"Believe in yourself, have a passion and forget about limitations". Steve Prefontaine

Joe Kinchicken Imagine being a lowly piece of shit like yourself. Steven wasted his gift by drunk driving, but everyone acts as if this one mistake taints his humanity. He made a poor choice and died. He’s still one of the greatest runners ever that inspired countless other runners. What have you contributed? He’s not a loser, he’s a legend. Don’t disrespect a resting soul, you fucking loser.

@Joe Kinchicken we prefer flawed winners to perfectly behaved losers like yourself. no one will remember you.

@Joe Kinchicken yes, but ted bundy never actually competed and won. so your comparison is invalid.

@Joe Kinchicken what the fuck is wrong with you? You clearly dont know pre's story. He was a legendary runner that everyone looks up to as one of the greats and he had some of the most gutsy races of all time

Maybe he did baking soda. A teaspoon before a run drops lactic acid.

Pre had a VO2 max of 84.4. Higher than Lance Armstrong at his peak.

No dude it's in the mind body changes accordingly when you push it

Yeah lactate threshold is what sets some of the elites apart in endurance sports. Pro cyclists can flush out lactate at a much higher rate than normal people and sustain extremely long periods of high lactate build up. Also mental toughness is a requirement for any elite endurance athlete. They need to be able to hurt themselves a lot and keep pushing through the pain. Pre definitely had all of these ingredients.

I idolized Prefontaine when was a kid.

Neither of them won at the top level

@@sage6336 that’s sort of the point. His death cut a career short that had not yet fully matured. Nice non-point.

Prefontaine was a big fish in a small pond but overrated at the highest level. His actual times were not particularly fast by international standards, but he made his reputation due to racing against lower quality (at that time) fields in America and his rebel image with the media. When he came over to Europe for the Munich Olympics his lack of experience against the top racers and naïve tactics cost him the bronze medal in the 5000m. Had he competed in Montreal it is likely that he would have finished 4th again, as he did not have the 1500m speed of the kickers. Had he lived he would probably have been better off concentrating on the Marathon where his lack of basic speed would not have been a handicap.

@@jimferoce4862 He was still 24. Most champs in distance have won gold at world championships in their early 20s. Cheptegei at 21, Ingebrigsten at 20, Barega at 20, etc, etc. and these are only three examples of current runners. By age 24 you have a good idea what a career will be and if someone hasn’t won a medal on a world stage by then it’s tough to label them as a legend or as some people call Pre the goat. I personally think Pre is fun to watch and he has some entertaining stories but he just wasn’t a top performer on the world stage. For someone to say in 30-40 years that haven’t seen a runner like Pre can be a true statement but it just means they haven’t seen any of the best runners. Gebresallasie, Bekele, El Guerrouj, Ovett, Coe, Kipchoge, Tergat, Cheptegei, Ingebrigsten, Mo Farrah, Barega; U.S runners: Ryan, Lagat, Rupp, Fischer, Webb the list goes on. They are all far superior to Pre. Pre isn’t even a top 5 all time for the US. I’d go Ryan, Lagat, Shorter, Rupp, Webb, Fischer, Chelimo, even Kincaid and Klecker over Pre.

He was great in a US context, but in world athletics he was just very good. Nowhere near an all-time great; and even if he lived for longer, he never would have been a world all -time great. Not talented enough for that.

That is awesome man! It would be cool to have coffee w your uncle.

I dunno, him vs. Galen Rupp?

@@Weedle_in_a_Haystack I think it's very close there...comes down to attitude and style for me at that point. No one is cooler, tougher, or more inspirational than Pre!

He is not the best American distance runner ever. Fact!

John George Walker 1976 gold is all I go to say when I hear the bull that he would have been hot shit at 1976 Olympics

@@thomaskreuzpeintner5819 Who do you have in mind? I would say Jim Ryun

I’m from Malaysia, Southeast Asia country. Pre was one of the reason i started running in college

100%!

stalin1909 you’re totally right, pre wasn’t a tactical runner at all, especially in that 72 race. But, I think you have to agree that his relentlessness during that race is what made it so interesting. If he hadn’t pushed the pace on that last mile it would’ve just been another boring jog and then sprint for the last 400m. Him being so assertive made it more entertaining, and pre was a great showman with his running. If he hadn’t passed away he definitely would’ve developed a better racing style though

Stalin 1909. Pre ran way to hard and competitive in his heat and to add to this he was completing his 30:40 training workouts whilst in Munich. I think his competitive side took the edge of what coukd have been. If he was a bit fresher and not cooked prior to final he would have won.

Sunny M yes he was definitely entertaining and fun to watch . hard to find a crowd favorite in middle and long distances like him ..

James Carroll yes your analysis makes sense ..

stalin1909 he ran in an outer lane when he didn’t need too and would waste energy losing and gaining the lead when he should’ve stayed

Joshua Eng I love your commitment to Zatopeck! Don’t worry. It’s coming! 💪

Long runs should be at a easy pace where you can talk

@@dhdjdjej yeah lol. That’s probably why Pre never won a medal at any international competition.

Where did he get that info is what i want to know

"achieved so much success" . . . domestically, but not internationally

Oh, but he still won

And I wouldn't call him that if he was one of the best runners in the world at his time. But yes pre was also an amazing runner and worked like a maniac

But idk if that is true or not

All time great race

Viren was amazing that last mile in the 5k. So was Pre.....in a way maybe even moreso for having the guts to push it. However I don't understand the disrespect for Lasse by Pre fans. If he was cheating then fine but where is the proof? I love the sport more than the cult leader and Viren was a great gold medalist runner who won an epic battle against Pre. That is something very admirable.

I could be wrong but I think he would run less in a competitive week because he would he resting his body for races

That’s actually very low mileage for a pro.

Totally agree. He may have lost but gave it all. Who else can say

Rupp???

Thomas Koska He’s definitely one of the all time greats!

He was an animal when it came to interval training and a great business man! One of the All-time distant-runner greats!

Jim Ryan? Bernard Lagat? Paul Chelimo? Galen Rupp? The list goes on. You can say the Pre is your favorite but the best? Maybe someone who actually won a medal in a world championships. Ryan went to the Olympics at age 17 and went again and won silver at age 21.

Lol didn’t notice that

It would be difficult. Gerry deserves more credit and has largely been forgotten. He is a pretty nutty guy however and not a reliable source for details regarding the past. He was active as a masters runner (in his 40s) in Honolulu back in the early '90s. He was slow as molasses at that time. Breaking an hour in the 10k was a challenge for him. Whenever you were around him you just found yourself scratching your head, how could this be the guy? Bless his heart. He was beast in his prime.

Go and try Jim Ryun's H.S. Training and you will be injured for life!! LOL! It's all about gradually improving your intensity on intervals and tempo runs. Instead of doing 16x400 @65 sec, try 8x400 @ 60 sec.

I took my Older Sisters advice on her training regimen, she was already Pro. I looked my best, but emotionally She was ahead.

I stopped. I felr I had too emotionally I was discordant. But as always she kept training.

Yes. You have to be careful to warm up. I believe he was lucky both genetically like I was. I never needed to stretch until I turned 58. Seriously my muscles never stayed tight. He was also likely doing some kind of oil and/or minerals as a supplement.

It’s not a question of genetics it’s a question of correctly building up to the mileage and intensity. If you’re a dummy and try prefontaines training methods being a runner who trains significantly less than 80 miles per week you’re going to get injured. You should really only increase your mileage by like 1-2 miles per week if you’re trying to up. And you should really only do hard speed workouts 2-3 times per week. The problem is a lot of these paces were casual for Steve. 6:00/ per mile was jogging and 5:00/ per mile would’ve been moderate. This was a guy who ran a sub 4 minute mile.

I agree. Kilian Jornet, Jim Walmsley, Anton Krupicka, Rob Krar, Scott Jurek, Dean Karnazes, and many more ultra runners are just as great as the people featured on analyzing the greats.

Thomas Koska I was on the same college track team as Tony Krupicka for 2 years and my wife took some classes with him. He was similar to prefontaine in that pretty much nobody on the team would dare train as much or as hard as Tony. He would do his own AM run, then do the team workout at practice, then do another PM run because the team workout was pathetic and inconsequential to his stamina.

@@RyanAlexanderBloom that's really cool. I'm not surprised by that based on how good he is.

@@RyanAlexanderBloom You must’ve run with my high school Cross Country coach too then because he also ran with Tony at Colorado College. Small world of runners. Lol Tony truly is a beast. He inspired me to do my first ultra. Such a cool guy and a free spirit.

Didn't know that. Thanks.

He was the fastest! But his form wasn't very efficient! His stride was too wide which contributed to his sciatica. He wasn't a good tactical runner. He was an expert pace runner! He let his emotions take control. Emotions held back his unstoppable drive to win!

Hey man I just saw your comment from a year ago on this Pre video. I saw that same race on TV when Pre turned around and ran across the finish line backwards. I was like “did he just do that?”. My dad and I were watching it. He sort of chuckled and said something like “my god that kid is something else”. I will never forget that. I think I was 17 or 18 when he ran that race. I ran track in high school so my dad and I always liked watching track and field on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. We watched Pre run a lot races on that show. I was a sprinter. I ran the 180 yard low hurdles. I never cared much for the distance races until the first time I saw Pre on WWofSports. I was hooked then and watched him as often as I could. His running style…to me and my dad…looked more like a sprinter than a long distance runner. It was so amazing to see him run at what certainly looked like a full sprint for an entire race. I remember once my dad asking me if I thought I could run a long distance race the way Pre did. I said are you kidding me I would’ve dropped dead after about 1/3 of the race. Anyway I enjoyed your comment.

@@bamadad53 awesome memories for both of us! 😊

The great Aussie.

... and they didn't have Bud Light when he was alive.