Steve Prefontaine who?

One of the great things about picking up an interest late in life is that you have so much to catch up on. Things that wouldn't seem special if you'd have picked them up as they happened become like hidden gems that you stumble upon. You also have no idea how many of these gems exist. It's all very exciting but sometimes the way you discover them makes you feel a bit uneducated.

Someone was talking to me about Steve Prefontaine the other day and they were disgusted that I didn't know who he was. Give me a break! I was only just born when he started hitting the scene. I didn't run in highschool or college because of my asthma, so I'm not a running history nut. I am Welsh, so we weren't exactly tuned into every American runner. Sorry. OK!

That was my excuse for not knowing him but I don't have that excuse anymore, so I decided to check out "Pre" for myself. After doing a wee bit of research on the Interwebs, a lot of what he seems to preach is running from the heart and then taking it down a level deeper and running with guts - basically giving it 110%. He claimed that he didn't mind losing as long as he forced the person who beat him to run with even more guts - gotta love that. Looks like it worked out for him. He seems to have held a crap-load of records for a bunch of distances. He looks like a fascinating chap and the mustache is sheer awesomeness. I love that he is partly acredited with influencing the 70's running boom - that's kick-ass! He has been called the James Dean of running. I am going to check out the movie about him called Without Limits. I'll report back.

I can't believe this man died so young. A terrible way to die and a terrible shame for the sport. RIP Pre!

Ignorance is bliss. One more gem stumbled upon! As soon as I know a bunch of stuff about Pre, I'm going to talk to someone else about him and chastise them for not knowing his story. Such is life :)

See all the running movies I have seen to date.