“I find it to be a great stress reduceras it takes my mind off my studies for a moment and lets me enjoy the outdoors and all it has to offer.”~First-time participant Theresa Pooler
William James
The Broadside
May 20 features the tenth year of the Jungle Run, the second of the three races in the May Race Series here at Central Oregon Commu¬nity College.
The first male and female participants to finish the four mile trail run will receive an award, as will the top male and female competitors from Juniper Hall.
A prize awaits any competitor that can locate one of the five plastic snakes hidden carefully around the single-track trail.
Bill Douglass, the Club Sports Director at Central Oregon Community College, noted that locating the snakes on the trail has become a popular part of the competition.
“It was something we developed in earlier years,” said Douglass.
Last year, the Jungle Run hosted 125 competitors and Douglass expects the same sort of turnout, especially because of the stepped-up campaign by Club Sports to get more people involved in the Race Series.
“Turnout has been pretty consistent through the years,” Douglass said, “Though, we have advertised more this year than we have in the past.”
Participants have a choice between a four-mile trail run or a two-mile trail walk, both of which start and finish on the COCC track.
The course includes mud bogs, which the competitors must slog through if they want to avoid a cold blast of water by the Mud Management Team, consisting of a few volunteers.
“It became part of the practice” to blast students that would not traverse the bog said COCC’s track coach, Tony Monroe.
Several steep ascents and descents accentuate the trail between the campus track and Mt. Washington Drive, as well as other physical challenges that will test the abilities of the participants. Competitors may want to keep an eye out for the “rainforest”: sprinkler hoses strung up on the trees.
“Personally, I find it to be a great stress reducer as it takes my mind off my studies for a moment and lets me enjoy the outdoors and all it has to offer,” says first-time participant Theresa Pooler, who will be teaming with her friend as ‘Team Monkeys’. Pooler has participated in the first race in the Series, the 6 Mile Relay.
The Jungle Run/Walk is free to COCC and Oregon State University-Cascades students and staff. The entry fee for all other participants is five dollars, and you can register for the competition between 4:30 and 5:15 p.m. on the COCC track the day of the event.
You may contact William James at [email protected]
