Running around TrackTown USA
By Riley Nachtrieb (SetJetters Social Media Manager & ultra endurance runner)
Eugene, Oregon is well-known around the world for being a Mecca for athletes. Also known as TrackTown USA, this outdoors-oriented town located within the Willamette Valley has not only produced many Olympic athletes, hosted a couple Olympic trials, and hosts the headquarters of Nike, but Eugene is also featured as a key location in many hit movies.
“I didn’t even know movies were filmed in Eugene!”
Don’t worry you're not alone! Many people don’t know movies were filmed in the heart of this city, and that’s where the SetJetters app comes in! Helping you visit the filming locations and recreate the scenes!
Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon
First, about me - I love running and movies. Along with being SetJetters’ Social Media and Community Manager, I am an ultra endurance runner (a person who runs 48+ kilometers/30+ miles in one effort!). So when I was offered the opportunity to travel to Eugene to make a route for film locations, run it, and earn the new SetJetters “Eugene Run/Walk” badge, I instantly said yes. What a better way to travel to these movie scene locations than running to them, in America’s ‘running town’?
Now, onto the movies and how you can find the filming locations! You may not have heard of this guy, Steve Prefontaine… oh wait, you have? Well, did you know there is a movie about him called Without Limits? And it was filmed all over Eugene, even in the actual places where Prefontaine used to train.
If you plan to earn the SetJetters ‘Eugene Run/Walk’ Badge, the 12.9 kilometer (8 mile) route I created starts at the Oregon Film Trail sign for Without Limits, at the beginning of Pre’s Trail in Alton Baker Park. The Oregon Film Trail is a network of physical signs you can visit, detailing information about a movie that has been filmed there. So, for example, the OFT sign at the start of our route is for Without Limits.
Even within a few minutes, you arrive at where a scene was filmed from 2016’s Tracktown (Where else would you film a movie called Tracktown?!). Tracktown is a coming-of-age sports film that was written, directed by and starred an Olympic runner, Alexi Pappas. She was an NCAA All-American athlete at both Dartmouth College and the University of Oregon, having represented Greece at the 2016 Summer Olympics, setting the national record for the 10K event.
As you continue along the route, you cross the Willamette River and head into town, towards the University of Oregon. This is where you begin to see the famous Hayward Field. Hayward Field is on the University of Oregon’s campus, and is home to more movie scene locations from Without Limits and Tracktown. Across the street from Hayward Field is Eugene Fire Station #13, and you will find an Oregon Film Trail sign for the movie Tracktown. And if you’re not into sports dramas, other films like National Lampoons’ Animal House were filmed on the campus, and you can find those scenes on the SetJetters app too!
Continuing west along the outskirts of Hayward field, you will begin to approach the Pioneer Memorial Cemetery. This cemetery was featured in Without Limits, and was an actual spot Prefontaine used to run through. It is noted in the movie that he used to memorize every gravestone in the cemetery from his runs. You can find where these scenes are, and recreate them using our ShotSync camera on the SetJetters app.
From the cemetery, you're also about two blocks away from where they filmed the Animal House scene where Dean Wormer starts scheming against the rebellious Delta House fraternity. The administration building looks exactly the same!
Coming out of the campus, you have quite a few of the 12 filming locations collected in order to get the Eugene Walk/Run Badge. There is an awesome mural near the Whiteaker Community from the movie Tracktown. Although it is now a different painting, that’s one of the reasons I love SetJetting, it’s a time capsule of history that you can visit. Maybe it will be different again when you visit!
To wrap up the route, you end back at the Without Limits Oregon Film Trail sign. You’ve collected all of the scenes needed in order to receive a Eugene Walk/Run Badge! Thank goodness for the water fountain near the sign!
I hope you enjoyed the Eugene Walk/Run route and collecting filming locations as much as I did. I never set foot in Eugene before, but now I know all the in’s and out’s, and I hope you feel the same way.
SetJetters is the app that puts film locations in the palm of your hand.
Download for free on Android or Apple stores, and we look forward to seeing your photos from your favorite movie locations.
