Pre: The Story of America's Greatest Running Legend
In a nutshell
The story of Steve Prefontaine, America's most popular runner, who never won an Olympic medal or set a world record, yet a stadium and a Diamond League meet bear his name. Reviewed by Luboš Brabec.
Who it's for: Readers interested in American track legends.
In America you’d struggle to find a more popular runner than Steve Prefontaine. An athletics stadium is named after him, a Diamond League meet bears his name, and two films were made about him fairly recently. It’s a bit of a mystery.
Because Pre has been dead for more than 40 years.
Pre never won a single Olympic medal (there were no World Championships in his time).
Pre never set a world record.
Pre raced almost exclusively on the track, from the mile to the 10,000 m. He ran very few road races and didn’t do ultra trails either.
Yes, maybe if he hadn’t died young and had lived to this day, his fame would be much smaller. He wouldn’t have the aura of the James Dean of the running track. But there’s much more behind his story, as Pre: The Story of America’s Greatest Running Legend tries to show. A love of running. A desire to squeeze as much as possible out of his talent. To go right to the edge.
One of Prefontaine’s traits was his aggressive racing style. The desire to always be at the front and write the story of the race. It brought him many big wins, and some memorable defeats. Hiding at the back of the pack and then outsprinting everyone in the home straight wasn’t his style.
Steve Prefontaine today
Today, with his fame in America, Pre would be a millionaire, but in the 1970s he lived in poverty, in a trailer, and struggled to pay his bills. “I’m tired of being a poor man,” he declared in 1974, when he was demanding that American athletes receive at least partial material support from the Olympic committee, have their own doctors and physiotherapists, and be able to go to training camps together.
Only then could they compete with the doped-up Scandinavians and Eastern Europeans, who, disguised as soldiers and policemen, enjoyed full state support.
The book brings us Prefontaine’s views and the memories of those close to him, but unfortunately you can tell it was written long after his death and the author had limited access to authentic sources. That’s why it’s padded out with detailed race descriptions, until you feel that just about every race he ever ran gets a mention.
Few are described as interestingly as the mile in Eugene. That race was held at the time of year when Oregon farmers burn their grass and the authorities advise people to stay indoors. But Pre didn’t want to disappoint the fans in his home town and ran even in thick smoke. He ran the mile in 3:58 and was spitting blood at the finish; more health problems followed a few days later.
Perhaps that’s partly why I enjoyed Marathon Man about Bill Rodgers much more. Rodgers, as it happens, received his first Nike shoes in the post from Steve Prefontaine and won Boston in them just a few weeks after Pre’s death. But both books are worth reading.
This review was written by Luboš Brabec. Luboš is a Czech sports journalist and also the author of three running books. I consider his first book, Maraton a jiné pošetilosti (The Marathon and Other Follies), one of the best I’ve read about running. These days I’m more motivated by the perspective of an “ageing” runner and his desire to take on one more marathon with dignity. I’m looking for the recipe in his book Ještě jeden maraton (One More Marathon). And if I manage all that, maybe I’ll get to run a race with Daniel Orálek. Thanks to the book Můj dlouhý běh (My Long Run) I know almost everything about him. If that’s not enough and you’re a sports fan, especially of the NHL or the German Bundesliga, follow Luboš on Twitter.
