What's your Prefontaine number?

Two.

Jim Crawford raced Pre at various races.

I was in a local Chevy's 5k/10K with Jim.

I think mine would be similar, I raced mcgorty who raced chez who raced a string of ncaa/oregon guys assuming every year a freshman or even sophomore raced a senior mine would be around 16

Does it count if I ran on "Pre's Trail", one year when i ran the classic?

Nice idea wrote:

If I bend the rules like the people above counting cross country races for their Pre numbers, I have co-authored a term paper with someone who has Erdös number 5 ;) - in reality it is infinity, which is definitely larger than my Pre number

OK!

habs wrote:

muller's ratchet wrote:

I'm still trying to figure out what my Prefontaine number is. My best link may be through Bob Kennedy, but I don't know how to get back to Prefontaine. Any help?

I count 8, but I challenge anyone to do better:

TrackBot! Compare Bob Kennedy vs Dieter Baumann

TrackBot! Compare Dieter Baumann vs Sydney Maree

TrackBot! Compare Syndey Maree vs Eamonn Coghlan

TrackBot! Compare Eamonn Coghlan vs Rick Wohlhuter

TrackBot! Compare Rick Wohlhuter vs Alain Sans

TrackBot! Compare Alain Sans vs Robert Ouko

TrackBot! Compare Robert Ouko vs Dave Wottle

TrackBot! Compare Dave Wottle vs Steve Prefontaine

TrackBot! Compare Steve Prefontaine vs Lasse Viren

Wouldn't Kennedy be closer? Have to use the Cross country angle

Kennedy vs Eyestone

Eyestone vs ?

? vs Shorter

Shorter vs Prefontaine

Not up to date on my late 70 cross country runners but there has to be someone that raced both Eyestone and Shorter in that era.

Raced a Dualathlon a few years ago with Frank Shorter, who raced Pre!

2 ?

Ride bikes with my buddy who was Pre's good friend living in Eugene.

I'm very curious. The OP is relatively succinct and to the point. Do people just not read it?

Every few posts, there's someone posting a cross country or road race, when one of only two guidelines described in the OP was to make it a track race.

#2.. Prefontaine's last race with Frank Shorter, 5/29/75. In Mpls on 9/19/06, Frank ran a 5k race as a ribbon cutting for Running Room. At 58, he seemed tired and stiff, I passed on the last mile. Was in such awe to run past Shorter, my stupid brain couldn't think of what to say other than "keep it up Frank" doh.

malmo wrote:

I beat Marty Liquori who, in turn, beat Pre. #2

2 also. I lost to Liquori, however.

Alternative: I lost to Greg Fredericks who must have raced Pre.

muller's ratchet wrote:

I'm still trying to figure out what my Prefontaine number is. My best link may be through Bob Kennedy, but I don't know how to get back to Prefontaine. Any help?

If Kennedy doesn't work there is also Todd Williams (Ran against both in college and Williams lapped me in a 3200m race in HS)

Williams vs Eyestone (1993 USA X-C champs)

Eyestone vs Salazar (1983 USA X-C champs, IAAF X-C)

Salazar vs Shorter (1977 Falmouth Road Race)

Shorter vs Prefontaine

so is that 4 or 5? Shorter is 1, Salazar is 2, Eyestone is 3, Williams 4 so I'm 5?

bate wrote:

I'm very curious. The OP is relatively succinct and to the point. Do people just not read it?

Every few posts, there's someone posting a cross country or road race, when one of only two guidelines described in the OP was to make it a track race.

Cross country connection is just better!!!!

I raced against Donn Cabral a bunch of times so through the reaches of pro runners there has to be some connection to Pre. Maybe through that Bob Kennedy line?

A 2 for me. I started running at Washington 5 years after Pre graduated Oregon, so ran against several of his former teammates as well as former Huskies who ran against him. These guys were all still running post-collegiately so we'd occasionally be in some of the same races at invitationals and open meets in Seattle, Portland, and Eugene.

Mine is 11 as far as I can tell, maybe it can get cut down a few links.

Donn Cabral vs Bernard Lagat

Bernard Lagat vs Kenenisa Bekele

Kenenisa Bekele vs Bob Kennedy

Bob Kennedy vs Dieter Baumann

Dieter Baumann vs Sydney Maree

Syndey Maree vs Eamonn Coghlan

Eamonn Coghlan vs Rick Wohlhuter

Rick Wohlhuter vs Alain Sans

Alain Sans vs Robert Ouko

Robert Ouko vs Dave Wottle

Dave Wottle vs Steve Prefontaine

The_Manager wrote:

Mine is 11 as far as I can tell, maybe it can get cut down a few links.

Donn Cabral vs Bernard Lagat

Bernard Lagat vs Kenenisa Bekele

Kenenisa Bekele vs Bob Kennedy

Bob Kennedy vs Dieter Baumann

Dieter Baumann vs Sydney Maree

Syndey Maree vs Eamonn Coghlan

Eamonn Coghlan vs Rick Wohlhuter

Rick Wohlhuter vs Alain Sans

Alain Sans vs Robert Ouko

Robert Ouko vs Dave Wottle

Dave Wottle vs Steve Prefontaine

Bekele raced Baumann

Baumann raced Walker

Walker raced Prefontaine

said88 wrote:

too easy wrote:

WHEN?

Who RACED who is an easy game. Who BEAT who is the real test.

No chance to find more bold letters?

Again, the question was about racing each other, maybe you should do your own thread?

But again for you:

Bekele has beaten Baumann at the 2003 World Champs in Paris.

Baumann has beaten Walker 4 times: 1988 in Auckland, 1989 in Wanganui, 1989 in Auckland and 1989 in Stockholm.

Baumann was DNF in that race, so technically I think it's a little questionable to count that as "beating," since then you're subject to count rabbits or people who were going to beat someone else but got injured as getting beat. Not saying 38-year-old Baumann would have beat Bekele, but as a firm rule it's questionable.

But that means my Pre number would be 7, so whatever works.

said88 wrote:

The_Manager wrote:

Mine is 11 as far as I can tell, maybe it can get cut down a few links.

Donn Cabral vs Bernard Lagat

Bernard Lagat vs Kenenisa Bekele

Kenenisa Bekele vs Bob Kennedy

Bob Kennedy vs Dieter Baumann

Dieter Baumann vs Sydney Maree

Syndey Maree vs Eamonn Coghlan

Eamonn Coghlan vs Rick Wohlhuter

Rick Wohlhuter vs Alain Sans

Alain Sans vs Robert Ouko

Robert Ouko vs Dave Wottle

Dave Wottle vs Steve Prefontaine

Bekele raced Baumann

Baumann raced Walker

Walker raced Prefontaine

I raced Jorge Torres, who raced Bekele. I guess I'm a 6.

Another short one from 2016 to Prefontaine without Dieter Baumann:

Kenenisa Bekele raced Gennaro Di Napoli

Gennaro Di Napoli raced John Walker

John Walker raced Steve Prefontaine

is there a 3-way connection without John Walker?

kartelite wrote:

Baumann was DNF in that race, so technically I think it's a little questionable to count that as "beating," since then you're subject to count rabbits or people who were going to beat someone else but got injured as getting beat. Not saying 38-year-old Baumann would have beat Bekele, but as a firm rule it's questionable.

Baumann stopped running because he has had no chance anymore to finish in the top-10 - no injury or something.

Bekele and Baumann have also raced 2000 in Nürnberg where Bekele has had a DNF.