A TRACK CITY TRADITION by birchy99
Like to run? Well, show up in Eugene on July 4th every year and you can enter a butte of a race. The Butte to Butte is a 10K run from the foot of Spencer's Butte on the South end of town to Skinner's Butte in the center of town. But there is more to it than that. The first leg of the run goes "up" Donald Street". First timers who haven't surveyed the course usually end up winded by the time the reach the top at mile one. Yours truly can testify to that. (Yes, I've run the BTB three times in my younger, slimmer years.) Then it's a crazy two mile downhill which seems so easy at first but can be painful on the legs and feet by mile three. Mile 5 brings you to the railroad crossing, where if you're lucky you get to take a break while a slow moving freight train trudges through town. Then on to Skinner's Butte Park to the finish line.Started in 1973, originally, as "Storm the Butte" over 400 runners literally tore their way up and down Spencer's butte, a 900 foot climb. But the environmental impact on the park's trails was so great that the event was changed to a road run and eventually morphed into today's Butte to Butte 10K and Mayor's Walk.