. So far I have only been walking which I find painfully slow. We expected a bit of a battle to find a reasonably priced second-hand mountain bike, but in the end it was easy. We found a good bike in the first shop we went into. It’s a specialised too and in decent condition, not bad huh! I’m looking forward to getting out on it tomorrow whilst Andrea is running - for once I’ll be able to make it out of the car park before our time is up!

In the afternoon we went for a drive around the town, it was raining on and off so we didn’t manage to get any photos. We’ll save them for another day. We headed through the University of Oregon and got a glimpse of the historic Hayward Fields Running Track - where every year they hold the Pre Classic. This year the meet is a part of the inaugural Diamond League so will likely have even more world class athletes running laps. Unfortunately we leave before it is on - which we are gutted about - maybe some other time. We’ll have to see.

We have also been looking out for a sports bar within walking distance of our apartment so that we may watch the superbowl this Sunday. Don’t ask us what the superbowl is because we haven’t got a clue, but if we find a bar then hopefully after the weekend we’d some idea. Hopefully we’ll find something in the next few days…

Let the blogging re-commence.

We have made it. After six days of almost non stop travelling we finally arrived in Eugene, Oregon late last night. We actually arrived in the States on Saturday afternoon but then had a mammoth drive from Los Angeles to Eugene over the next couple of days. It certainly wasn’t made any less painful by our 55mph self imposed speed limit (even in the haze of tiredness, the budget bells still ring loud and clear).

Despite being a long car journey we did manage to experienced a few lifetime firsts. We were forced kicking and screaming into an American diner (twice) once for a heart attack sandwich (also known as a burger) the other for breakfast in the form of pancakes and syrup. Both were exceedingly good. Fortunately for both of our waistlines, health and sporting abilities we have now managed to get to a supermarket for ‘proper’ food.

In addition to this, Chris has taken to driving on the right hand side of the road for the first time like a duck to water (!) and I have reached the height of monotony on a run - a 40min run in the dark at a motor way service station using a 65 second loop. Speaking of running records, I also completed my latest ever Sunday run. After arriving in Eugene at 10pm, I headed out for a long run which finished at 00:14am. Though perhaps enough records have been broken for one week so hopefully normal training will resume tomorrow!

It also feels like we‘ve already learnt a good deal about the America:

1. Everything is big. We have hired an economy car and expected a three door small car like those we had in Australia. But, no, an economy car in the US is a five door normal sized family car. However it still turns out that our car hardly comes up to wheel level on almost every other monster truck that is on the road. It’s not just the cars though it’s everything. Road signs, food portions, Wal-mart and don’t get Chris started on the size of some of the people. ‘It’s monstrous’ are my most used words at the moment although I wasn’t complaining when I saw the ‘Monstrous’ sized bottles of wine in the supermarkets…mmmm.

2. Lots of stuff is open 24/7. We rocked up at our first Motel just before midnight and lots of diners are open all night (it could be heaven if you get late night munchies).

3. Drivers don’t indicate when turning off at a junction. Makes running fairly hazardous.

4. At least half of the American’s we have spoken to claim that the English Premier Football league is not popular in the US….and then said they support Arsenal or Man United.

5. Don’t believe a price tag. It only tells half the story.

6. Petrol is cheap but interestingly in Oregon it’s illegal to fill up the car yourself.

7. America is a beautiful country with some amazing scenery, and American‘s can‘t be more helpful. Lots of places to explore in the next three months and hopefully people to be met!

We love the USA!


Our 'economy' car for the next three months


A snapshot of some of the beautiful scenery on the California/Oregon border