With the shaggy brown hair reminiscent of his lifetime idol, Adam Oster epitomizes the stereotypical appearance of the modern cross-country runner: yellow Livestrong band, Nike shoes, short shorts, flat stomach and shaved legs.
Rightfully so, for the Oregon native lives, breathes and ultimately bleeds green and yellow – the collegiate colors long associated with one of cross-country’s greatest: Steve Prefontaine. This year marked the 30th anniversary of the legendary runner’s death, and all one needs to do is visit Oster’s apartment to gain a sense of appreciation he feels for the University of Oregon runner affectionately known as Pre.
A poster-sized portrait adorns the living room. Magazine clippings fill counter tops. Banners hang from the ceiling. A feature from The Oregonian hangs in a frame on the wall. The same article is pinned in his bedroom. Another copy rests on the wall of his roommate’s wall.
His mother mailed four total copies, “just in case one of them gets ruined,” Oster said.
“It’s a good article about rockstar runners,” he added. “My favorite quote is: ‘Pre wasn’t a runner. He was a rebel who happened to run,’ because Pre totally revolutionized the sport of running in terms of where it is today.”
However, the 19-year-old freshman engineering major, is no wannabe.
He finished in the top one-half percent of the 48,000 who ran Bloomsday this year, second in his age group and 188th overall. He won first place in 5K Kootenai County Substance Abuse Fun Run earlier this year.
Then there was the Bloomsday Road Runners Club Ultimate Runner Championship race. Oster ran five races (5K, 400-m, 100-m, 1600-m, 10K, respectively) in less than two and a half hours, holding first place until the final three minutes when he took second to a sponsored runner from Spokane Falls Community College.
He also won the 8K Spring Dash this year for his age group and took third in the Sherman Mile with a personal record of 4 minutes, 46 seconds.
“What drives me to run is mental sanity,” Oster said. “When I get pissed off, I run hard. When I want to think, I run slow and long. It helps me bring clarity to a lot of things; it’s really taught me a lot about myself and what I can do physically.”
When he learned the hard way in seventh grade that he was too small for football (“I was a puny linebacker against a bunch of refrigerators”), he took up track. Yet when running laps proved too boring, he branched into the longer distances that cross country offered. He wrestled until he tore a muscle in his back and has since become a runner for life.
Even at work, Oster finds times to run – during his lunch break. No matter the weather, when lunchtime lingers, so do Oster’s running shoes.
“He really is a freak of nature,” said a former co-worker. “I’ve never seen a guy run through the snow day after day, let alone the rain. He puts himself through workouts I couldn’t even imagine.”
As far as workouts go, Oster gets help from former NIC track coach Lewis Watkins.
“We don’t get together a lot,” Oster said, “but he basically gives me workouts. I manipulate them and know how to tweak them to specifically work on what I need.”
He’s not much of an early morning runner, so save for the lunchtime sprints, his big runs come between school and work, and then after work before attempting homework. A good workout provides just enough strenuous activity to clear his mind for school then drains his body for a long night’s sleep.
Said Oster’s roommate, fellow Oregon native and NIC student, David Brejule: “What Adam does for the sport of running is phenomenal. He goes balls to the walls and simply has a passion for running that very few people can understand.”
And when school, work and running are done for the day, it’s that passion that keeps Oster looking for the next race to run.
Local magazines, such as The Race Rag, provide information on area races and running competitions. Yet Oster also keeps in touch with the track coach from Spokane Falls Community College, who also informs him of running events.
“I go through the schedules of local community colleges and find any invitationals,” Oster said. “I’m counted as a collegiate athlete because I’m in college. I can enter in the “open” division, obviously unattatched as NIC has no running program.”
Yet Oster’s ultimate goal – other than growing a Fu Manchu mustache and long sideburns to match his shaggy mop top and mimic his hero, Pre – is to form a Cardinal running club. While he’s already asked around, the interest level isn’t where he wants it.
“If it’s only two or three of us out there, there’s really no point,” Oster said. “I’d feel good if I had about 10 people who got together once a week and ran together. I’d like it to be more than that, though, and have enough to form a cross country team and enter races as a team.”
Generally, a cross country team has seven runners in a race, and the top five are scored. Yet if 10 runners competed, scoring becomes easier.
“If I can get a good turnout,” he said, “I would be more than happy to spearhead damn near anything I possibly can.”
The same passion that long ago inhibited a skinny kid from Coos Bay, Ore., to redefine the definition of a cross-country runner is easily identifiable in another Oregon native. While Pre ran through the streets of Track Town, USA (aka the University of Oregon in Eugene), Oster is running through the streets, trails, mountains and campus of the “college by the lake.”
“It’s always fun when someone walks into my apartment and asks if that’s me in the poster on my wall.”
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