Steve Prefontaine

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.

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

How does a kid from Coos Bay with one leg longer than the other win races?

What I want is to be number one.

I run to see who has the most guts.

Something inside of me just said 'Hey wait a minute I want to beat him ' and I just took off.

Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.

I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end and if it is I am the only one who can win it.

You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

Somebody may beat me but they are going to have to bleed to do it.

Over the years I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're capable of understanding.