On what seemed to be Eugene’s sunniest spring day yet, over 10,000 participants took off past UO’s shimmering Hayward Field on April 26. Runners faced the same miles of hardship and perseverance, but each carried their own motivation to finish.
Parker Washington flew into Eugene from San Diego, filled with nerves and excitement for the 26.2-mile race. Despite being a college basketball player and the manager of a fitness club, he didn’t feel totally capable of reaching his goal of finishing the Eugene Marathon in under four hours.
Having always been active and preparing for the race for over a year, Parker still found many moments of self-doubt throughout his first marathon. What helped him succeed with a time of 3:55:35 was his wife, Fontayne Washington. Fontayne is a nine-time marathon runner who had just finished the Boston Marathon six days before arriving in Eugene.
“I remember not being a runner, and you don’t realize how much goes into running a marathon, and how much prep it takes; and back then, I don’t feel like I was as near as supportive as I am now, and so we’ve really been leaning on each other,” Parker said.
“It’s way more difficult than you think it’s gonna be, and she makes it look really easy,” he nodded toward his smiling wife while lying on the bright green turf near the finish line.
Fontayne also described the power running has in bringing people together. “Everyone just feels like one big family. Because I feel like in that moment, it’s so raw, and you see people at their worst and also their highest. It’s hard to find something like that,” she said.
Not only are people running to beat personal records and overcome new athletic challenges, but some are also running for causes bigger than themselves.
Two UO students, Taylor Parker and Hana Mazur, are a perfect example. They ran in honor of hostages and wrongful detainees with the goal of spreading awareness and creating hope for those affected by the wide-reaching and devastating impacts of hostage taking.
In the UO Hostage Diplomacy course I am part of, Mazur and Parker have focused their project on running as a form of resistance. They were inspired by marathon runner and former hostage Anoosheh Ashoori, who was a guest speaker in the class.
Ashoori emphasized the importance of something positive to come out of his experience and found running to be a “part of his salvation.” He finished the London Marathon on the same day as those running in Eugene.
Another pair running for a noble cause was Cleven and Nehemia Mmari. The pair ran in honor of Erick Munene Njue, a Ph.D. student at UO who was recently killed in a local traffic accident. I witnessed large groups wandering around the marathon route in matching shirts with Munene Njue’s photo and a message for Eugene City Council to “Act Now” against traffic deaths. The simple graphic held a powerful message.
Whether it’s running for fun, for hostage diplomacy or in honor of a beloved community member, the result is the same: a highly emotional finish at Hayward Field with students, friends and family members cheering on their runner and the thousands of random strangers who participated. The Eugene Marathon sheds light on the power of community-centered events.
