Pre

This morning the house was emptying out...I to the Oregon coast, Matt to Idaho for a soccer game.  My first destination was Eugene, home of the University of Oregon and Hayward Field.  Hayward Field and Oregon was a huge influence in my life in the early 1970s.  It was the scene and home of Steve Prefontaine the

preeminent runner of his era.  "Pre" was more than a runner.  He was a counter culture sort of hero.  He pushed the buttons of the running establishment and had a lot of charisma doing it.

At the time I was a track coach at The Leelanau School and followed Pre's career pretty closely.  The photo here gives a brief summary of his short career.

  He died at 24 in a car accident leaving a cult behind him that continues to today.  When you go to Hayward Field you see two enormous photos of him on the walls around the field.

There is a Prefontaine Classic each spring at the field also that attracts the best runner from around the world.  There hasn't been a runner since who has captured the imagination of the country as Pre did.  I have always wanted to see the field...40 years later, I made it.  Also at the field is a statue of Bill Bowerman, Pre's coach.

You will notice in the photo of his shoes that the plaque reads..."and then there was that waffle iron."  Bowerman was the founder of Nike along with Pre.  He made the soles of his first shoes from a waffle iron.  Had Pre lived he wouldn't still be living in a trailer as he did in college.  Walking around the Oregon campus was fun on its own.

From Eugene it's a short hop up to Portland, the state's largest city.  Portland is known for being bicycle friendly and there is evidence of that everywhere with bike lanes going down the middle of major streets.  Also in downtown is a great artsy area known as the Pearl District filled with great galleries, eateries and shops.

Near the Pearl District is a parking area a full city block in size that is bordered with food carts selling a huge variety of cuisine: Afghan, Thai, Chinese, Mexican, German, Indian, Iraqi, Burmese, Japanese...all are there but if you want a burger and fries you will be disappointed.

After a brief wander of the downtown, I was off to Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast and home of the Haystack Rocks.  I got there after sundown so this is the view I got.  This is how I ended my day.