What could be more fitting for a campus steeped in track history than to offer prospective students and parents the opportunity to tread on the hallowed paths of students and Olympians before them? Beginning Sept. 5, the University of Oregon will offer campus running tours as a supplement to the existing walking tour.

“There is only one university in the world that could offer a running tour of this kind,” said Roger Thompson, the UO’s vice president for enrollment management. “The University of Oregon has a long history of sports innovation, with a powerful example in the birth of Nike, the world’s leading sports and apparel company, and its historic Hayward Field hosts many premier national and global track events. In addition, some of the world’s top track athletes have trained and competed on these trails, including America's greatest distance runner, Steve Prefontaine.”

The inaugural tour will be co-hosted by Olympian and UO alumnus Andrew Wheating and student ambassador Ray Grant. Grant and fellow student ambassadors developed and lead the running tour.

“The excitement and energy that our student ambassadors have brought to this project is infectious,” said Cora Bennett, director of student orientation programs. “Ray has run the circuit countless times to ensure we have the tour timing down to a science, without missing any of the highlights along the way.”

The tour is slightly more than a 5K in length and is led by student ambassador tour guides, who lead potential applicants along running trails on and near campus and TrackTown USA. Guides will stop along the way to answer questions and provide details on UO programs and services.

Featured along the route will be the UO Urban Garden and Autzen Stadium. The tour ends with a victory lap around Hayward Field.

“It’s fitting that each tour will end with a lap on Hayward's storied track," Thompson says.