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The Pole Pedal Paddle is Bend’s signature sporting event. Marshall Greene has won the last four, as far as Central Oregon Athlete is concerned, that makes him a BIG deal! But Greene is more than just a dominating PPP champion. He recently took third @ the Boulder Mountain Tour and is an elite level endurance athlete. Greene was kind enough to answer a few questions for COA:
Central Oregon Athlete – Where did you grow up?
Marshall Greene – Grew up in Spokane. Ran xc for Lewis and Clark HS and skied with the club
team there, Spokane Nordic.
COA – How long have you lived in Bend?
MG – I moved to Bend shortly after graduating from Middlebury College in VT in
2004.
COA – What brought you to Bend?
MG – I came to Bend to pursue cross-country ski racing full time. For
“professional” nordic ski racers, there are only a few places in the country
with post-collegiate club teams that provide the support (financially and
technically) necessary to be succesful as a ski racer. Many of these places
are in the middle of nowhere and don’t really have anything to offer besides
the ski team. I knew that I wouldn’t be ski training all 24 hours of the
day and I wanted a place where I could live happily the rest of the day.
Bend was the obvious choice.
COA – What’s next on your racing schedule?
MG – I’m leaving for Madison, WI for a Super Tour event this weekend. After that
I’ll be heading to Europe for three weekends of racing. First weekend will
be in a Swiss national level race, 2nd weekend is a Europa Cup (the World
Cup qualifying races for Central Europe), and then the last weekend I’ll
race the Engadin Ski Marathon with 12,000 others.
COA – What’s something that most people don’t know about you?
MG – I’m incredibly forgetful. I lose and leave things everywhere –on my
honeymoon I left my passport in a taxi at the Thai/Cambodia border.
COA – As the winner of multiple PPPs you are clearly a multifaceted racer/athlete,
what other sports do you enjoy?
MG – I love participating in pretty much every sport. I still run all the time
and do some road bike racing. Mt. biking is tons of fun but a little
dangerous for me — I crash hard and often. I played baseball and
basketball growing up so I even enjoy team sports from time to time.
COA – What makes the PPP special?
MG – I would love to say that the PPP distinguishes the best all-around endurance
athlete in the area but that’s really not true. Cross-country skiing
requires so much technique that if you haven’t been doing it for a long
time, it’s very difficult to make the podium. That said, the PPP is unique
in that it challenges people to become proficient at so mnay different
sports.
What REALLY makes the PPP special is how many people all over Central Oregon
get into it. Whether they are volunteering, being a team member in an event
they’ve never tried before, or racing alone, the whole community gets into
the race. That’s pretty cool for sure.
COA – What is your favorite workout in Central Oregon?
MG – It’s hard to beat some of the trail running that is so accessible around
here. One of my favorite loops starts at the Tumalo Falls parking lot, goes
up the Bridge Creek trail up to Trail 99, and then down North Fork. It goes
through the watershed and stays green much longer into the summer than many
of the trails that start to turn to dust by June. Also Bridge Creek is a
pretty infrequently used trail and bikes aren’t allowed on it so you really
feel like you’re out there all alone. Obviously I’ve got nothing against
mt. bikers — I am one, after all — but sometimes, it’s pretty cool to have
real solitude even without having to be too far from a trailhead. I’m not
sure if I’ve ever met another group of people on it in all the times of run
it.
