Dead Runners society race report
US Masters track and field championships,
Eugene, Oregon, - 10th - 13th August 2000.
After the DRS world conference we headed out
west to Oregon for a very different running event.
Good evening
fellow Norwegian Blues
In the last
installment of this epic saga our heroes had finally escaped from New York City
after a wonderful time at DRSWC8. Now read on....
Tuesday 8th
August. The beautiful Shelley and I flew from Newark to Chicago and then onto
Portland Oregon. On our approach to Portland we flew right by Mount Hood, what a
sight. Oregon, another new state for Tony. We picked up the rental car at the
airport and then headed off into the suburbs of Portland. We were to spend our
first night at the home of Shelley's email friend (from the masters track and
field list) Laura even though we had never met her and she wasn't going to be
home. Laura had arranged for someone to give us the keys so we could spend the
night there. After we arrived I went out for a run, I was feeling pretty tired
from all the travelling and racing and I did a very slow 2 miler. It didn't help
that Laura lived in a very hilly part of town. I felt pretty dreadful once I got
back from the run, oh no, I've got a cold :-( Out to Denny's for a meal and then
Border's book store as Shelley wanted to do some book browsing. I found a very
interesting book on the history the Olympic Marathon which I ended up buying.
Back to Laura's and off to bed.
Wednesday 9th
August. Off to the local High School track as Shelley wanted to do some fast
running to get ready for Eugene, I was still feeling the effects of my cold but
I went along and did some 400s and 200s with Shelley. After breakfast time to hit the road and
head south to Eugene for the US masters track and field championships. Down the
I-5 we drove, I had been on the I-5 in California and here in midsummer Oregon
looked a lot like California, all the fields looked a bit brown, not like the
lush green Oregon I had heard of. Mind you I think that when autumn and winter
comes it should be a lot easier to tell California and Oregon apart.
The Masters
championships were to take place at the famous Hayward field track of the
University of Oregon, we were going to be staying in the university dorms right
across the street from the track. After we unpacked we went off to the track to
have a look round and to picket up our packets and t-shirts for the track
meeting. The track was packed with lots of fit looking older athletes running
and jumping and throwing in practice for the championships which we scheduled to
start the next day. On our way back to the dorms I met up with dead runner Mary
Harada who we had met at the 1999 world veterans championships in Gateshead,
England. Nice to see her again and we got another chance to talk to her after
the evening meal in the university cafeteria. We paid $60 a night for double
dorm room with 3 meals a day included, all the food we could eat and loads of
choice. It was going to be interesting living as a student again for the next 4
days :-)
Thursday 10th
August. The championships were starting today, Shelley was entered in the W45
5000m this morning. We both went out to the warm-up track, Shelley to prepare
for her race and me to get in my daily run, I did 16 laps of the 200m warm-up
track in 17.10, still not over the cold :-( Then it was time to cheer Shelley on
in the 5000m, she had a pretty good run. She did a time of 22.36 and finished
7th american (prizes for first 6), she was schedule for a new pb to halfway but
slowed a little bit too much in the third quarter. Shelley finished very fast
and ended up with a new track pb, 9s outside her road pb. After the race we met
up the local dead Ruth Obadal who we had previously met at DRSWC6 in St. Louis,
1998. Ruth's dead husband Chuck Hammonds the pole vaulter was also around but we
hadn't seen him yet. Chuck and Ruth were competing and officiating at the
championships. We also finally got to meet Laura the day after we stayed in her
house! In the evening we went off into darkest Eugene for a party for members of
the masters track and field list which Shelley is a member of. We got to
meet some people who Shelley knew
electronically, I felt a bit left out as I was so young amongst all of these
athletic older people. In the UK "veterans" starts at 35 for women and 40 for
men so I still had 2.5 years to go before I became a vet. In the USA "masters"
starts at 30 for both men and women, at least for these championships. Unlike
last summer at Gateshead I was able to compete as well as watch.
Friday 11th
August. Day 2 of the championships, neither of us were competing today, I did 16
laps of the warm-up track in 16.47 and felt a lot better than the previous days
run. Shelley had entered the 400m hurdles so she was getting some tips from
Laura in hurdling. I met Chuck Hammonds today and in the afternoon I watched him
take part in the M50 pole vault, I was say next to Ruth in the stands, Ruth was
videotaping him so he could check his form afterwards. I was very impressed with
Chuck's pole vaulting, he had 3 goes at a new pb height but knocked the bar off
every time. Eventually the 5 deads at the championships (Tony, Shelley, Ruth,
Chuck and Mary) met in the stands near the pole vault area. We waited until the
end of Chuck's competition and we were rewarded with seeing a new V50 world
record in the pole vault (not by Chuck unfortunately)! Then the 5 of us went
over to the cafeteria to eat and chat, that was fun, we told tales of our
adventures in New York.
Saturday 12th
August. Day 3 of the championships and race day for me. I had entered the M35
10000m so 25 laps of Hayward field awaited me. 10 laps of the warm-up track for
me, 6 in trainers and 4 faster laps in spikes, I was feeling pretty nervous but
at least my cold had appeared to have subsided. I checked in and was given a hip
number for my running shorts then we were all led out onto the track as the
previous race was finishing. It was 11.55am, pretty warm and sunny and there was
a bit of a breeze. All the athletes were told that someone would count their
laps for them, Ruth was one of the lap counters but she wasn't counting for me.
We were lined up according to our hip numbers, it was strange to see my name up
there on the scoreboard at the start. Bang and off we went, I deliberately went
to the back and found myself sitting on the shoulder of a runner called Dave who
had some fans in the back straight, after a couple of laps I passed him but he
soon came back. After 3.5 laps runners started to lap us and after about 4 laps
we had both passed another slower runner who had gone off too fast, great I
wasn't last! I was tucked in behind Dave and up to 4km we were running about
1m40 per lap and I felt OK. After that the invisible cord started to stretch, I
told myself to hang on for as long as I could as it was going to be an awful
long way on my own but just before halfway Dave broke the cord and was away. I
got to halfway in 20.44.97 and my laps slowed from 1m40 to 1m50 :-( A long way
to go all by myself and it was pretty warm. I kept slogging away into the wind
on the back straight and those runners kept lapping me, even Dave lapped me
towards the end. I picked the pace a little from 4 laps to go and ran the last
lap in 1m40 to just get under 44, 43.57.69. 5th/5 in the M35 race and 17/18 in
the combined 30/35/40 race. That was pretty awful, I was hoping to get close to
40 minutes today, still it was an experience. My lap splits were (from my
watch):-
1.35.97(1)
1.45.67(2) 1.40.25(3) 1.34.90(4) 1.35.80(5) 1.37.34(6) 1.38.82(7) 1.40.28(8)
1.40.03(9) 1.40.87(10) 1.39.41(11) 1.40.78(12) 1.41.40(13) 1.51.57(14)
1.52.98(15) 1.52.77(16) 1.53.93(17) 1.52.67(18) 1.53.84(19) 1.53.58(20)
1.52.21(21) 1.50.84(22) 1.50.78(23) 1.50.22(24) 1.40.21(25).
Not good, I
hadn't been running on the track once a week all summer to run that badly, I
suspect the previous weekend's racing and the subsequent cold can't have helped
my time today, I don't think that I was fully recovered. If it had been a 10km
road race with a few hundred runners it would have been easier to run than doing
a 10000m on the track, counting down all those laps when I was hurting in the
second half was not nice. Off with the spikes and back to the warm-up track, 4
slow laps to recover in trainers. That was enough track running for me for a
while, back to the roads now!
Later that
afternoon the next dead on the track was Mary Harada and she finished 4th (3rd
american) in the W65 800m time of 3m32. Then the beautiful Shelley ran the W45
800m, after a slow first lap (87s) she speeded up on the 2nd lap but just got
outkicked at the end to finish 4th but she got a new pb 2h48.83!!!! Seeing the
expression on Shelley's face as her time came up on the big scoreboard was one
of the highlights of the whole trip for me :-) The last dead to race today was
local dead Ruth Obadal who ran in the semis of the W50 200m and managed to make
the final in spite of false starting.
Sunday 13th
August, Day 4 of the championships. The last day of competition was going to be
a busy day for Shelley as she had 2 events to do. First we watched Mary Harada
finish 6th (4th american) in the W65 1500m this morning in 6.55, she was just
outside getting a medal by a second or so.
Then it was time for the beautiful Shelley's first event of the day, the
W45 1500m. She set off too slowly and finished strong but was a long way back in
6.06, she had another event to do a couple of hours later. This was Shelley's
great adventure at 400m hurdles, her first ever race in this event, this was a
combined W40/W45 event in which Laura was also running. She made it round and
didn't knock any hurdles over, she stepped and jumped over the barriers and made
it round easily and got 2nd place in her age group and a medal!!
After cheering
Shelley on I went for a run, I headed out over the Willamette river to Pre's
trail. I did a bit of a run on the trail but on my way off the trail I got
rather lost and ended up out near the university football stadium. Hayward field is a very impressive track
but it looks tiny compared to the HUGE university football stadium, even in
tracktown USA you can see where the money is in collegiate sports over here. Oh
well if I am near the football stadium I can't be that far from the university
campus, unfortunately the stadium is north of the river and the track and the
main campus so I has quite a run through the Eugene city centre before I got
back to the university. My planned 6 miler ended up as 10 but I got back in 1
piece and just made it back in time for lunch.
After lunch and
getting cleaned up I went back to the track to see the last events take place,
the relays. Some of the ladies Shelley had competed against combined to make a
California relay team for the W40 4 x 800m race so we had some people to cheer
for. We also cheered for Ruth and her Oregon team who got a gold medal for the
W50 4 x 100m relay :-)
It had been a
great experience for me at this masters track event, it has certainly given me
something to look forward to in 2.5 years time when I turn 40. I do not
necessarily have to spend the rest of my career running slower and slower
marathons.
Monday 14th
August, the day after. We went out to Pre's trail and successfully made it round
a loop of the trail before heading
back to the university in the right direction. Pre's trail was a nice place to
run. We ended our run with a "lap of honour" around the Hayward field track
before heading back to the dorms. One last breakfast in the cafeteria and then
it was time to load up the rental car and hit the road. We were heading
north.....
So we left the
university of Oregon and returned to the real world. For the last 4 days our
universe had been almost exclusively the cafeteria, the dorms and the track. We
drove out of Eugene back the world where most older people were fat and out of
shape. We drove out to the coast, stopping in Newport for lunch and then headed
up the Pacific coast along Highway 101, some very nice scenery. We stopped for
the night in Cannon Beach, a seaside resort in northern Oregon for what was to
be the only night in a hotel for the whole trip.
Tuesday 15th
August. Our hotel was only a couple of minutes jog from the beach so guess where
we ran today. 8 days after running alongside the Atlantic at Coney Island we ran
alongside the Pacific. We did about 4 miles, my legs were still a bit sore from
the racing, I had to work hard to stick with Shelley towards the end of the run.
After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and had a look round the town before
heading north. We stopped for lunch by a Nike factory outlet store, another new
pair of shoes for me :-) Then finally out of Oregon and over the Columbia river
over the Astoria Bridge into Washington on our way to Seattle. We drove for ages
past lots of lots of trees, they should put "there goes another tree" on the
Washington car licence plates :-) Instead of heading north up the I-5 to Seattle
Shelley's cousin Carin told us to head for Bremerton and take the ferry across
which we did. It took and hour to get over into Seattle and it was a very nice
crossing if a bit chilly on deck, we got to see the Space Needle and other parts
of downtown Seattle from the ferry before we docked. Down the I-5 and finally we
arrived chez Carin after a long day's driving and another family reunion for
Shelley :-)
Wednesday 16th
August. We did about 4 miles along the not so aptly named Marine Drive near
Carin's house, we didn't actually see Puget Sound running along the drive. Slow
on the way out and Shelley speeded up on the way back and I hung on. After
breakfast into the car and down the I-90 into another state, we were headed for
"Cicely, Alaska" :-) We drove for about 90 minutes to Roslyn, the small
Washington town used to film the exteriors for Mr Puckett's favourite TV show,
Northern Exposure. I used to love watching NX when it shown in the UK and it was
a very pleasant afternoon for me to walk up and down the main street of
Cicely/Roslyn. We ate lunch in the cafe with the mural on the side used in the
NX opening credits and bought some souvenirs from the NX souvenir stores in the
town. On our way back we stopped at the very impressive Snoqualmie waterfall,
check out Shelley's photo album for some pictures. Washington looked a very
scenic place with an awful lot of outdoors and quite a few trees as well :-) In
the evening dinner with Carin and her family to end a great day.
Thursday 17th
August. Our last day in the USA before flying home, we did a 7 mile "Parrott
run" along Marine Drive, we took it easy on the way out, at the top of a hill
near the turn round we finally got to see the sea so Marine Drive is not a
misnomer after all. We turned round after 30 minutes and then headed back a lot
faster, there was more down than up on the way back but we got back in 25
minutes, a good way to end our running in the USA. Breakfast and then we said
our goodbyes to Carin. Carin only lives 4 miles from Seattle airport so we left
it quite late to leave to get our flight. We missed the turn off, panic panic,
then we saw a plane descending overhead so we turned round and followed where
the plane was going. We managed to get the rental car returned 1 hour before our
departure and we finally got to the gate as the flight was boarding. United
Airlines did a much better job of getting us home than they did on the way out,
no problems with our connecting flight in Chicago and we arrived in rainy old
London the next morning, the end of a great trip.
bye tony....
Dr Tony Bell Tony@shells.demon.co.uk tony.bell@chemistry.oxford.ac.uk
Weekends - Milton, Cambridgeshire. Midweek, Dept of Inorganic Chemistry, Oxford
University. http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
<http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=227580>
previous race report next race report