Pre Stories....

PS-anybody wanting to know what Pre was about can take a good close look at this poster:

http://www.preclassic.com/

Just for the record, the guy behind him is George Young, multi-Olympian and at the time considered the best American at several distances, prime being the 5,000. Like I said, a streetfight.

Track & Field News did a great text coverage of the race in their 1972 Trials issue. Perhaps someone can copy it for the board...?

I heard one time Pre ate an entire large pizza right before a workout, then ran 6 X 1 mile in around 4:00, then bent over on the track and squirted his teammates with diarrhea as they crossed the finish line.

I heard that on a separate occasion, Pre was so busy talking about how much balls he had, a bunch of European guys dominated him on a regular basis.

I have momentarily forgotten the source but for one of pre\'s ncaa xc titles i read that he ran his last mile in 4:23 Maybe it was 1971 against Byjorkland(sp).

I don't think your fast to slow twitch ratio is correct. Back in the early 70s Dr. Ken Cooper brought Pre, Ken Moore, Gary Tuttle, Frank Shorter and others to his institute down in Texas for testing. Gary Tuttle, the slowest 10k runner in the group had the highest vo2 max and Pre, as I remember, the highest amount of slow twitch muscle. Which was amazing for a 3:54 miler, the fastest miler in the group.

As a former friend and Oregon Track Club runner who had many occasions to run, train and socialize with Pre, I'm amazed and disgusted at the level of bullshit, innuendo, and outright ignorance of most of the posts on this board, particularly when it comes to national level runners and Pre especially. You folks come across like little junior high groupies who don't know a damn thing about real training, racing or coaching at any level above the Runner's World mentality or summer track clubs. I gather it's entertaining for many of you, but please don't try to come off as "knowing" anything about high level athletes, coaches or training---it's embarrassing to read it.

OK....I belive you...what about some stories.??...your the one who says you knew him so well...Pre is a hero to many runners...give up a story

Why is it so many people seem to claim that they are all knowing and so involved and IN with the elite running crowd, yet none of them ever identify themselves or further enlighten the rest of us "dumb" people. Foretherush-you are the "man". Who are you? Give us some Pre stories then please.

I think most of these posts suck. I can understand admiring stud runners for their toughness and grit and what have you, but they are just regular people except for the fact that they have much more talent than most. I doubt that Pre would even have liked being admired for how he ate a bunch of donuts and threw up, or fought with other runners, or any of that. A runner should be remembered by their races and what sort of a person they were. Face it, some of those things mentioned previously, performed by any regular person, would just earn them the label "dickhead", not "hero". Nobody likes a guy who shows up complaining about how tired they are, then goes out and stomps everybody. People who take swings at other runners are usually being pricks themselves. From what I know of Pre and from what has been said by his contemporaries, he sounds like a great runner and a decent guy, if a little hot-headed. But I'm sure he'd rather be remembered as someone nobody wanted to have on their heels with a mile to go in a race than somebody who showed off all the time and always had to put lesser runners in their place.

Sorry---some of us work for a living :) The thing you have to remember about Pre is that he never got a chance to grow up like most of us. By that I mean, he was in a fish bowl with every movement and word scrutinized by the time he was 17---and especially after the SI cover. Basically, he was very immature and socially inexperienced, but people began to expect way too much of him as a person before he even knew who he was. All of his "growing up" mistakes were front page news in Oregon. He was a great kid, very likeable, could be extremely caring of others and personable. But he was a rube(small town kid) who had to grow up through his mistakes in the public eye.

One of my favorite memories was a run thru the foothills, about 10 us, on the power line trails. Several of us found ourselves at the front(knowing we didn't belong there, because he would normally be leading)so we're looking at each other only to hear a giggle and Pre comes blasting by stark naked!

After Munich, Pre really began to grow up and mature. It was exciting to see his development as a person. All of us felt very strongly that he would be a force at Montreal---his training was awesome. He had become a man physically and as a person.

I've been around great athletes and runners for much of my adult life---from the 60s until now. What separated Pre from any of the greats I've seen and known, was his capacity to go to a place inside himself where 99.999 percent of us have never been. To be standing just inside lane one on the warmup track during one of his races was one of the most awesome experiences I've ever encountered---his capacity to deal with the pain was unbelievable---his eyes would roll back in his head---it was a zone few of us will ever know. For that alone---he will always have my utmost respect. I never saw him dog a workout or a race. Whenever he toed the line---you got his best. I was standing on the infield one evening with three of our Olympians, runners, rivals, during one of his races. They could only shake their heads and mutter under their breath---O my god---he's a tough motherf.....!

I don't want to get caught up in the cynical banter on this board---there are lots of legitimate, funny, and awesome Pre stories. For those of us who were with him that night, the real tragedy, the one that haunts us all, is what we didn't get to see him become. He was a special guy, trying to grow up and accept the responsibilities being thrust upon him even when he wasn't always comfortable in the spotlight away from the track.

maybe one of the biggest teases is Mary Marckx's book Predestiny that she says she will never have published. I can understand why, but that sure would be interesting reading.

Fortherush...thank you..I am glad to hear you say he was personable and caring of others..so many times people act as if he was just a looney..thank you for sharing

I just think Shorter probably killed Pre.

Seems like all the great ones are always taken from us....Kennedy,Ghandhi,Martin Luther King Jr,etc...

Soupnazi- I think Kennedy is still around and training.

Who was Pre anyways? He just sounds like some guy trying to be the next Jason Rexing.

Fortherush....Thank you for your post. By far the best one on here and the type of post i had in mind when i started this thread. Peace!

Yeah fortherush. anymore of the same would be greatly appreciated.

Anderson

One afternoon, on a regular run through some of the neighborhoods, there were probably 7-10 of us---we were bumping along the sidewalk and came to an intersection, not a stoplight, just a neighborhood intersection with stop signs and a big ole woman in a big fancy car stopped her car directly in the path(if the sidewalk had continued through the street). Instead of leading us in front or behind this big car, Pre simply took one giant step like he was running the steeple and led all of us right over the hood! It was a big, shiny, car :). The expression on the woman's face was priceless---we just kept going---I'm sure she pissed all over herself. This was the days Bowerman had us all in waffle trainers---which left a nice pattern on her hood I'm sure.