TRACKTOWN, USA

THE MECCA OF AMERICAN TRACK & FIELD
Steve Prefontaine...Bill Bowerman...Bill Dellinger... Ashton Eaton...Galen Rupp...Matthew Centrowitz…the list of former UO ‘Duck’ track and field greats goes on and on.

Current TrackTown USA residents include Olympians Ashton Eaton (Decathlon), Andrew Wheating (1,500m), Brianne Theisen-Eaton (Heptathlon), Jesse Williams (high jump), Sally Kipyego (10,000m/5,000m), Jenna Prandini (200m), Alexi Pappas (10,000m), Devon Allen (100mH), Jonathan Cabral (100mHH), Charles Jock (800m), Benjamin Blankenship (1500m) and Hassan Mead (5000m).

Recent alums Luke Puskedra and Elijah Greer have also found their way to the professional circuit after successful careers in the NCAA and at the University of Oregon, and are still training in Eugene.

American Olympic hopefuls visit Hayward Field every June for the premier Prefontaine Classic, and rank Eugene among the world’s most supportive track and field communities. TrackTown USA has played host to four Olympic Team Trials and made history in 2014 as they played host to the World Junior Championships. Elite Distance runners swarmed the trails this past July as the Olympic Team Trials returned to TrackTown USA.

Eugene 101
The University of Oregon campus located in Eugene, OR, a large college town of over 120,000. It is filled with natural beauty and miles and miles of running trails making Eugene the ideal place for distance runners to train. The Pacific Ocean is 70 miles to the west, and the Cascade Mountain range is 120 miles to the east with several +10,000-foot mountains. Rumor has it that it rains a lot in Oregon, but its 51 inches of annual rainfall is similar to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and New York, and less than Miami, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

Ah, The Summers!
Visitors to Eugene in July rave about the amazing summer weather since it’s rarely too cool or too hot. The average high temperature for June is 77, and the average nightly low is 49 degrees.