The Tenth Annual ORRC Fourth of July Run and Walk

This marks the 10^th year the Oregon Road Runners Club has put on a special event for their members and the running community.

“We want to keep this a free event for our members,” Board Member Dave Green says. “It’s one of the things our members receive for joining, and it’s great to have this family-friendly event for them.” But, the Fourth of July Run and Walk is also open for non-members. ORRC has been providing races for the community at large since 1970, and in keeping with that spirit, they’ve kept the non-member entry fee to only five dollars. After June 27^th, registration goes up to $10 for non-members, and $5 for members, which is still a really great deal. (Day-of-event registration is also available, at $10 for everyone.)

“This is a low-key, ‘just for fun’ kind of race,” says Race Director Alanna Woods. “A lot of people come out to run or walk their first 5k, or bring their kids to participate in the kid's run. We have door prizes instead of age group awards, so everyone has a chance to win.”

The event is July 4^th, at the Mentor Graphics campus in Wilsonville. There’s a 5K at 9:00am, a 10K at 9:15am, and the Kids’ half-mile run will start at 10:15am.

“My 85 year old father, Dale, and all his kids and some of the grandkids will be running with him to help celebrate,” says Joyce, a fan of the annual event. “We will be in red shirts, as we are calling ourselves "Over the Hill...and Dale. We so look forward to race day and having an amazing family memory made this day.”

You can find more information on this and other Oregon Road Runners Club events at www.orrc.net.

Why Give Money to the Forest Park Conservancy?

Here's a good race idea: limit the number of participants to 40, and charge them $535.00 each to run. That's $21,400 of almost pure profit.

That's exactly what the Forest Park Conservancy (formerly Friends of Forest Park) is doing with their "first annual" event called the "Run 20! For 20!" on Saturday, June 20, 2009. They're celebrating 20 years of cleaning up the trails by holding a 20-mile run on the Wildwood Trail. Each runner that registered is required to raise or donate $500, in addition to their $35 registration fee. If they fail to raise the total amount, the remainder will be billed to them.

But, it's for a good cause, right? Forest Park is the largest city park in the country, and is home to miles of interconnecting trails, including the Wildwood Trail, which runs over 30 miles from one point to the other. Yes, the profits of the event will go to the Forest Park Conservancy, which will use the money to hire people to work on the trail. But isn't it odd that this same organization persuaded the city to close the entire park to certain events, yet they are allowing themselves to put on an event for their own profit? Yes, the Conservancy is a registered not-for-profit organization, so no single individual should be profiting, but that doesn't mean the organization doesn't aim to make a profit each year. They have to at least break even after spending the money they they have budgeted for the year. And where does this money come from? It comes from you, if you would kindly donate.

Don't be fooled by political speak. The Conservancy doesn't own the park - you do. The Conservancy started as a "Friends of" organization, one of hundreds in the area. They kindly donated their time to help clean the trails of ivy, repair damage from inclement weather and mudslides, remove downed trees, etc. The City of Portland allowed the Friends of Forest Park a pseudo-stewardship status because they were the only people putting time, energy and money into maintaining the park and the trails. The City only had one full-time staff member to do all the work in Forest Park, so they happily allowed the "Friends of" organization to take charge of maintenance, which they were volunteering to do at no cost. And so, the Friends of Forest Park, bolstered by fresh rounds of donations, self-appointed themselves as the Forest Park Conservancy, and started raising money to pay for all the things that the City assumed that they were going to do for free.

So, now that we have entrusted the Conservancy to take care of the trails, where does it go from here? I've always thought that the work that they and other volunteers have done on the trails is great, but now I'm not so sure. I mean, if a tree falls over a section of the trail, would I rather vault over it, or have someone come in and saw the tree in half and remove it from the area? I'd rather vault over it. Would I rather leap over small creeks, or run over a bridge? I think I'd rather have the trail as wild as possible. The cleaner, nicer, wider and flatter the trail becomes, the more walkers and tourists will come, each with a baby stroller and four unleashed dogs.

Visit the Conservancy for more information.

Probably get more...

Hit the trail at 3:00pm, took my shirt off, and ran until dusk.

Where My Trail Shoes At?

I posted a blog back in December reviewing trail shoes, noting that it was more difficult to find the one or two trail shoes put out by adidas and Nike that I wear - the only ones I've found so far that fit. Of course, the trail shoe market has exploded, with sixty (60) different companies now specializing in trail shoes, so it would make sense if Nike, adidas, Puma and other running shoe mainstays avoid investing too heavily in this area - better to stick with track and field and road running (and soccer, golf, etc) than to compete heavily in such a market that is growing and evolving exponentially.

So, it might be time for me to start looking for a new trail shoe, especially now since my marathon training has ran its course and I'm now adding miles to compete on trail. And so it is fairly timely that I happen to wander onto the Oregon MUT blog a couple days ago and see a news post there from the Portland Tribune declaring the purchase of the END (Environmentally Neutral Design), the Portland-based running shoe company, by LaCrosse. LaCrosse, the mainstay boot manufacturer, is looking to get into the running shoe market. What's more, LaCrosse merged with Danner back in 1994, and both the Danner and LaCrosse brands operate out of Portland, Oregon.

END only has a couple running shoes at this point, since they're a brand-new company and has made a name for themselves through their committment to green and, well, environmentally neutral design. (They're not environmentally neutral, of course, but that's their goal, and they're supposedly greener than the competition.) So, I don't expect that END has a trail shoe for me, because I think at this point they only have a couple light trail shoes, and I'll have to compare them with the other 60 brands out there, but if they're now sharing technology with Danner and LaCrosse, then they just might build in that direction.

And this begs another, more important question to be asked - who wears hiking boots anymore When I was a kid, hiking over the Gorge, Mt Hood, the Central Cascades and other parts of Oregon, I had a solid pair of Danner boots. Yeah, I might get blisters if I hiked all day in them, but they were sturdy and tough - back then you'd be crazy to hike in running shoes. Old Converse, adidas and Nikes had relatively smooth, slick soles, and there just wasn't much in the way of protection or support. Now, however, I can run all day on those same trails in a good pair of trail running shoes. And if I snowshoe or hike - same thing: I'll be wearing trail running shoes. So, why would I need a hiking boot? Maybe if I was summiting a mountain, and spending a good amount of time in subzero weather...maybe. I think this is one reason why LaCrosse's profits were down this April, and why they decided to invest in the running shoe market. More on this later.