What the hell is "the gift?"

tip your waitress wrote:

They mailed "the gift" to all the smart peop...oops.

The Gift is a song by the Velvet Underground - Waldo Jeffers has been away from his girlfriend for months and mails himself to his girlfriend as he can't afford the fare. Like Pre he dies in the song which has the great line: Suddenly rough hands gripped his package and he felt himself borne up

This quote has always bothered me because I have a hunch Pre never actually said it. Does anyone know where, when and to whom this was said by Mr. Prefontaine? Is it possible this was written by the Without Limits screenwriters?

The gift is pure luck.

Success is not based on talent, brains, or hard work.

Success is from someone else helping you. It's not something you can have on your own.

If you think you've built your own running success, guess again! You didn't build it!

Listen to the great Barack Hussein Obama Jr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKjPI6no5ng

This is funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EZQvSCGaJI

I was able to run a 6 sec 50 yard dash in 7th grade. I call that a gift because I didn't train to run that fast.

I wanted to be cool and smoked pot and snorted cocaine when I started HS. Yet I was still able to sprint a 10.8 100m dash to win conference as a Frosh.

But my drug habit got the best of me and I started Meth as a Soph and it went all downhill from there. I definitely sacrificed my gift.

Thanks - I'd forgotten about Katie's nude scene.

That is quite the gift.

a fast runner could interpret it to mean the ability to run fast, you could take it as far as to simply mean "the gift" of good health the ability to step out the door and go for a run.

For real wrote:

This quote has always bothered me because I have a hunch Pre never actually said it. Does anyone know where, when and to whom this was said by Mr. Prefontaine? Is it possible this was written by the Without Limits screenwriters?

I'd heard the quote years before all of the flims came out. When Geoff Hollister died I found this. Seems to be a legit quote.

............. wrote:

stupidest quote ever wrote:

What did Prefontaine mean when he said "to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift?" What the hell is he referring to exactly? Do people just like this quote because it means nothing at all?

I also hate this quote. I know what he meant, but it makes no sense the way he said it.

It is exactly the kind of thing an idiot college freshman would think is so deep it's mind blowing.

Some of you are so friggin stupid.

Mike Davis Copeland wrote:

For real wrote:

This quote has always bothered me because I have a hunch Pre never actually said it. Does anyone know where, when and to whom this was said by Mr. Prefontaine? Is it possible this was written by the Without Limits screenwriters?

http://trackfocus.com/oregon/steve-prefontaine-and-his-three-brothers

I'd heard the quote years before all of the flims came out. When Geoff Hollister died I found this. Seems to be a legit quote.

I can't tell you how happy I am you took the time to write this and include a link. That's all I needed. I met Geoff a few times through the years and will take him at his word.

I think the gift is the opportunity to discover our best self. It doesn't matter how fast you are. At the moment we settle for less than our best, we hide a beautiful piece of art that can never be seen again.

In the big picture who cares if you win any given race? Does it really matter? On the other hand, when you race in such a way discover a strength or ability you never knew you had, your life is forever changed.

Honestly, this is the primary reason I coach. I've had hundreds of kids that have won races with half-hearted efforts, nearly everyone of those efforts quickly forgotten by all. However, I can also easily recall the effort of athletes I have coached at all levels of performance that were forever changed by a particular effort that left them empowered, a new creature.

I've never used this quote with my teams because I've thought it too easy to translate into an expectation that you have to run as hard as you can everyday. As I write this, I'm having second thoughts about that...

Someone's really over thinking things.

Like you could not qualify your using the quote...

Probably true. Call it a personal flaw. It seems to work for me more often than it fails, however.

The gift of either having talent and not using it. Or the gift to walk, stand, run and race. Some people are not as fortunate as others, so to give anything but your all is pointless.

Morris wrote:

The gift of either having talent and not using it. Or the gift to walk, stand, run and race. Some people are not as fortunate as others, so to give anything but your all is pointless.

Thanks man.

More like stupidest thread ever!