does anyone have any stories about any part of pre's life, that you are willing to share? They can be funny items, or amazing feats, facts,....whatever! Just please no blantantly fictional ramblings from the peanut gallery. This thread is meant to glorify the best american track runner of all time [at least in my opinion :)] and provide more insight into his life than was told through the movies and the book.
A former high school teammate of mine ran for the U of O around 1974. They had a distance run planned for the afternoon. Pre ran with them. Pre told them that he was tired from his morning workout. Pre went out that afternoon and hammered them for eight miles.
One that's been told around Eugene for years: One day on a training run Dave Taylor decided it would be funny to imitate Pre's nemisis Harold Norpoth. Pre, didn't think it too funny. Taylor came close to meeting his maker that day.
It has been documented that Pre has an ratio of 50-50 percent of fast twich muscle fiber to slow twich, which i virtually unheard of! That is part of the reason why he was able to run balls our every dang race.
Once there was a very talented runner who died way too young. Hollywood made a couple of movies about him, and now every young runner thinks he's the best ever even though he didn't achieve half of what Shorter, Viren, Keno, and Rogers did. Bottom line: Prefontain's death was a great tragedy. What he did at a young age was very promising. 4th in the Olympic final 5,000 at age 21 is outstanding. Had he not died so young, who knows what he might have done, but that's in the realm of speculation. Therefore, he does not warrant the title "best ever."
i heard in high school, before a cross country race, he took some swings at a rival runner. that would have been funny to see. more posts on here please. this is a good thread
pre was unique and that's all anyone says. i think shorter does get credit for being the better american runner and he deserves it. but he's not publicized because he's not exciting.
it's ok to speculate. what's wrong with it??? give the guy the props he deserves, he was exciting and is movie worthy.
Hey Generic, can't a guy get some props for simultaneously holding every American Record from 2k to 10k? Or how about 4 NCAA titles in the 3mile/5k? or 3 NCAA CC titles. What about a national hs 2 mile record. It aint all Hollywood hype.
Like Wendy Ray said in Fire on the Track:
Actors have it, singers have it, some people have it, some people don't....most people dont, he had a lot of it
DIII Coach wrote:
Hey Generic, can't a guy get some props for simultaneously holding every American Record from 2k to 10k? Or how about 4 NCAA titles in the 3mile/5k? or 3 NCAA CC titles. What about a national hs 2 mile record. It aint all Hollywood hype.
Like Wendy Ray said in Fire on the Track:
Actors have it, singers have it, some people have it, some people don't....most people dont, he had a lot of it
Did you read my original post? I gave Prefontaine props for being one of the most promising young runners ever. I said that placing 4th in the Olympic final at age 21 is incredible. I said that if he hadn't tragically died so young, there is no telling what he would have gone on to do. A truly outstanding runner. My only point was that he was not as accomplished as Shorter, Viren (4 Olympic golds, I remind you) and others. I do think the movies have a lot (everything?) to do with his status amoung young runners today. Prefontaine was a great runner. One of the best ever. The single best ever? No.
sure I read it, why else would I have responded? When you write that Pre didn't accomplish 1/2 of what others did, you left the door open for disagreement. I'm one of those who don't put Shorter that far ahead and definitely don't put Bill Rodgers ahead (eventhough I hold Bill in high esteem). Could be my track events vs. marathon bias, but I just don't. Viren was better in two meets. Admittedly, it was what many consider to be the two most important meets of that era, but nonetheless two meets. Who was the 10,000 american record holder when Pre died? Wasn't Shorter, wasn't Rodgers.
You think he wasn't the best American runner of all time and I think he was-difference of opinions happen all the time-no big deal. Except that I'm right and you're wrong (activate sarcasm detector).
I heard one about a year before his death...that on several occaisons, Pre would scarf down several donuts before a 440 (this is before metric in the US)repeats session on the track, just so that he could blow his teammates' minds when he ralphed them up after the first few quarters.
DIII Coach wrote:
sure I read it, why else would I have responded? When you write that Pre didn't accomplish 1/2 of what others did, you left the door open for disagreement. I'm one of those who don't put Shorter that far ahead and definitely don't put Bill Rodgers ahead (eventhough I hold Bill in high esteem). Could be my track events vs. marathon bias, but I just don't. Viren was better in two meets. Admittedly, it was what many consider to be the two most important meets of that era, but nonetheless two meets. Who was the 10,000 american record holder when Pre died? Wasn't Shorter, wasn't Rodgers.
You think he wasn't the best American runner of all time and I think he was-difference of opinions happen all the time-no big deal. Except that I'm right and you're wrong (activate sarcasm detector).
I didn't think you read my first post because you responded as if I had said that Pre sucked. I said the opposite. I said he was outstanding. Evidently, if you don't think Pre was the best ever, you must think he was the worst ever. That's some logic.
I'm not really an extremist. You said you didn't believe he was the best ever and I said that I did while presenting my case. It's what discussions are all about. We disagree, but it's cool. Don't let it get you down. Have a pleasant day.
There was that one story when he drank himself silly and then crashed his car and died. Don't know if you had heard that one or not.
One thing that Pre's premature death prevented us from seeing is some Virgin/Pre matchups. Those would have been great on a couple of fronts.
Garry Bjorklund was known in track and road racing circles as being fearless as far as pushing the pace. During his racing career, he met all the top guns many times, at all distances from 5,000 to the marathon. Once, I quizzed him once about which rivals he most respected. Garry told me Shorter was this smooth-running guy you could never take for granted because he was so race-smart, Rodgers was this gifted runner-on-wheels who always found some way to win, and that Viren was pure physiological stud, a born runner.
But he always said the absolutely toughest guy he ever raced was Prefontaine. Why, I asked? "Because his balls were so big," Garry said.
I always got the impression that racing Prefontaine was the runner's equivalent of getting in a streetfight...
The reason Pre is one of the greats is he approched the game like none other. In terms of public's feelings towards Pre he equates that of Air Jordan. No other distance athlete has capitvated Americans the way Pre did. He made track entertaing to the average Joe, people actually filled the stands to see a guy run 12.5 times around a track! That hasn't been the case since his departure from life. Not Williams, Kenndey, or Meb can make a claim to this. Pre was a cult in his own right, he made racing a beautiful thing to watch. That, amoung many other reasons, is why Pre was/is great. We will be lucky to see any distance with 1/2 as much of 'it' as Pre.
The reason Pre is one of the greats is he approched the game like none other. In terms of public's feelings towards Pre he equates that of Air Jordan. No other distance athlete has capitvated Americans the way Pre did. He made track entertaing to the average Joe, people actually filled the stands to see a guy run 12.5 times around a track! That hasn't been the case since his departure from life. Not Williams, Kenndey, or Meb can make a claim to this. Pre was a cult in his own right, he made racing a beautiful thing to watch. That, amoung many other reasons, is why Pre was/is great. We will be lucky to see any distance runner with 1/2 as much of 'it' as Pre.
Steve would run from Eugene to Corvallis. Stop over have luch at a cafe he likes and then Run back to Eugene. Or at least this is what some guy at my school told me who worked at the cafe in Corvallis at the time. Could be for real but Corvallis is like pretty far (over 20 miles) from Euegen. That sound more like Gerry L stuff than Pre business.
Sorry Genius, look at a map, Corvallis is about 50 miles from here(Eugene) That would be some pretty nasty runs back and forth.