I took the link out of the title, read it here. Story courtesy of TrackFocus.com
I came across this first person account of a "race" that I doubt most people knew Steve Prefontaine ran, in Oregon, in 1974. It was a relay from Eugene to Corvallis simply called The Great Race, organized by fraternities from both Oregon and Oregon State as a fundraiser for Muscular Dystrophy. The relay was run in conjunction with the annual football game between the two schools, dubbed The Civil War, and was timed so that the race actually took a break on Friday, and resumed during the 2nd quarter of the game on Saturday for the last 4 miles. This way, the winning team(s) would come into the stadium during halftime.
Read the rest for yourself. The story is told by Steve Bence, a runner for the University of Oregon and lifelong Nike employee. Also playing a part in the story was Matt Centrowitz, Sr.
The story proves to illustrate that even for a runner with the accolades of Pre, the thrill is the joy of competing. A plastic trophy of insignificant value holds in it great memories like this one.
It kind of reminds me of this race we do every year in February...
Why do YOU compete?
HAS THE MARATHON WALL BEEN TORN DOWN?
2 days ago
1 comment:
I watched "Without Limits" last night.
Bowerman: "Pre thought I was a hard case. But he finally got it through my head that the real purpose of running isn't to win a race. It's to test to the limits of the human heart. That he did... Nobody did it more often. Nobody did it better."
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