Oregon | heart & sole

If you follow me on twitter, you might already know this, but I’m going to FitBloggin’13 this June in Portland, Ore., and I’m super excited! For those unfamiliar, FitBloggin, according to their website, “is for anyone who blogs about fitness, wellness, good food and a healthy lifestyle–regardless of where they are in their journey… More than just another blogging conference, FitBloggin’ is all about the desire to use technology, blogging and social media to motivate, inspire and foster a culture of health and wellness. We strive to bring together bloggers from all walks of life to create a tightly connected group of men and women who care deeply about and are committed to spreading this passion for fitness.”

I was lucky enough to get a FitBloggin assistanship meaning I get to go to the conference for free in exchange for live blogging one of the sessions on their website. My session is How to Create a Media Kit that Showcases Your Brand and Gets Companies Knocking on Your Door. I think this will be a really interesting topic, so I’m excited to not just cover it for their site, but also learn more about it. The schedule is jam-packed with great educational sessions and fun early morning fitness classes. I wish I could go to them all. It’ll be tough deciding which ones I plan to attend, but I’ll be sure to give a full recap here of all the sessions I make it to!

Have you ever been to a blogging conference? What did you think? What would you like to learn at FitBloggin? Let me know if you’re going this year too!

Ian will be making the trip with me as well and we’re planning to spend a couple extra days in Portland. Neither of us have ever been there and have heard great things about the city, so we thought it’d be fun to explore. Any sites/restaurants/etc. that we should definitely put on our list while there?

I cannot believe I have never read this book. If you’re a runner or a competitor, you will love it.

Tom Jordan tells the story of Pre’s life from his beginnings in Coos Bay, a mill town on the coast of Oregon through his brilliant, but short career. As a runner, I’ve always known who Pre was and obviously heard the stories about how great he was and how his life was tragically cut short in a car accident. I honestly didn’t know much more than that though and loved every page of this book.

Jordan details Pre’s career from high school through college at the University of Oregon to the Olympics, running overseas and his run-ins with the AAU. He talks about his training, his interaction with teammates and others, and his races. There are brief blurbs throughout from people whose lives Pre touched that give you a fuller picture of who Pre was. His work ethic, drive and intensity were unbelievable and unmatched. What really stood out for me was his connection to “his people” in Oregon.

A few of my favorite excerpts:

Bill Dellinger, University of Oregon assistant cross country and track coach at that time, remembers his first glimpse of Pre at that meet. ‘I was standing on a hill. I had my binoculars, and I was probably a good half-mile or 700 yards away from the start. And I saw this guy that had the start position, but it was the look in his eyes, from a half-mile distance, the intensity in his face as the gun went off. I thought That’s got to be Pre.'”

Training was not always all that much fun, as Pre himself admitted. ‘It really gets grim until the competition begins,’ he once said. ‘You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.'”

‘It seemed,’ said Rick Riley, ‘that those of us running in the meet were only minor performers and that any minute the Star would appear and the crowds would roar to life, athlete and spectator giving and taking whatever it I that each needs and wants. I stood there on the track near the finish but he did not appear. The magic was gone forever.'”

Seriously, read this book – you won’t regret it.