- Mar 10, 2010
- 42,695
- 107,109
Most of you have never heard of him, but to my friends and me, he was special.
Prefontaine was a middle-distance runner who was electric, and if we hadn't lost him when he was only 24, he would have more records than a vintage vinyl shop.
I have no idea why he popped into my head today, but stuff does that all the time.
We referred to him as "Pre", everyone in our circle knew who we were referencing when we said that.
My school didn't have a track team; it was a small school and not in the budget, but we did have a cross country team, and the core would run all year long. We did longer distances than Pre, 10K and up, usually off-season, belonged to running clubs that was 98% adults, and had the best coach ever.
Cross country is a fall sport, track is springtime, and even though we didn't have a track team, Coach (I call him Coach to this day, as do my friends from that era) would get us invited to compete as a third party in events. Coach saw it as an opportunity to learn to compete, not to win, as track was not our focus. The man was much more than a History teacher and coach, he worked to make us better people.
He had the ability to be a front runner in races as opposed to how I won races where I hung on the back shoulder of the guy in the lead and then out-kicked them the last 100 yards. Someone who could be a frontrunner the entire race makes guys like me look like I should be cleaning their shoes after the race.
Anyway, be a winner like Pre, give it all you have and front run... that will have your name in the mouths of people for ages and ages.
Prefontaine was a middle-distance runner who was electric, and if we hadn't lost him when he was only 24, he would have more records than a vintage vinyl shop.
I have no idea why he popped into my head today, but stuff does that all the time.
We referred to him as "Pre", everyone in our circle knew who we were referencing when we said that.
My school didn't have a track team; it was a small school and not in the budget, but we did have a cross country team, and the core would run all year long. We did longer distances than Pre, 10K and up, usually off-season, belonged to running clubs that was 98% adults, and had the best coach ever.
Cross country is a fall sport, track is springtime, and even though we didn't have a track team, Coach (I call him Coach to this day, as do my friends from that era) would get us invited to compete as a third party in events. Coach saw it as an opportunity to learn to compete, not to win, as track was not our focus. The man was much more than a History teacher and coach, he worked to make us better people.
He had the ability to be a front runner in races as opposed to how I won races where I hung on the back shoulder of the guy in the lead and then out-kicked them the last 100 yards. Someone who could be a frontrunner the entire race makes guys like me look like I should be cleaning their shoes after the race.
Anyway, be a winner like Pre, give it all you have and front run... that will have your name in the mouths of people for ages and ages.
