Pre
Author: Tom Jordan
Release: March 15, 1997
Tagline: The Story of America’s Greatest Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine
Publisher: Rodale Books
Genre: Sports, Track & Field, Running, Biography
ISBN-10: 0875964575
ISBN-13: 978-0875964577
Declassified by Agent Palmer: Learning more about Steve Prefontaine is its own runner’s high
Quotes and Lines
“It galls Prefontaine that he has to live the way he lives because of what he is–a long-distance runner. ‘Amateurism is a thing that should have been kicked out in 1920, you know,’ he says. ‘The true amateurs, by the standards that were set up in the 1890s, were elite, who were already well-established and set up in clubs and didn’t need money to compete. The average athlete now is finding it damn hard to make it. I het $101 a month from the university. Room and board. And then there’s going to school, buying books, and everything else. It’s pretty hard to make it.”
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift.” – 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 style. It’s doing something better than anyone else. It’s being creative.” – Pre
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift.” – Pre