Inspiration from the Track: Steve Prefontaine Quotes

A lot of people run a race to see who’s the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.

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.

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

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

Running is not just exercise, it is a lifestyle.

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.

Run in the morning ? before your brain figures out what your body?s doing!

Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.

What kind of crazy nut would spend two or three hours a day just running?

I don’t just go out there and run. I like to give people watching something exciting.

There’s more to the race than just running.

It really gets grim until the competition begins. 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.

You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. But still, I’d rather be out here than a good many other places and still, I enjoy it.

What I want is to be number one.

You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.

No matter who you are, no matter what you do, you absolutely, positively do have the power to change.

I want to make people stop and say: I’ve never seen anyone run like that before.

Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.

To run an impossible race you don?t need to increase speed. You need to reduce seconds.

No one will ever win a 5,000-meter by running an easy two miles. Not against me.

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.

What I want is to be number one.

Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.

The only tactics I admire are do-or-die.

Anyone can run 20 miles. It’s the next six that count.

I don’t just go out there and run. I like to give people watching something exciting.

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.

The best pace is suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.

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

Train hard, don’t quit, suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion.

I’m totally against the idea of a coach. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. I consider it cheating, and I consider it both immoral and unethical.

If you want to win a race you have to go a little berserk.

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.

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.

Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.

A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they’re capable of understanding.

Running, one might say, is basically an absurd past-time upon which to be exhausting ourselves. But if you can find meaning in the kind of running you have to do, chances are you’ll be able to find meaning in another absurd past-time: life.

I am going to work so that it’s a pure guts race. In the end, if it is, I am the only one who can win it.

Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. Sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.

Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.

Something inside of me just said ‘hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,’ and I just took off.

You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.

Believe that you can run farther or faster. Believe that you’re young enough, old enough, strong enough, and so on to accomplish everything you want to do. Don’t let worn-out beliefs stop you from moving beyond yourself.