Steve Prefontaine Quotes on Competition
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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.
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I hate having those people back there sucking on me.
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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.
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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.
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Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.
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Something inside of me just said 'Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,' and I just took off.
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The real reason to run a race is not to win the race but to test the limits of the human heart.