Pre: The Story of America's Greatest Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine by Tom Jordan

Author:Tom Jordan [Jordan, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rodale Books
Published: 1997-03-15T04:30:00+00:00

Pre, Ngeno, and Danny Murphy at the mile-mark of the Pac 8 meet—November 1973 DAVE DRENNAN

But the next week in the Pac-8 meet at Stanford’s golf course, it was the Pre of old. Tough, cagey, indomitable.

Through the flat first mile-and-a-half, Ngeno pulled Pre and Irishman Danny Murphy from Washington State free from the pack. Rain was making the going slippery, and at times the Kenyan’s naturally skittish gait was close to sprinting as he windmilled around the turns and got 50 yards on Steve.

On the back three miles of cambered hills, Pre closed and caught Ngeno with two miles to go on the 5.9-mile course. He ran the fourth mile in 4:20 and finished by breaking the record he shared with Gerry Lindgren from four years before by a convincing 28 seconds.

“He just alternated the pace, and I love that kind of race,” Pre exulted.

In the typical postrace crush of reporters and autograph seekers, someone asked the winner if he was looking forward to future races against young Craig Virgin from Illinois, who the summer before had broken Pre’s two-mile high school mark by a half-second. The pride flared in Prefontaine.

“It’s not a matter of me racing him; he has to come and race me!” Still irritated, Pre continued, “That’s not much of a record-breaking performance—what, a half a second—no, I’m not impressed.”

With two weeks to go before the NCAA Championships in Spokane, Washington, Prefontaine received continuous treatment on his back and trained as best he could. Despite his convincing win in the Pac-8 meet, his confidence was at an all-time low.

The team captain rallies his troops. But he talked more confidently than he felt. Spokane, 1973 JEFF JOHNSON

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