7 Steve Prefontaine Quotes on Competition

Steve Prefontaine quotes on competition

1. 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. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself.

5. I hate having those people back there sucking on me.

7. 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.

8. 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.

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

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

12. The real reason to run a race is not to win the race but to test the limits of the human heart.