To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.
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Quotes by Steve Prefontaine
Explore 20 verified and sourced quotes attributed to Steve Prefontaine. Open any quote for its dedicated page, source details and related topics.
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Selected quotes by 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.
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.
Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.
When people go to a track meet, they're looking for something, a world record, something that hasn't been done before. You get all this magnetic energy, people focusing on one thing at the same time. I really get excited about it. It makes me want to compete even more. It makes it all worthwhile, all the hours of hard work.
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.
My philosophy is that I'm an artist. I perform an art not with a paint brush or a camera. I perform with bodily movement. Instead of exhibiting my art in a museum or a book or on canvas, I exhibit my art in front of the multitudes.
Every once in a while I think, 'What am I doing out here running, busting myself up? Life could be so much easier. The other guys are out having fun, doing other things, why not me?'
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.
I've been in international competition, and now I know what the big boys can do. You don't go out and just run. There's an offense and a defense.
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.
A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're capable of understanding.
Something inside of me just said 'Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,' and I just took off.
Kids made fun of me because I was a slow learner, because I was hyperactive, because of a lot of things. Running gave me confidence.
If he's having a good day and running the right race, nobody can beat Frank Shorter at 10,000 meters... nobody except me.
What I want is to be number one.
No one will ever win a 5,000-meter by running an easy two miles. Not against me.
I run to see who has the most guts.
Nobody likes tainted victories.
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 style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.
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