Steve Prefontaine

Steve Prefontaine: The Running Legend

S.P- To inform my audience about the life and accomplishment of the famous Steve Prefontaine.

C.I.-

“A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.”

How many people in this class can raise their hands and say that they would love to wake up at 6 in the morning and go run 10 miles at a 5:40 pace in 2 below weather? I didn’t think anyone would speak up. The person I am speaking about is none other than the greatest runner who has ever lived, Steve Prefontaine.Pre’s passion with running caught the eye of many coaches and his running competition, making his name well known among all.

(Transition: Pre’s liking for running began in his early years.)

Body

I. Steve Roland Prefontaine was born on January 25, 1951, in the Oregon coastal town of Coos Bay.

A. He lived with his parents, Ray and Elfriede, and 2 stepsisters. His dad was returning from serving with the U.S Army occupation forces in Germany.

B. Growing up, Steve was very active, tearing around the house and setting speed records while mowing the lawn always up for any sport. In his town of Coos Bay, sports traditions run deep in Coos Bay, even to this day.

1. Football was the biggest in the little school of Marshfield.

2. Steve was constantly made fun of because of his hyperactivity, and because he was a slow learner. In the 8th grade, he tried his hardest and ended up making benchwarmer on the football team.

3. Steve wouldn’t be called “pre” until later when he occasionally noticed members of the high school cross country team jog by the football field on their way to practice. Pre would always think in the back of his head as he saw them run “what kind of crazy nut would just spend hours running for no reason”

II. His attitude changed the same year a three-week conditioning program in his P.E class. The longer the distance run, the closer he was to the leaders. "It somehow caught my interest," he said years later. Here was something he was good at and Pre had found his sport.

A. He went out for cross country in the fall of 1965 as a freshman at Marshfield High, going from the seventh man to the second by season's end, placing 53rd in the state meet. His first year of track in the spring was less promising, with a 5:01 best in the mile.

B. Walt McClure, Pre’s high school coach, states. "It was at the district cross country meet his sophomore year that his potential to become an outstanding runner showed itself. We were against the defending state mile champion and the boy who would become the state high school cross country champion, and there was maybe a quarter mile left to go when this little guy in purple passed them and took a short lead. They just went `Who was that?' They got him in the end, and the same thing happened at the state meet, where he got sixth. Steve was really mad. `Let's run it again!' he said, and he'd probably have beaten them if they had."

1. Disappointed with his failure, Steve started planning for his junior-year cross country season with the goal of going undefeated. He began to show the ability to accept the mental and physical punishment of training.

A. The intensity and hard work brought results, and gaps began to show between Pre and the pack. Pirate Stadium was always fill for track meets, and Steve gave them a show. He drew the fans, partly because they wanted to follow the fortunes of this runner who was never satisfied, and partly because they sensed that Pre was something special.

2. His senior year began with set goals in mind for a 9:00 two-miler. He wanted by the end of his senior year to run a 1:52 800, a 3:56 mile, and an 8:40 2-mile. His coach set the workouts with those goals in mind, and the early ones, at times, Pre could not finish. But he drove himself to the edge.

II. To achieve their ambitious goals, Prefontaine had to battle it on every race he ran. Following McClure's orders in the early meets, Pre went hard only one race per meet, running a 4:11.1 mile and a 9:13.two-mile one week, and a 4:19.4 mile and 1:54.3 800 the next. But by the end of April, Pre was ready to tackle his most important goal, at the Corvallis Invitational: the national high school two-mile record of 8:48.4 held by Rick Riley.

A. The plan was for the first mile to be in 4:24 and the second in 4:20.0. That would give a time well under the record, and put Pre within 8:40 range at the state meet a month later. On the Monday before the Invitational, Steve had run four half-miles between 2:07 and 2:10, with a 110-yard jog in between each one. "It came out to be an 8:36 two-mile," he said. "After