UPDATE: We are working on a plan for on-line sales — hope to have details finalized in the next few days and we will post information here on the blog when it is ready! Thanks!
The crowds have vacated the stadium. The work crews have taken down every tent. The last of the fork lifts has lifted the last of the pallets.
There are water bottles, jackets, and t-shirts. A few poster and lots of banners and two colors of hats. Lanyards and eight packs of programs and sweatshirts. All are commemorative TrackTown12 materials. All are filled with memories of races watched, implements thrown, Olympic dreams achieved.
And, all are for sale. All are on sale. All are available at great prices. And all are located at the Travel Lane County Adventure Center just north of the Gateway Mall: 3312 Gateway St.,Springfield, OR 97477. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cash or check only please. Sorry, no phone orders or mail orders ; must purchase in person at the Adventure Center.
Here are some of the deals (see photos below):
TrackTown Relay sweatshirt: $20 (XS/S only in zip ups)
On September 18th, Olympian Adam Goucher ran 1:04:53 at the Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia – to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon. Winning at the Olympics has been a dream of Adam’s since he was a young runner. He will pursue his dream on January 14th on the Houston Marathon course as he competes for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team in the marathon. You can hear him talk about his race plans on Competitor radio.
Adam’s wife, Kara Goucher will also compete for a place on the U.S. Olympic team – but on the track at the 2012 Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field which will be held right here in TrackTown USA from June 22 – July 1, 2012. If you don’t have your tickets yet, you should get on that as they are selling out quickly!
If it is cross country that you look forward to every fall, this Saturday (October 1st) the University of Oregon Ducks will be hosting the annual Bill Dellinger Invitational as its only home meet during the 2011 cross country season. The meet will be held at the Springfield Country Club. The Duck men will take on teams from UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Cal State Fullerton, Idaho, Portland State, Southern Utah, Wichita State, and Wisconsin. The women will compete against Oregon State and Portland as well. The women’s race will begin at 10:30 a.m. and the men will run at 11:15 a.m.
This meet is named for legendary University of Oregon men’s track and field coach Bill Dellinger. The Springfield, Oregon, native and two-time NCAA champion for the Ducks was a three-time Olympian, the 1964 Olympic bronze medalist at 5,000 meters, and holder of two world indoor and six American records. In cross country, he took pride in the fact that he never lost a race as a high school, college or post-collegiate athlete. As the Oregon men’s cross country head coach from 1968-1998, Dellinger guided the Ducks to four NCAA team titles and 12 top-three NCAA finishes. Athletes under his mentorship received 45 cross country All-America honors. His squads also stockpiled 13 conference and four district team victories, and Duck individuals scored eight Pac-8/10 championships and six regional crowns.
This three-time Olympic medalist talks about when she knew she was a real athlete, who inspires her and what she likes to eat after a big meet (and it ain’t salad!).
On April 27, 1974, Steve Prefontaine wowed the crowd at Hayward Field when he ran 27:43.6 to capture the American record for the 10,000 meters. This was just one of many American records smashed by Pre — he set 15 American records at every distance from two miles through 10,000 meters. He was inducted to both the USATF Hall of Fame and the University of Oregon’s Hall of Fame. He had blonde hair that flew up in the wind, and a cherubic face that belied his fiercely competitive spirit.
In 1974, Galen Rupp was not yet born. But thirty years later, Rupp graduated from Central Catholic in Portland and went on to enroll at Prefontaine’s alma mater, the University of Oregon. Like Pre, Rupp has blonde hair that often sticks up (with or without the help of the wind) and a cherubic face that belies his fiercely competitive spirit.
As a collegian, Rupp thrilled the Hawyard Field crowd with his winning ways and went on to run with the support of Nike (Pre was one of the first world class athletes to wear the shoes that would come to be Nikes…)
Last week in Brussels, Rupp again did something that Pre had cherished doing: he shattered the American record in the 10,000 meters. Rupp’s time of 26:48.00 broke training partner Chris Solinsky‘s previous record of 26:59.60. In the final IAAF Diamond League meet of the season, Rupp finished third. The race was won by by world record holder, Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele in a 2011 world-leading time of 26:43.16. Let’s Run has a nice race recap, or you can watch the last half of the race on the video below. You can read excerpts from his interview with USATF after he returned.
What Competing at the World Championships Looks Like (if you are Lauren Fleshman)
Ever wonder what it is really like to race at a World Championship event? Oregon Track Club Elite’s Lauren Fleshman ended up competing in Daegu after some incredibly lucky breaks — and some very hard work and incredible races.
Here’s her description of what it was really like for her on race day in Daegu:
The Day of the Race
Korea Time (16 hours ahead of PST)
8am: wake to heart exploding out of chest with realization that today is the World Championships FINAL of the 5000 meters, and that I’m actually in it.
8:01 am: put the covers over my head, count to 100, and try to relax.
8:10 am: calmly head down to breakfast, intent on keeping things chilled out since I have TWELVE HOURS to kill before my race.
8:30am: In the dining hall (which is an amazingly converted subterranean parking garage 400 meters long) pickings are slim. I select a big mug of “brown rice green tea,” some questionable yogurt and cornflakes, 2 hard boiled eggs that are impossible to peel, and some legitimately amazing french toast. One out of four ain’t bad.
8:35-9am: Most days I plop my tray down at a table full of American athletes of various disciplines, most of whom I’ve only seen on TV, and proceed to join in a table discussion, but today its a table for two with Leo Manzano. Despite pulling his hamstring and missing out on making the final yesterday, he balanced his honest disappointment in his situation with encouragement for my upcoming race. It was like the whole spectrum of athletic experience was encompassed in our little bubble, and I left breakfast with a new friend and a compulsion to stretch my hamstrings.
9am: decide to make a schedule for the day and pack up my things for the race so I can relax. The idea is to let the schedule tick itself off item by item so I don’t have to think about it or make any decisions throughout the day. When you are a ball of nerves, even deciding what time to take a nap can make your head explode. Better to get all the thinking done at once.
10:30am: still thinking.
11am: finished packing and planning after a having a horrendous OCD episode which involved switching bags 3 times and quadruple checking that all my items were indeed in the right bags (one for race time, and one for post race since you can’t have certain things in the call rooms that you will want after you are done, etc.) Its really not that complicated, and I’m actually embarrassed I just shared that.
11am-1pm: Called Jesse with skype and we simultaneously watched “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and laughed way harder than the first time we saw it. Actually got worried I was tiring out my abs. Afterwards we talked and Jesse didn’t say one thing about my race, just like a good little husband.
1pm: Tried to nap. Mild heart attack instead. Decided it was better to be around people. Hung out with the roomies and had some good laughs, painted nails, etc.
2:30pm: Made Coach Row come down to lunch with me so I could chill. The buffet was my worst nightmare; one side dish was mashed up soggy tater tots from breakfast, creatively renamed “potato saute.” Barf. Can we say emergency back-up lunch? PBJ.
3:30pm: Showered, primped, and headed over to Coach Row’s for the final wait.
5:50pm: final snack: my last Picky Bar (All-In-Almond) and green tea with Eugene honey sticks (a gift from the runners back home, thanks guys!)
The Trip Over
6:00pm: Check out with the USA Team Staff where they visually check to see that you have everything you need. I passed the checkpoint thanks to my diligent packing and repacking and repacking. Boom.
6:10pm: board the magic bus for the Stadium, full to the brim with athletes and coaches, and plop down next to coach Row where we proceed to discuss the musical career of Luther Vandross.
6:15pm: drive past a breathtaking view of the stadium at sunset, set into the lush, rolling, Jurrassic Park-like mountains like a giant, white, glowing space ship. Both of us silenced by the sight of it.
6:20pm: arrive at the high security mondo practice track, which is 400 meters from the stadium. There are jumbo screens on the infield showing the races, athletes executing various stages of their warmups, and tents surrounding the perimeter filled with coaches and medical staffs and support crews. We set our stuff down in a tent by the USA staff and I get horizontal, passing the time with idle chat.
The Warmup
6:50: get loosened up with the help of Jack Magic.
7:10pm: warm up for race WAY earlier than normal because we have to be in the first call room 40 minutes before the start of our race (most races call you in 15-20 minutes before the gun goes off.) Due to the warm conditions, I only jog nine minutes, with seven of it extremely slow, and the last two minutes at tempo. My focus is my breath, using discipline to re-direct my mind to my affirmations whenever it strays. Basically I ran around telling myself I’m awesome.
7:20pm: stretch, do some activation exercises, fluids, bathroom for the fourth time in an hour, etc.
7:40pm: stride a 200 and grab my belongings.
7:45pm: Hugs and final words from Coach Rowlando, and high fives from the USA Team staff on the way into Call Room #1.
Being Called in to Compete
7:45-8pm: All the women in the race are in a booth together, waiting while the officials check our numbers. Many of us go into a separate room to change out of our soaking wet warmups into dry racing uniforms so as not to get cold while sitting around for 30 minutes in the air conditioning.
8pm: we are driven on golf carts from the warmup track to Call Room #2 underneath the stadium.
8:05-8:15pm: All of us plop ourselves on benches while officials call us up one at a time. For all 15 of us, they distribute a special timing chip bib with our name on it for the front of our jerseys, and check our spikes as well as rifle through the contents of our bags for who knows what. We have to sit there for 10 minutes until everyone has been checked. Then we are (finally) allowed to go into a little area with a 50 meter straightaway for a couple last minute drills and strides.
8:17pm: We are lined up and led single file through various tunnels and small passageways through the belly of the stadium to a ladder that will pop us up 100 meters from the 5k start. Music and cheering gets louder as we approach the ladder until the sounds from up there make us forget we were chit chatting with the woman next to us, and the vibration of the arena seduces the performer in most of us and paralyzes a few with fear. A Japanese girl next to me starts shaking, pulling her hands to her face and groaning quietly, and I am distracted for a moment with empathy for her. I’ve been there and its awful. But in this moment, I look up towards the source of the vibration with wanting.
8:20pm: As I climb up the steps, the small rectangle of bright light expands until my head emerges above the mondo track and the massive stadium engulfs me. I am a fleck of dust in the Universe. Catniss Everdeen in the Arena. Light flooding in all around me and I squint and bury my head to avoid being overwhelmed by the crowd. My knees wobble for a moment, and I repeat my affirmations. The crowd roars in response to some performance, so loud that I want to cover my ears, and I decide to ignore it…all of it. Its just me and this track. Me and this track.
8:22pm: Two strides
8:23pm: Lie on my back and soak in the field until I feel grounded. Step towards the line.
8:25pm: TV camera rolls across us. The gun explodes.
The Race
First 3k: I’m all focus. I lose myself in the laps and relax as much as possible. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.
5 laps to go: The Africans come swinging around the outside, and I pretend I am one of them: the rookie. Having learned from the prelim that they work together, I try to read their pack dynamics and body language to anticipate when a move will be made.
4 and 3 laps to go: I cover all moves smoothly. I attempt to better my position, but once I do, they go back around me. Its what they do anytime a non-African breaks into their pack, so I adapt my strategy and try to relax once again right behind them.
2 laps to go: The pain is barely endurable, and then 200 meters later, the leaders take off and the pack strings out. I latch on as much as possible with the knowledge that I could easily fall apart at any moment.
1 lap to go: My physical limits are very near, but so is the finish line.
200 meters to go: I am barely surviving, reaching into the corners of the toothpaste tube to squeeze out just a little bit more, and I catch one more woman right before the finish line.
I didn’t know who won, who got medals, who I pipped at the line, what time I ran, or what place I finished. Complete immersion into maximum effort drowned out all my senses. It wasn’t until passing through the mixed zone with the media that I learned how I placed and all I could think about was this:
June 24th: 8th in the USA
September 2nd: 7th in the World.
Just goes to show, you never know what awaits you. Believe in turnarounds. Believe in yourself.
Thank you husband. Thank you Nike OTC. Thank you Eugene. Thank you family. Thank you friends.
Lauren
Read more about her amazing experience at Worlds on Lauren’s blog.
This is the time of year when track & field athletes are winding down their seasons — and cross country runners are gearing up for fall.
Here in TrackTown USA, we’re thrilled with the results posted this past week both on the track and on the trails.
OTC Elite athletes and recent World Championship medalists Sally Kipyego and Jesse Williams completed two more landmark performances at the Samsung Diamond League meet in Zurich on Thursday.
Kipyego, who earned a silver medal in the 10,000 meters at the World Championships, grabbed second place to fellow Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot in the Zurich 5,000 – setting a huge personal best of 14 minutes, 30.42 seconds. Her previous best of 14:38.64 was set last summer.
“I knew she was in good shape from Worlds, but you’re never sure how people are going to travel,” OTC Elite head coach Mark Rowland said. “I knew she was capable of running a PB, and it’s impressive that she did, but I wasn’t expecting her to take such a big chunk out of it.”
Kipyego will return to the States and compete in the 5th Avenue Mile in New York City on September 24 to close out her 2011 season.
In the men’s high jump, Williams became the first OTC athlete to win a Diamond League series championship on Thursday. Only a week away from his gold-medal performance in Daegu, Williams finished fourth in Zurich, but performed well enough to beat Russian Andrey Silnov in a head-to-head duel for the overall title.
“Clearly it’s nice to win a Diamond League title, but the focus is on winning championships,” Rowland commented on Williams’ achievement. “What an outstanding job he and Cliff (Rovelto, Williams’ personal coach) did in Daegu – to nail it on that day was impressive and exciting. That’s the highlight. Now he’s gone on and won the Diamond League series, but that’s just a bonus.”
And in cross country news, University of Oregon senior Claire Michel led the Duck women’s cross country team to a season-opening victory over Gonzaga, while sophmore Ben DeJarnette was the winner of the men’s race as Oregon kicked off the 2011 season Friday at the Meadows Course at Sunriver Resort. He also writes about the experience on a GoDucks.com blog.
“Tonight was a fabulous way to start the season,” said Oregon Associate Athletic Director Vin Lananna. “Great weather, great crowd and pretty good races.” It was an especially great start for the women who filled the top 6 places for a total score of 15 to top Gonzaga’s score of 50. The men did not dominate like the woman — and were edged out by Gonzaga with a score of Gonzaga 26, Oregon 33.
Other highlights for the men included sophomore Mitchell Hunt in fourth at 20:06.9 and freshman Cole Watson fifth in 20:08.6.
The Ducks will continue training in Sunriver for two more weeks before returning to home to host the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Oct. 1.
In other Duck news, incoming freshman distance runner Lukas Verzbicas won the World Junior Triathlon title in Beijing. He made a commitment to race it after his best friend (Kevin McDowell) was diagnosed with cancer. He said he wanted to win gold for Kevin…and he did. His story garnered great attention – including a feature in the Sunday New York Times.
What a week in Daegu! There were performances that thrilled (Jesse Williams’ gold in high jump), that disappointed (Andrew Wheating failing to make the finals in the 1500 meters, Nick Symmonds’ 5th place finish in the 800 meters) mixed with the expected (Ashton Eaton medaling in the decathlon) and unexpected (Matthew Centrowitz’ bronze in the 1500 meters.) Team USA brought home 12 Gold medals, 8 Silver and 5 Bronze — more than any other country in the world (Russia was second with 19 medals, Kenya third with 17.) TrackTown USA brought home medals total: 3 gold (Jesse Williams, Mike Berry, Keisha Baker) 2 silver (Ashton Eaton & Sally Kipyego) and 1 bronze (Matthew Centrowitz) That puts TrackTown USA in 7th position overall in the medal count! Not bad!!!
Team USA Medals
GOLD
Carmelita Jeter 100 Meters W
Jason Richardson 110 Meters Hurdles M
Jennifer Simpson 1500 Meters W
Lashinda Demus 400 Meters Hurdles W
United States 4×100 Metres Relay W**
United States 4×400 Meters Relay W
United States 4×400 Meters Relay M*
Jesse Williams High Jump M
Dwight Phillips Long Jump M
Brittney Reese Long Jump W
Christian Taylor Triple Jump M
Trey Hardee Decathlon M
SILVER
Walter Dix 100 Meters M
Danielle Carruthers 100 Meters Hurdles W
Carmelita Jeter 200 Meters W
Walter Dix 200 Meters M
LaShawn Merritt 400 Meters M
Allyson Felix 400 Meters W
Bernard Lagat 5000 Meters M
Ashton Eaton Decathlon M
BRONZE
Dawn Harper 100 Meters Hurdles W
Matthew Centrowitz 1500 Metres M
Allyson Felix 200 Meters W
Jillian Camarena-Williams Shot Put W
Will Claye Triple Jump M
(TrackTown USA athletes in bold.)
* University of Oregon’s Mike Berry ran in the preliminary heats and wins gold as part of the relay effort.
** University of Oregon graduate Kiesha Baker ran in the preliminary heats and wins gold as part of the relay effort.
After coming from behind — and running a blistering 51.6 final lap, passing 5 other runners –to take third place in the World Championship 1500 meters, University of Oregon senior Matthew Centrowitz told his coach (Team USA and UO head coach Vin Lananna) “I don’t want anything to change. This has been a dream season.”
Centrowitz was in eighth place going into that final lap. But, as he told reporters in Daegu, “They went so hard with 350 to go. Even if I wanted to I couldn’t cover them it was so hard, they were so fast. Each 50 [meters] was just one more guy, one more guy, then I found myself in almost medal position and l kept digging down.”
“It was a tough race,” he continued “and it was similar to the semis with a little tactics in there being involved. It just came up to not giving up that last 200 meters.”
Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop and Silas Kiplagat took the gold and silver respectively. All three medal winners were born in 1989 –the youngest runners in the final.
Centrowitz says that he drew inspiration from Jenny Simpson, who won the womens’ 1500 meters earlier in the meet. “[Her win] made me think it was possible that I could come close to something like that, that is when I really started believing. She set the tone.”
Only three other Americans have won a medal in the 1500 meters: Steve Scott, (1983 silver); Jim Spivey (1987 bronze) and Bernard Lagat (2007 gold).
