Photo: www.VisitBend.com - Will this be included in the course?! Say yes.

USA Track and Field announced that Bend, Ore. will play host to the 2016 and 2017 USATF Cross Country Championships.

The USATF Championships will be held at the River’s Edge Golf Course, the location where Bend previously hosted the 2013 Club Cross Country Championships, though there will be slight changes to the route.

Perhaps Bend’s most famous resident from the running community, Lauren Fleshman, had great things to say in a statement from USATF. “I’m thrilled with the updates to the course, and I’m confident it will reward the fittest athletes in the group," Fleshman said. “This race is going to embody the passion so many of us feel for cross country running and the community of Bend.”



From the photos on VisitBend.com, Bend looks like the sort of town that would welcome runners with open arms. According to the website, Bend is something like this: “In what could be classified as one of the worst kept secrets in destination travel, the word is out about the unique combination of outdoor recreation and cosmopolitan sophistication that make Bend, Oregon, one of the United States’ up-and-coming leisure destinations.”