Pre Stories....

fortherush wrote:

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.

I don't believe my posts fall into that category. But you replied to one of mine, so I'd like to know just what I wrote that was offensive?

All right, so you ran with Pre. You "know" him better than many people on the board. But your stories read like something from the Brothers Grimm. Pre was talented and pushed himself hard. Okay. Got it. That's the formula for being among the top of your sport. But to say he went somewhere that 99.9% of people have never been is just plain wrong. You want to critize the junior high mentality but you employ descriptions like this? A great bedtime story. But most of us are adults and I think we're a little beyond believing in characteristics most frequently associated with Gods. He was fast and he raced well.

And about his being a nice guy... I can't stand when athletes get themselves into trouble, and people let them off the hook by saying, "You don't know how it is being under a microscope." It's not that difficult to lead a straight life. But when these athletes pop off about how great they are, or they break laws/rules/social ethics they must pay a price. Every description people have of this guy is extreme. Perhaps he was bi-polar. But to counter the cocky/asshole claims by saying he was a really nice guy is meaningless. Most likely he was lived in a state of many emotions... something 99.9% of us have all known.

Look again, asshole. I didn't write that.

message intended for fortherush. My mistake for not stating that.

However, I would have expected you (for what it's worth) to have said to yourself, "hmmmm... he's closly paraphrasing something that wasn't said by me. But it was said by someone a couple posts ago. Maybe, just maybe, it was meant for him; even though his post occured right after mine."

I did realize that but wanted to set the record straight for the next person reading this.

And to tell you you're an asshole.

Come on, guys, this is stupid. instead of writing about Pre and learning more about him, what ends up happening is lots of meaningless posts and name calling...

i believe mary died a few years ago.

Tom Jordans book was nice and everything I just wish a book was writen about Pre which focused on more than his career highlights.

Mary is dead????

my coach was an elite 800 meter runner back in the day and was just starting to hit his stride at pre's peak.

At an indoor CYO meet in the area that pre was running he and my coach and a bunch of other athletes went out to dinner before the race that was the next morning. My coach and him had typical conversation, put a few back and went to bed, my coach won the 1500 the next day and pre set a meet/stadium record in the 3k.

The thing is, my coach met a ton of athletes and runners, Viren, Rodgers etc...and one day at a pre-race dinner we ask him who "the best" was. His answer was that Coe was "The best" in terms of ability, but his exact words were:

"as much as I hate to admit it, considering what a huge cliche it is, pre was "the best" in another way...he just had this presence that commanded respect and attention, a charisma that was awesome"--coming from a guy I respect and admire who wouldn't buy in to the junior high nonsense forth was talking about, that means a lot.

All that cynicism must be quite a load to carry sometimes!

I was simply trying to give several different images of Pre---he was much more than all the hype and press stories. But the point is, he was immature---he was still growing up. I make no excuses for his behavior, nor would he. The day of his last race was typical---he had not eaten much, if anything at all, went to the post-race party to celebrate with friends and drank too much beer on an empty stomach. He didn't leave the party impaired or stone drunk, but he shouldn't have been driving down a curvy mountain road either---a number of us tried to prevent him driving, but were not successful and it still haunts us.

Those of us who knew Pre away from the hype did experience him as a nice guy---he could be incredibly sensitive and caring about others. He wasn't always "cocky". When I tried to give a sense of his ability to endure the pain I was trying to portray what I believed set him apart from many of the great runners I've known. The only other athlete that I've ever been around who had an equal or perhaps more "intensity" was Steve Jones, the marathoner, but that's another story.

At any rate, your comments typify why many of us who have competed at that level hesitate to come on a board like this and share our experiences and stories. Who needs the juvenile bullshit?

Fortherush...embellish a little more on Jonesy if you would. He's a great runner many people don't like to talk about.

When Pre was a soph in Oregon HS, he was considered the guy to beat at state XC's. A lot of the seniors in the meet didn't like him getting so much attention, and they told him before the race that if he was going to win, he better be prepared to be roughed up. So the gun goes off, and these guys go sprinting out ahead and box Pre in, and start pushing him around and slowing him down. Finally, they wore themselves out and Pre broke free about half way through the race and won easily. Then he went back to the finish line, and as each of these guys crossed the line, Pre punched them in the face, knocking them out cold. Pretty soon there was a pretty big pile of unconscious bodies lying there blocking the finish line, as Pre knocked out 20, 30, 50 runners. Then he knocked out the officials and most of the fans. As the few still-conscious fans tried to drive away, Pre ran on the hoods of their cars while scarfing down donuts, vomiting on their windshields and just generally showing that he was tougher than everyone else in history.

It's too bad the mood created here thus far very likely puts Pre story posters off. Why should they post if they'll get pounced on?

My .03: at the '73 NCAA cross meet in Spokane, a few minutes before the start I looked to my right and saw Pre doing some stride-outs w/his teammates. I'd watched him finish 4th in the '72 Oly 5 km and was more than aware of his collegiate accomplishments. In those few minutes, everybody looks the same but I looked a little harder at him for all his celebrity.

During the race I had to look across a fairway to see him chase Rose down w/my teammate in hot pursuit.

About 5 years later, I was running a half-marathon around Mercer Island in Seattle and fell in step w/a guy who introduced himself as Pat Tyson. We traded colleges and I immediately asked him about Pre. As many of you know, Pat was a roommate of Pre for a spell. While racing along we chatted about Pre some but...my memory of the conversation has faded. I thought it very cool he'd been Pre's roommate and teammate.

Now, Pat's one of the most successful high school coaches in America in Spokane.

Karl Malone says kids stop makn up a story bout Stebe Prebontaine cuz his ghost might come to your house and give you da hee bee jeebies and karl malone wouldn't like that too much.

Sorry, Karl, but that story's true. The pile of bodies is mostly still intact, as most of the runners slipped into comas eventually. They started accumulating windblown dust and debris and snow and stuff, and eventually that pile of runners became what is now known as Mt. Hood.

An underrated thing about Pre's image was his hair. It was just long enough to fly around and accentuate his effort, but not so long that it was a major distraction. I first saw Pre at the Pac-8 meet in 1970 with my brother, this was before I was a runner, and I had no problem picking out the guy in green and yellow with the floppy hair and his singlet hanging loose. He was the first really good runner I ever saw, and I thought it was cool that he won over all of the boring skinny guys with short hair.

John Walker was close second in this area. I now prefer shorter hair for myself, but the longer hair, plus various facial hair arrangements really added character to a lot of runners in the 70's.

How enlightening! Skinny and short hair = boring. Long hair and facial hair = character. Thanks! Do tattoos and piercings give one more character too? I'm trying to build character and it sounds like you know a lot about it.

Audrey Seiler was hiding in my closet! When she finally tired of hearing my Karl Malone and Gabe fantasies (oh, just take me, you manly studs!) she decided to turn herself in.