dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle's blog

We can’t know how many marathon runners finished Sunday’s race with their best time ever. Conditions were near ideal, so chances are good that many returned home with that deep satisfaction of never having done better.

Instead of sorting thousands of competitors into the Winner and Everybody Else, they would sort themselves into better and worse than they had hoped.

Between Ken Kesey Square at the heart of downtown Eugene and all of the University of Oregon buildings that bear Phil Knight’s imprimatur, it’s easy to overlook the legacy of Bill Bowerman and the culture of excellence he attempted to instill here.

How about ending practices once a week with your speedsters running 4×100 relay races at Hayward Field, professionally timed and open to the public? An eating contest for the linemen? A human tractor-pull? Let some of those competitive juices flow in public.