Mary in Ohio

Another test of me learning to blog. Here is a video of Mary ...

With a subliminal message about where I'd like to eat dinner.

Mom bought an Amish quilt

[Mom] {Buyer's sigh} But I'm buying a work of art, which is more than ...

[Amish Lady] ... it's $1,500.

[Mom] {quietly} ...whew!

Getting ready for Purdue

Tomorrow I'll wrap up work and head out to Indiana to watch the Ducks play Purdue. Then Mary and I will head to Ohio to visit with family.

2008 Olympic Trials 800m: Oregon sweeps!

Skip to about 3:15 see the last part of the race. Oregon runners Nick Symmonds and Andrew Wheating move up from the back of the pack to take #1 and #2. Christian Smith dives at the finish to be #3. I love Symmonds’ reaction when he looks to the scoreboard and realizes that Christian claimed the #3 Olympic team spot in 800m. Nick was surprised as everyone and sought out Christian to congratulate him. Great, great race.

Chris' Blog

Chris has a blog which you can find at ...

http://cbintheuae.blogspot.com/

Follow his journey in his new working world!

From our trip to Italy

[Sep 2006] I captured few seconds in video of our taxi ride in Italy. Our Italian driver talked to us for most of the ride and spent very little time looking ahead. Watch the beginning! The car is moving and he took his hands off the steering wheel to talk to us. This went on and on ...




[Driver] Yeah ... for a compliment. It's a-divided a-woman and a-man. Because-a I not-a want-a the killing the new-a man. For me, it's a lovin' ... My life! Like you said-a, after 18 year it's all a-lovely.

Cory's hit to win the McNary game

Cory hit a ground rule double in the bottom of the last inning which advanced Southridge towards the Oregon state high school softball championship game (which Southridge won).

The bracket for the state tournament ...

Europe Competition 1974

INTRODUCTION

[July 2004]  Over the years I've been asked to share my 1974 “amateur” racing experience in Europe.  That was now 30 years ago.

(l-r) Steve Prefontaine, Knut Kvalheim, Steve Bence, Mark Feig, Lars Kaupang

I kept a detailed training journal of the trip and I'm sharing included text from my training diary almost verbatim (I edited it only slightly);  pictures & articles from my scrapbook; plus some other content that I thought would be interesting.

There is a lot of material here.  When I wrote my diary in 1974 it was not meant to be entertaining.  As many runners, I kept track of my running, food, sleep, and other details so I could look back to learn what worked and what didn’t.

If you read beyond some of the boring details, you'll get a glimpse of what it was like to compete in Europe as a true "amateur" in the 70’s.  For me, it was a great adventure.

Even though I was not an elite world-class runner, I think my experience was typical of all American athletes competing in Europe at the time.  Recently I talked to Mac Wilkins who, after 1974, went on to be an Olympic discus champion and a world record holder.  He described the same situations in the early 70’s that I experienced of looking for places to stay and repeated phone calls to meet directors to negotiate entry into competition.

An interview

Steve Bence Interview

Steve Bence was a middle distance runner for the University of Oregon in the early 1970s. He served as a consultant for the film Without Limits, giving background on the Eugene running culture and Steve Prefontaine. One summer during college he traveled to Europe and ran for money under the table, a forbidden practice in those days of amateurism (even now it would probably affect his status as a collegiate athlete). This is the main subject of the interview. At the time of the interview Bence worked for Nike. I came across Bence while doing research on the Florida Track Club. (Here is his webpage about Pre, Eugene, and running.) I sat down with Steve in the summer of 2001 when I was living in Portland, Oregon.

June 9, 2001

Dale Winling interviewing Steve Bence, former middle distance runner for Oregon, at a Starbucks in Beaverton, OR.