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A Low-Content, Snow-Related Post

As Sho pointed out earlier, it snowed in Eugene today. Now snow is something that most people take for granted: it’s an everyday part of their lives for three to five months of the year. But here in Eugene, snow is unusual and frightening: it looks like rain and it’s supposedly made out of the same material as rain, but it’s all weird and white and cold and causes us to slip and fall and ache for days and oh the humanity.

The Pioneer Mother is not amused by this snow bullshit.So, in order to keep the hospitals relatively clear of bodies most Eugene schools simply shut down at the first hint of snow sticking. This morning, for instance, nearly every public school in the area closed for the day. The exception, of course, is the University of Oregon, whose administrators have such a callous disregard for human life and comfort that they almost never cancel classes because of weather. Well, at least that’s what I was grumbling to myself as I slid to campus this morning.

But as I shuffle past the outdoor tennis courts I notice that there are people running around the track. At 8:00 AM. In ~26 degree weather. And they’re smiling and laughing as they jog next to each other.

Clearly, these people are insane.

Anyway, I continued walking past the courts and the two artificial turf fields until I came up to Coach (and marathon guru/running legend/magazine editor/author) Joe Henderson, whose class the happily jogging students were taking part in.

Coach Henderson’s students are training for 5K and 10K marathon races. None of them had to go out running this morning– today’s class was voluntary and they received extra credit for coming in. According to Henderson, 27 of his 40 students showed up to run, which was a far better attendance ratio than in any of my classes in the toasty Lillis Complex. And in the six years he’s been a coach here they’ve never canceled class and only retreated indoors twice. I suppose most people would call these runners determined and motivated. I call them crazy– but that’s probably because I’m the sort of person who considers 65 Fahrenheit cold and walking to my car exercise.

So if you’re the sort of person who enjoys running, enjoys being cold, and enjoys receiving extra credit for it, then you too should be a long distance runner. Hell, you probably already are one. Me? I’ll wait for a 2008 Olympics game to hit the Xbox.

The high is supposed to be 31° tomorrow and they don’t have running classes scheduled on Fridays, but I suspect Coach Henderson will be out there bright and early regardless of what the mercury reads.

Joggers run next to the outdoor tennis courts

More random, low-quality snow pictures from around campus after the jump.

Pioneer Man Snowman Art Snowman PLC

 

  1. Ian says:

    Those are some nice pictures, especially the one of the pioneer father.

    It’s funny you should say that… for some reason I didn’t notice that the camera was manually set to ISO 400, so every picture I took yesterday came out muddled and grainy (look at the lack of detail around the Pioneer Mother’s face, for instance.)

    Perhaps the Pioneer Father’s just naturally photogenic.

  2. Timothy says:

    As a former runner, let me say this: Yeah, yeah we’re batshit loco insane. And Dan Williams can suck it too, then, but I’d appreciate in future if you’d not let your pesky “facts” intrude on my calling The Frohn a motherfucker.

  3. Sho says:

    Those are some nice pictures, especially the one of the pioneer father.

  4. Meghann says:

    No doubt.

  5. Ian says:

    Dan Williams was clearly a jogger.

  6. Meghann says:

    Dan Williams made that decision, not Frohnmayer.

  7. Timothy says:

    In 2004 when there was an inch and a half of ice the Frohn left the campus open. EVERY OTHER UNIVERSITY IN THE STATE WAS CLOSED. He’s a cheeky motherfucker, that Frohn.

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