Bowling for, well, Runners.

The first annual Rogue Valley Runners Christmas Challenge got started on the wrong foot Tuesday night at Roxy Ann Lanes thanks in large part to a lack of focus and numerous "running" injuries. The first game was a battle of the sexes as Ron "Ronaldino" Kleiman pinched bowled his way out of retirement to lead all scorers with a 170 point gem. Not to be out done "Carlita" Varner managed to pull the ladies within earshot but it was the antics of her fellow teammates "slowball" Langford and Darcy "can we use bumpers" Kleiman that surely lead to their demise. However, game two saw a miraculous comeback as ladies flaunted their win in the face of Jeremiah "jer bear" Lewmans strong showing for the men and Ronaldinos closing turkey (3 strikes in the last frame)! Hal "El Jefe" Koerner and Nick "Guero" David rounded out the scoring, or was it dropped the bottom out of the average I don't know! I'm sure we wont find any of them spinning on the parkay until this time next year, Amen!

4th annual S.O.F.A 50k

It just so happens that a lot of Oregon ultrarunners celebrate their birthday on the same weekend in January. To add injury to insult, the southern oregon fat ass has become an anuual right of passage. Tim Turk will be having a "milestone" birthday, then we have Craig Thornley, Jeff Riley, Marcus Mayfield, Clayton Gillette and new Oregonian Hal Koerner all celebrating on the same weekend. The plan is to run the Wild and Scenic Rogue River trail till we have our fill of "fun" or 32 mies which ever comes first. We'll leave Graves creek about 9AM on Saturday, January 20th and run out-n-back for a total of about 50k. Remember, out-n-back means you can cut it short or make it long. Last year we had a record 27 runners! We hope to see you there!

This is a self-supported run that crosses countless streams that many of us have drunk from for years without incident. Do I need to mention rain, after all this is Oregon, right? Oh yeah, poison oak too.

From the north, take the Wolf Creek exit #76 to the Graves Creek trailhead.

From the South, take the Merlin exit #61 and do the same.

Dashing Through the Snow

The holidays have arrived and there is no time like the present ( pardon the pun) for all of you last minute shoppers to come in and take advantage of our great selection of cold weather tops and bottoms as well as our accesories to keep your hands and head warm this winter season.

We will be open everyday this winter season except Christmas and will be closing at 3 on Christmas eve.

Whiskeytown 50k

Carly and Hal made the trip south of the border last weekend, as did some fellow Ashlanders, Medfordians, and valley dwellers, to run around in the hills west of Redding California at the Whiskeytown 50k and 30k. Hal broke the long standing course record in the 50k(ok 2003 wasn't that long ago) by running 4:12. It was a great run, with a wide variety of trails and numerous stream crossings. All so very important when trying not to focus on the fact that one is trying to cover some 31 miles on dirt paths and roads. Carly, running her farthest distance to date brought home second place in the 30k event running 3:15. Store regular and Talent resident Joshua Hough finished strong in the 50k as well in 6:07 and ultra-running aficionado Ben Benjamin followed closely behind with a 6:32 showing. Congrats to all!

180 days in the valley

Well, we've made it this long and there is no turning back now! Store runs have moved up an hour to 5 o'clock on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we are anxiously awaiting more new faces. We have demo headlamps to run with so don't be discouraged by the fading sun.