Pre

Quotes by Steve Prefontaine

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift" -Pre

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest.  I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.  Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles.  Not with me.  If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself." -Pre

" Most people run a race to see who is 

fastest. I run a race to see who has the

 most guts."  -Pre

"Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints.  I like to make something beautiful when I run.  I like to make people stop and say, "I've never seen anyone run like that before".  It's more than just a race, it's a style.  It's doing something better than anyone else, its being creative." Pre

"I don't just go out there and run.  I like to give people watching something exciting."-Pre

"I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it." -Pre

"Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it." -Pre

"Something inside of me just said 'Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him.' and I just took off." -Pre

"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there.  Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started.  It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement." -Pre

"How does a kid from Coos Bay, with one leg longer than the other win races?  All my life people have been telling me, 'You're too small Pre' , 'You're not fast enough Pre', 'Give up your dream Steve'.  But they forgot something, I have to win!."-Pre

" A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're understanding." -Pre