Johanna Olson Passes from Brain Cancer

If you've been following Johanna's blog, you probably knew this was coming soon...Johanna passed away yesterday after a long fight against brain cancer.

A tribute to Johanna from Runner's World.

I had the opportunity to interview Johanna a while back for RaceCenter and found her to be a wonderful, polite and, of course, a great and knowledgeable runner!

Go out on a run, appreciate that you can, and give Johanna a good thought while you're running.

Put That Grande Latte Down....Now!

Nice article in the Corvallis Gazette-Times today (and it's not often I can praise the G-T, so listen up). A little article about a benefit race for Johanna Olson (notice that the G-T misspells her name in the photo caption...did I mention about the G-T?).

Anyway, Johanna is fighting her second battle against brain cancer and needs some help paying the bills. Fighting cancer is never cheap and fighting it for the second time in a few years is very much not cheap.

As you can read in the article, Johanna is not only a former OSU cross country assistant coach, but she's also a two-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier. I interviewed her for an article for RaceCenter magazine a while back (the same article I interviewed Meghan Arbogast for, and hey, there they are, running together!) and she's not only a great runner, but also a nice, giving, friendly, person. Exactly the kind of person you could give some money to!

So skip your Starbucks and Qdoba for today and put that $20 to good use. Head over to Johanna's site here, and donate for a very good cause.

Northwest Running and Triathlon Calendar - July 2013

Another good looking week for triathletes. Get them in while you can, it will be raining and cold again before you know it!

Let's race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF JULY 15th to JULY 21st

July 20th / Schweitzer Mountain Trail Run 10m and 3.5m / Sandpoint, ID

July 20th / Wild Woman Trail Marathon / Trout Lake, WA

July 20th / Goats in the Hills Trail Run 7.3m / Helena, MT

July 20th / Elephant's Perch Backcountry Run in Honor of Johanna Olson 16.5m and 10m / Ketchum, ID

July 20th / Newman Lake Trail 25k and 5k / Spokane, WA

July 21st / McCubbin's Gulch Scramble Trail Run 6m / Mount Hood, OR

July 21st / XTERRA Lord Hill Trail Run Half Marathon and 10k / Snohomish, WA

July 20th / ChelanMan Half Marathon and 10k / Chelan, WA

July 20th / Lakefair Half Marathon and 8k / Olympia, WA

July 20th / Big Sky Games Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Billings, MT

July 20th / Wind Horse Half Marathon / Bellingham, WA

July 20th / Idaho Falls Half Marathon / Idaho Falls, ID

July 21st / Klamath County Run for Kids Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Klamath Falls, OR

July 21st / Running Wolf Half Marathon / Stanford, MT

July 21st / Run in the Country Half Marathon / Coburg, OR

July 21st / Harvest Days Half Marathon and 8k / Battle Ground, WA

July 20th / XTERRA La Grande Offroad Triathlon Olympic- / La Grande, OR

July 20th / Padden Duathlon Sprint / Bellingham, WA

July 20th / Tiger Tri Triathlon Sprint+ / Colville, WA

July 20th / Fat Salmon Open Water Swim 3.2m / Seattle, WA

July 20th / ChelanMan Triathlon Iron and Olympic / Chelan, WA

July 20th / Beaverhead Y - Tri Triathlon Sprint / Dillon, MT

July 20th / Blackfoot Triathlon Sprint / Blackfoot, ID

July 21st / Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Half-Iron / Lake Stevens, WA

July 21st / ChelanMan Triathlon Sprint / Chelan, WA

July 21st / Benaroya Seafair Triathlon Olympic and Sprint / Seattle, WA

July 21st / Big Sky Games Triathlon Olympic and Sprint / Billings, MT

July 21st / Girlfriends and Dudes Triathlon and Duathlon Sprint / Vancouver, WA

July 17th / IRC Mid-Summer 5k / Auburn, WA (Wednesday Night Race!)

July 18th / Cherry Pickers Trot 4m / Mead, WA (Thursday Night Race!)

July 20th / Creswell Run for the Kids Rhythm Run 8k and 5k / Creswell, OR

July 20th / Hubbard Hop Festival Fun Run 10k and 5k / Hubbard, OR

July 20th / Manzanita Beach Run 10k and 5k / Manzanita, OR

July 20th / Rose City Rivalry 5k / Portland, OR

July 20th / Tin Cup Challenge 10k and 5k / Driggs, ID

July 20th / Trot for Tots 10k and 5k / Portland, OR

July 20th / Seaside Beach Run 10k and 5k / Seaside, OR

July 20th / Ft. Dalles Days Run 10k and 5k / The Dalles, OR

July 20th / Shoreline Run 10m / Richland, WA

July 20th / Float Dodger 5k / Seattle, WA

July 20th / Refuse to Abuse at Safeco Field 5k / Seattle, WA

July 20th / Bill Burby Inspirational 10k and 5k / Vashon Island, WA

July 20th / Bald Eagle Days 10k and 5k / Cathlamet, WA

July 20th / Kla Ha Ya Days 5m / Snohomish, WA

July 20th / Oakesdale's Old Mill Fun Run 5m / Oakesdale, WA

July 20th / Red Robin Yummm Run 5k / Boise, ID

July 20th / Pound for Pound 5k / Olympia, WA

July 20th / Raspberry 5k / Lynden, WA

July 20th / Sage's Memorial Dash 5k / Newport, WA

July 20th / Nightlite Dash 5k / Idaho Falls, ID

July 20th / SpoKeyna 7k / Spokane, WA

July 20th / Subway Gallop 5k / Auburn, WA

July 20th / Warrior Dash 5k / Bonney Lake, WA

July 20th / World Concern Mud Run 5k / Poulsbo, WA

July 20th / Get Your Color On 5k / Salem, OR

July 20th / Lighthouse and Lake 5k / Winchester Bay, OR

July 20th / Miners' Jubilee Fun Run 10k and 5k / Baker City, OR

July 21st / Swedish SummeRun 5k / Seattle, WA