Oregon is suddenly THE place to train

lagat is not training their

lagat is not training their what? "Their" is possessive (belong to them). "There" refers to location (place). Also, the OP's point is well taken. A high percentage of American elites have gone to Oregon to train. Hopefully this will yield good results for our younger crop of talent. Face it, Lagat's days at the top are numbered. Unless he's got some great performance-enhancing cocktails he will lose a lot more of his speed as he gets into his latter thirties.

Interesting you point out that lagat maybe on something suspicious but you don't point out that there maybe something strange about oregon (nike town) suddenly being the place to train

I would take the word "suddenly" out of the title of your post. Portland has always been the best place in the US to train. The trails here are endless and the weather great. Don't buy the hype; it doesn't rain all that much and what little there is, any real athlete would have no trouble training through. With the resources that Nike can offer, it's a no-brainer for an elite athlete under their flag. It's a land rush to the PDX!! Fastest town in the US!!!

-The Killer

F*** Oregon.

Oregon seems to have been a hub for distance running since before the Bowerman days- when Bill Hayward was coaching Ralph Hill and other stars.

I've heard the pollen can be bad for some, but if you don't have pollen allergies, I can certainly see why it'd be a nice place to train.

soler wrote:

lagat is not training their what? "Their" is possessive (belong to them). "There" refers to location (place). Also, the OP's point is well taken. A high percentage of American elites have gone to Oregon to train. Hopefully this will yield good results for our younger crop of talent. Face it, Lagat's days at the top are numbered. Unless he's got some great performance-enhancing cocktails he will lose a lot more of his speed as he gets into his latter thirties.

Wow, you fell into that one...

Oregon has always been where its at in the running world! You travel 2 hours south of Portland and you've got track town USA baby!! Finally the best in America are figuring out, again that this is the premier spot to train!

It's the fad for now.

If you've been around you seen all the fads.

Flagstaff, Boulder, Carlsbad, Alb, SM, Dago, Mammoth, altitude tents, PEDs, Co Spgs. blood doping.

Did I miss any past fads. Readers, please chip in...

I think you have it right. "Fads" do have a lot to do with where runners train. If you go back to the Bowerman and early Dellinger days, it was Eugene where everyone (distance runners) wanted to train (e.g. Jim Grelle, Jim Bailey, Dyrol Burleson, Salazar, Chapa, Joaquin Cruz, the McChesney's, etc.), then people moved on to other "fad" locations most recently Fayetteville, Stanford, Wisconsin, and Boulder. All of these just happen to be good training sites with good coaching, and at this time Oregon is offering the best available support system (coaching, weather, Nike support, fan support, and a nice place to live). Eventually, some other locale with be the hot spot, but for now it is definitely Oregon.

It depends on what you goals are. If you want an Oly or WC T&F medal, Southern California has the most. There's so much else in life though.

Fads wrote:

It's the fad for now.

If you've been around you seen all the fads.

Flagstaff, Boulder, Carlsbad, Alb, SM, Dago, Mammoth, altitude tents, PEDs, Co Spgs. blood doping.

Did I miss any past fads. Readers, please chip in...

Alamosa, gainseville, boston, santa monica, echo lake....

But Oregon has indeed has always been a great place to train. Mild weather, lots of tracks, good trails lots of runners.

If true, it's probably because of all the 'roids (and other enhancing supplements) that So. Cal. athletes have taken in the past. When the truth comes out, people will see that So. Cal. athletes have gone over the top for their medals.

I still love the altitude. its so nice dropping to sea level for races

Just like American Idol, Twitter, the Lakers, Organic food, Pokemon, and boy bands, "Portland Oregon" is an American fad which is bound to blow over in the next year or two.

Sure, It has Nike and boasts other claims, but in reality, its not THAT unique of a place to run. Let it get the 15 minutes of fame it deserves.

I could list a dozen really cool cities all across the US where I've had better runs and workouts than Portland.

I never thought I would ever see Barbarians alive in North America until I went to Eugene. Eugene is like Barbarians at the Gate, or the aboriginal tribes in Braveheart.

I live in Portland, I run here, and I love it here, but there's nothing that special here to attract all these runners, other than Alberto Salazar, Jerry Schumacher, and Nike. There are other locations with moderate weather and great trails.

The funny thing is that people think of Eugene (and now Portland) when they think of Oregon running. Bend, OR. too often gets overlooked even though its stellar trail running network makes it the best place to train for distance.

Not a Duck Basher wrote:

The funny thing is that people think of Eugene (and now Portland) when they think of Oregon running. Bend, OR. too often gets overlooked even though its stellar trail running network makes it the best place to train for distance.

Bend Oregon's trail running is often overlooked when people talk about Oregon running because anyone who has lived a Winter here knows that you can't run through two to three feet of snow. Which is what you'll be doing for three months during the winter on all those "great trails" up toward the mountains. Sure you can run in the sand out East toward the Badlands, or on the hills at Smith Rock State Park. But 90% of Bend's premire trails (most in the Phills Trail network, Shevlin Park, Cascade Lakes Hwy. or the Tumalo Falls complex) are covered in a few feet of snow during the Winter months.

So Bend, Oregon is most definately NOT the best place to train for distance "year round". But yeah, 9 months out of the year Bend kicks ass.