Ray Grant is the kind of guy who takes an idea and runs with it.
That’s pretty easy when the idea is, literally, running. But in this case Grant is taking running someplace it’s never been before, which is a pretty good trick in run-crazy TrackTown USA.
Grant is one of the student ambassadors behind what could be the first-ever jogging tour of a university campus, and that it should debut at the UO is as natural as, well, rubber in a waffle iron.
“It’s something I think is very unique to us and the city of Eugene,” Grant said. “I think every school has their little niche, but I don’t think that anyone does running and track and field like the University of Oregon and the city of Eugene.”
Grant, a student director in the UO Student Ambassadors program and a senior biology major, led the first tour across the starting line Friday, Sept. 5, and the run will be offered on the first and third Fridays of each month from now on. The 3.7-mile loop starts at the Ford Alumni Center, loops through Alton Baker Park and then returns to the main campus for a victory lap at Hayward Field.
You may know Grant from UO football games, where he’s one of a group of students who paint themselves green and yellow with letters on their bare chests to spell out a cheer. He comes by his enthusiasm honestly, having fallen in love with the UO on his first visit from his home in Valencia, Calif.
So far, the running tour is just called the UO Running Tour (Note to Ray: Really?). But that’s just what it is: a chance to see some campus and nearby sites that emphasize the area’s running pedigree while getting a few miles in yourself.
“The way that I see it, and the way I hope that other people see it, is whether you have an avid interest in track and field or are just casual fans you can come out and see all this wonderful track and field history that Eugene has,” Grant said.
It’s not just for the fleet of foot, though. It’s about a 10-minute mile pace, and the one-hour run is about half running and half talking about the sights.
A good part of the run is in Alton Baker Park, mainly because that’s where Pre’s Trail is, and what kind of a jogging tour would it be without a visit to Pre’s Trail? But it also gives visitors a chance to take in Autzen Stadium and PK Park, as well as the Cuthbert Amphitheater and the Peter DeFazio Bike Bridge.
Naturally, the tour ends with the quarter-mile loop around the Hayward Field track, “which I think is easily the coolest part of the tour,” Grant said.
Participants will be allowed to stash their street clothes in lockers at the Student Recreation Center and then use the showers after the run. And university leaders hope they will take the standard walking tour of campus afterward, which will offer a nice cool-down as well as a closer look at the center of campus.
The idea for the jogging tour came from Cora Bennett, the UO’s director of student orientation programs. She got it while attending a national conference last year in San Antonio, Texas, where they offered running tours of the city.
Light bulb.
“It was one of those moments when you just stop and think, ‘Of course!’” she said. “For us it seems like such a natural fit.”
It’s not like visitors haven’t been interested in the university’s track and field heritage or asked to take a turn on Hayward’s oval. They have. So the running tour should find an audience among prospective students and their families as well as regular Eugene residents looking for a different way to pick up some local history.
And for the university, it’s a way to put some new shoes on the old campus tour.
“I think we have a really good story to tell,” Bennett said.
―By Greg Bolt, Public Affairs Communications
The University of Oregon's running tour has been featured by:
Runners World
OPB