Photo below is of Steve Prefontaine.

I'm not sure what I expected upon visiting the Nike Campus, though I certainly didn't expect the world headquarters of this sports juggernaut to sneak up on me. But it did sort of appear out of nowhere, this multi- billion-dollar corporation with all of its 23,000 employees. The modern looking campus is hidden behind a barricade of tall pine trees in the unassuming suburb of Beaverton, OR, a few miles southwest of Portland.

There aren't any heavily armed guards or secret passwords barring entry to the campus, or ostentatious Nike insignia marking your arrival. You simply enter via waterfall-lined Bowerman Drive and find yourself in the heart of Planet Nike.

If you have even a general appreciation for what Nike has brought to the sports world, whether you've donned a pair of their patented air- cushioned shoes, idolized their sponsored athletes, or swung a Tiger Woods endorsed golf club, it's easy to lose your breath at the very thought that this is the native land for all things Nike.

I was in Beaverton to learn about the newest edition of the Air Max running shoe-the Air Max 360. The shoe is the product of 25 years of innovative technology that has gone into previous Air Max models. Nike first exposed their air cushion unit within the 1987 Air Max, and they have finally realized their dream of an entirely exposed air unit; no foam, just 360 degrees of air.

The attending media was educated about the painstaking research and rigorous testing that went into the development of this particular shoe, everything from the look, feel, and design, to the science that bore Nike's most exciting cushion technology to date-a foamless midsole that makes the Air Max 360 the most cushioned, most flexible, and the lightest Air Max model ever.

The media summit was held, appropriately, in the Steve Prefontaine building, and on breaks I'd wander among the other buildings that are named in honor of Nike's most iconic athletes- Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Mia Hamm, and Tiger Woods, to name a few.

But the campus is not just a population of office buildings. Rather, the corporate grounds are reflective of the active lifestyle on which the Nike brand was established.

Founded by Bill Bowerman, the late University of Oregon track and cross country coach, and U of O runner Phil Knight, Nike has always been forward thinking and performance based. Bowerman was a meticulous innovator and a darn good coach who was always searching for ways to give his athletes a competitive edge. The first Nike shoes were born in Bowerman's garage by pouring rubber into his wife's waffle iron. Bowerman's prototype shoes were not meant to launch a global footwear enterprise, simply to help his runners run faster.

World-class athletes like Steve Prefontaine helped shape Nike footwear by putting the product to the test and holding it to the highest standards. And when Nike branched into other sports, athletes such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods helped do the same. With a commitment to competitive athletes and the fitness lifestyle, the campus is equal parts corporate headquarters, athlete tributary, and fitness wonderland.

Each building is dedicated to an athlete who is synonymous with the brand, the lobbies transformed into a museum of sorts, and other corporate amenities include state-of-the art fitness centers, restaurants and cafes, a pro quality soccer pitch, wood- chipped running trails that meander through the campus, and a 400-meter track tucked back in the woods.

I left the Nike Campus with excitement about their new footwear product, but more importantly, with an appreciation for their greater commitment to the athletic lifestyle.

Running on the Nike Campus

The best way I found to soak up the fit and fresh atmosphere at Nike HQ was to actually lace up my Shox and run. After all, the campus begs to be run on. The wood-chipped trail crisscrosses perfectly manicured lawns, cuts paths through pine groves, and spans trickling streams over wood-planked bridges.

So I joined a group of Nike employees for an early morning jaunt around campus. As we toured the 4K loop, the locals informed me that this was a prototypical fall morning in Portland-- temperatures in the mid-40s, the sky a blanket of gray that held a faint promise of sunlight, and the Pacific air damp and fresh.

On a wooded section of trail, we came across an all-weather track engulfed by a canopy of trees. The track epitomizes Nike as a company where runners rule-where a 400-meter track tucked back in the woods is considered a corporate amenity.

Below is the photo of the running track on the Nike campus in an idyllic setting.

Jeremy Borling is an Assistant Editor for the Running Network.