2009 Footzone Horse Butte 10 miler

Entries are out for the 2009 Horse Butte 10 miler. The first 200 people to get signed up will get to enjoy this sweet 10 mile singletrack loop east of town. The course is the same as last year but the date is different. Since Easter is the second weekend in April we moved it to March 29th so the Petersen Ridge Rumble could be the first Sunday in April. Also different for this year is women's specific shirts. They will be the Brooks Podium shirt and will be available in small through large for the ladies. A printable entry will be available from http://www.footzonebend.com/ as soon as possible so check that out in the next couple of days.

Feel free to contact me or the Footzone with any questions. superdave@footzonebend.com or call 317-3568.

Thanks for reading,

dave

Support Grooming at V. Meissner

There's a fundraiser this Friday at 5:30 in hopes of raising money for grooming at Virginia Meissner snow park. We're talking nordic skiing here. We're lucky to have the nordic trails to cross train on and and keep some fitness and diversity in the winter. If this speaks to you, consider heading to Aspen Hall on Friday. Tickets are $10 and include food from the Taco Stand and music from the Sweet Harlots. See you there. Call Erin at 350-3790 for more info. Cheers-Teague

Times a Changing

I’m in the Salt Lake airport getting ready to head home from the Outdoor Retailer show. I’ve gone to this show twice a year since 1997 and watched it grow and evolve. It used to apply most to the lifestyle side of the FZ but anymore several of our major running brands are there and it’s always a good place to see what’s interesting (vs. only marketing hype) in the world of trail running. As good as the running industry is, I think it occasionally categorizes runners as boring, slow to change, and lacking any sense of style. So I like to see what else is out there that applies to runners. My experience shows runners to be pretty sophisticated and expecting the absolute best in product performance and aesthetics. Plus, Bend is an outdoor lifestyle hub so what folks are looking for in Texas or Florida (oddly, both strong influences in the running industry) might not apply to us.

Anyway, that’s why I was there, but on to the Changes. I found out in the first hours of the show that Chaco was purchased by Wolverine (aka Merrell, Patagonia footwear). I had the opportunity to talk with my friend and the (former) owner of Chaco, Mark Paigan and he was relieved. It turned out that he had to seek out a buyer as the cash flow was in a bad way and no lenders on the horizon. My emotions are as mixed as can be. I’m happy for Mark and Chaco that things will continue and of the possible suitors, Merrell constantly executes product well. I’d hope they will do their best to maintain the uniqueness of Chaco while giving it the new life that it needs. That said, I was profoundly sad at the news Mark was delivering. I feel like I grew up in retail with Chaco. I’ve always loved and admired the company and become friends with many of its employees. There is tremendous consolidation happening in the outdoor industry as small vendors struggle and get swallowed up by bigger brands. But there is hope, even during these tough times some new brands were showing for the first time. All in all, it motivates me to keep the FootZone strong and independent. We’re certainly modest by comparison but being a small business is getting more unique by the hour. Cheers-Teague

Making good shoes

The past couple days have found me meeting with some of the fine folks that make the great running shoes we all love to run in. Wednesday I met with some of the shoe guys from Mizuno and yesterday I spent time with some of the product line managers from Adidas. I've met lots of these folks over the years and I always learn something about shoe design, execution and how complex the whole process is. They are some of the people I respect most in the running industry and it's always fun when they seek out my opinion. These are the folks who battle with high minded designers in hopes that your favorite shoe will remain your favorite shoe. They understand all to well that a slightly different mesh or moving that overlay 2mm could mean the difference between a great fit and a problem. I come away this time reminded that they are really good at what they do. Its easy to dismiss them as indifferent to our needs when our favorite shoe is tweaked. But remember that it can't be easy to work as the intermediary between designers, business folks and factories. So, what did I learn? Its hard to say specifically, but Mizuno is playing with some really cool material applications and Adidas is taking a calculated path in hopes of regaining the faith of runners and running stores. All companies are trying to be the leaders and much of the talk is about obvious goals and ideals. But mostly, I come away with tremendous appreciation that good people are working really hard to make our job at the FZ interesting by making great new shoes. Cheers-Teague

Running on the big boat

To begin, this is a post about cruising. It's baffling to me, and I wanted to warn you in advance so you can skip this one before reading any further if you're so inclined. My parents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this month so last week we left the kids with Tami's parents and went on a cruise with all my siblings, their spouses and my parents. I'm the youngest of six kids so there were 14 of us total. A cruise wasn't my first choice, but your parent's 60th celebration is the place to go along. Turns out this might have been the perfect trip for a big family with varying interests and lifestyles (I guess that's every family). We all got to do our own thing, but still we're together and played a lot of cards and ate many meals together. Running on the ship left something to be desired but I was prepared for that. I felt fortunate for the treadmill (can't believe I'm saying that) and all the drills I've learned in Kyle's strength classes. I even got a couple good runs in at ports which is always my favorite way to explore a new place anyway. All and all, a great trip. Fun to celebrate my parents, and great to get some time with Tami. As always, it's good to come home to Central Oregon. Cheers-Teague

Max train continues to roll

The 2009 US half marathon national championships took place over the weekend and from the results it looks like it was a fast race. Local honch runner Max King came in 10th overall with a time of 1:03:49. For those of you who are math challenged like me that's 4:53 pace...wow! Nice job Max! The picture is from Xterra but it's all I got.

Horse Butte & Horse Ridge - Giddyup!

I'm sure we all can conclude that we were teased by the gorgeous weather last week making us question whether or not this really is January... And, with exception to the inversion we had on Saturday, Sunday and part of today.. which was a staunch reminder that yep, we're still in the trenches of winter, it can't be denied that we've sure been spoiled by an abundance of sunshine lately!! If you haven't received your fix of Vitamin D and you've yet to venture east of town now wouldn't be a bad time. Tonya and Geoff reported that Horse Butte was awesome on Sunday with only a few spots of mud-- plus, March 29th is rapidly approaching for the Horse Butte 10 miler. Even further east, Amy and I escaped to Horse Ridge and although we were mountain biking we were awed by how perfect the trails were- not to mention the view of the snow-capped peaks to the west from the top of Horse Ridge. With all the amazing trail conditions right now it's hard for for me not to mention that our shipment of the Mizuno Wave Ascend 4 arrived a little over a week ago. The concensus around the shop has been positive-- with a more aggressive outsole and re-tooled upper we're pretty excited to get your opinion. Lastly, we received a mountain of Brooks "Cascading" off the shelves and I have to share this photo of all the boxes...I took this shot looking down from the"No Step" top of the ladder in our stock room which is about 14 feet off the ground. Hooray for Brooks!!! If you've yet to read Teague's review of the new Cascadia check out his blog entry. So, enjoy the trails and keep running!
Rob