Sports Legends
Three Lessons Steve Prefontaine’s Running Teach Us About Life
The controversial and intense distance runner was born 70 years ago. His hard-elbowed passion still inspires us.
Lately, I’ve been wondering what would Steve do?
Steve Prefontaine would be 70 years old this year.
Before Pre died in a post-midnight car accident at the age of 24 in May of 1975, the running legend held the American record in seven distance track events from the 2000 meters to the 10,000 meters. He always ran his own race his way, coaches be damned. He was no fan of doing it the way it was supposed to be done.
If he was around today, what would he make of the world we’ve made?
“Go Pre!”
I attended the University of Oregon back when Prefontaine was breaking all those incredible records. He was a major campus celebrity because of his talent for sure, but also because of the way he wore it, publicly and privately.
In 1975, I was a just-employed TV newsman at KVAL-TV in Eugene when the news came in. The suddenness and the magnitude of the loss took my breath away then as it still does now.
“Go Pre!”
That’s what we used to yell when he ran. My freshman dorm room faced Hayward Field and we would hang chairs out the windows and watch when he ran at home. Steve Prefontaine was the real deal. Man, we loved this guy. He honestly seemed like the man without fear.
He didn’t have the perfect runner’s body. He didn’t come from privilege. None of that mattered. Pure guts, that’s what he had. What a great teacher for all of us, even today.
As a native Oregonian I had seen him win the state high school two-mile in a barn-burning race when I was just a kid and everyone who watched that day knew this young track athlete was destined for greatness. I remember seeing him around campus and even at some local taverns. He was our James Dean and maybe that’s why we were shocked but not 100 percent surprised when we learned about his tragic passing when he rolled his sports car shortly after midnight that spring night in ‘75.
In the years to come, my friends and I used to log a lot of miles running on the wood-chip trail dedicated to him, “Pre’s Trail.” That’s a lot of time in your own head, and plenty of time to consider what made him great. In my view, it comes down to three lessons that apply to damn near everything that’s worth doing:
Prefontaine Lesson #1: Your Life is Your Canvas
“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 being creative.”
Prefontaine was an artist who simply painted with his body and his skill. His performance art was running and he aimed to paint a masterpiece every time he set foot on a track.
Prefontaine Lesson #2: Give It Everything You Got
“The only good race pace is suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die. To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.”
That’s the quality he had that electrified a crowd. Everyone knew that he was going out there with everything he had. There would be no half measures. He might fail but you were going to see a 100% performance. Every time.
Prefontaine Lesson #3: Embrace Competition
“What I want is to be number one. It’s doing something better than anyone else. Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.”
When asked about his goals, Pre was never shy about saying exactly what he aimed for. He did not feign false modesty nor did he hide his competitive spirit. He passionately wanted to be number one and he used that overwhelming desire to focus his efforts toward the success he achieved.
If Steve Prefontaine had lived, he would still be telling people these three beliefs in one way or another.
He’d tell us to figure out what we wanted to do with our lives and what gave us joy and a sense of accomplishment. He’d tell us to get on with it, pay any price and paint our life’s masterpiece.
One Strange Synchronicity
In the late 90s, two decades after his death, Hollywood bizarrely made two films back-to-back about the legendary Pre — Without Limits starring Billy Crudup and Prefontaine starring Jared Leto.
If you’re going to watch one of them, just know that each takes its own separate kind of dramatic license. Just from a short observation of the man in his prime, seeing him more than a few times on the streets and trails of Eugene, I think Crudup’s performance probably better captures the angry young man that Pre could be. Here’s a Movie Smackdown review of both films.
He was so good at what he did they had to make two films about him. That’s how I feel about this synchronicity today.
What Would He Have Thought about Our World?
Steve Prefontaine was born on January 25, 1951.
So what would a 70-year-old Steve Prefontaine have to say about the state of the world and of sports?
Based on his young life, we might imagine he’d be outspoken. It’s possible Prefontaine might be a respected analyst for track events. Or, even more likely, a leader at Nike who still spoke his truth and was the face for the company (more than Phil Knight). Either way, he probably would have had a few controversial run-ins with his employers, based on activism and outspoken behavior.
He probably wouldn’t have taken well to being told to stay in his house during the coronavirus restrictions. He would have wanted to get out and run, if he was able, and would want you to be able to do it, too. On the other hand, I believe he would have found living in denial — coronavirus, climate change, or election — to be absolutely ridiculous and would have said so clearly.
Had he walked away from that after-midnight accident and survived to this day, he would be in the middle of the debate about how to stage sports in the age of pandemic, about racism in sports and society, and, even now, how best to regulate a policy about paying college athletes.
We only know that he would have had things to say, and it still hurts that he’s not here to say them.
Go, Pre!