Bulletin E-Edition:
Bend’s Ron Taylor, standing in front of some of the bib numbers he wore over the last six years, keeps himself moving by participating in nearly every running and multisport event in Central Oregon.
Dave Martinez / The Bulletin
An eye for the finish, and all things Bend
Local resident Ron Taylor racks up races throughout the High Desert
By Katie Brauns / The Bulletin
Published: September 15. 2009 4:00AM PSTIf it were anywhere but Central Oregon, competing in 23 local races in the span of a year would be an unheard-of undertaking — and in many cases, simply impossible.
But not only are there enough races here on Oregon’s High Desert through the year, some race enthusiasts actually participate in nearly all of them.
Like Bend’s Ron Taylor.
Now 54, Taylor started competing regularly in 2004.
“One day,” says Taylor, “I just got a wild hair and decided, you know, I want to do the Pole Pedal Paddle (an annual multisport event in Bend). I wanted to do it individually. I had to do the whole thing. I never skate-skied before. So I went out and bought a pair of skate skis.
“This was six weeks before the race. And I started training.”
Since then he has missed only one PPP, which happened to be the following year due to a broken left foot suffered while racing his mountain bike. The injury did not stall Taylor for long, as later in 2005 he competed in a Bend duathlon, the Duel in the Desert. More bad luck put Taylor in the hospital again in May 2005, this time with a dislocated left shoulder from falling off his bike in the Duel in the Desert.
But not to be denied, Taylor just a few weeks later ran in the Dirty Half Marathon, a 13.1-mile trail race in Bend.
“In 2006, I really started hitting a lot of races,” he observes, adding that he completed 23 races that year.
Among those races were the Horse Butte 10-Mile Trail Run, the PPP, the Duel in the Desert, the Salmon Run, the Bigfoot 10K running race, the Sunrise to Summit (a footrace up Mount Bachelor), the River Trail Ramble running race, the Deschutes Dash duathlon, and the Haulin’ Aspen half-marathon.
“That’s when I really started getting into nordic ski racing, too.”
That year he completed the Great Nordeen 30K and the Par Fore the Course, both nordic races held at and around Mount Bachelor.
Taylor has always been competitive. He grew up in Portland and in his youth was a downhill skier, racing at Mount Hood and on other peaks around the Northwest.
He played recreational soccer — both the outdoor and indoor varieties — for several years after moving to Bend, where his parents and several other relatives currently live. Taylor has lived in Bend for nearly 20 years. Now single, Taylor has three adult children and four grandchildren.
Name almost any outdoor activity — from fishing to waterskiing, kayaking to alpine skiing, hiking to road biking — and Taylor currently partakes or competes in the sport. He competes in nordic skiing, mountain biking and kayaking. And, of course, in his favorite sport: running.
“He’s got a passion for running,” says racing buddy Craig Mavis, of Bend, “He also does boating and running events — some of these cross sports. It’s a social thing, too.
“We’ll train together on the (Deschutes) River Trail. It seems like everybody we pass, he knows. ... He’s sort of known by all.”
Taylor is an active member of the Bend Hash House Harriers, having attended all but one of the 26 hash runs since the club’s inception last July. Hashing, which is a worldwide network of runners who socialize and drink brews while running, has developed a regular following in Bend, and Taylor helps keep it alive.
“Ron is literally at almost everything,” says Teague Hatfield, whose running store, FootZone of Bend, sponsors numerous local running events. “Whether it’s a race, a scavenger hunt, hash run — he avidly participates in all of them. And he is a great guy and character. He’s one of those guys who makes the running community.”
Taylor’s occupation is, in a way, quite the opposite of his active pastimes: He is a truck driver. He hauls flatbed trucks, usually stocked with lumber, around the region.
“You don’t see too many truck drivers that are runners,” says Taylor, laughing.
Though Taylor’s job eats into his workout time and his hours are erratic, he says driving truck for a living does allow him to train in some unusual places.
“I get to do some neat things,” says Taylor. “I stopped (recently) up by Diamond Lake and threw on my running shoes and a running shirt and went out and ran for an hour and a half in some of the most beautiful forests around there.
“I carry my mountain bike and do trail rides along the way. I stop at Mount Hood, I go up to Yakima (in central Washington). ... I get around. That’s what truck driving does.”
Taylor ’s race list is epic. He even competed in the Winter Triathlon National Championships in January 2008 at Mount Bachelor and won the men’s 50-54 age group, though there were only a few others in his division.
“You always feel a sense of accomplishment when you are done with a race,” says Taylor. “I think that’s pretty important to me, to feel that accomplishment that I’ve finished. I’ve had some races where halfway through I really felt like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But I’ve never dropped out of a race, other than injury.”
Taylor also likes the fact that with almost every race in which he competes he helps raise funds for one worthy organization or another.
“It’s a way for me to give to causes,” he says.
It’s not as if Taylor has made a mission to hit every race. He simply likes competing, and socializing.
“I really, really like the people that I race with,” he says. “The community here in Bend, whether it’s the biking community, or the running community or kayaking community — and they’re all intermixed — the people are just great. There is a whole spectrum of athletes. There are some really good athletes in this town, but there are a lot of people like me and a lot of people that aren’t as good as me even. There’s a lot of people that just have a passion for going to these races and having a good time.”
Though he did place first in the men’s 50-54 age group at the Pole Pedal Paddle this past May, Taylor does not often win races. His usual goal is to place in the top quarter of the entire field.
After all, as he says with a chuckle: “You know what they say — you think you’re an athlete until you come to Bend. Then you find out, oops, maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was.”
Katie Brauns can be reached at 541-383-0393 or at kbrauns@bendbulletin.com.
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