"Pre Lives"
If you'd like to own a replica of a Prefontaine Singlet that I designed, go to the Tanks for sale page.
January 25, 1951 - May 30, 1975
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice The Gift. --Steve Prefontaine
It is not a coincidence that PRE is an acronym for Personal Records Exemplar.
This is the 1972 Munich Olympics 5000m Final. I love this race for several reasons, and I think there is a lot we can learn by analyzing it. First of all, it illustrates how you can run your best and still lose, while someone else can run less than their best and win. Prefontaine really gives it his all and he essentially "made" the race (in the sense that nobody was running fast until he took the lead and pushed the pace) but Viren runs a very strategic race and drafts off of Pre, saving his energy for one strong attack, and he breezes by for the win in a time that is not exceptionally fast for these guys. To put things into perspective, Pre ran 13:22 in the US Trials, which was a new American Record at the time, but in the Olympic final Viren ran 13:26 and Pre ran 13:28. Part of the beauty of this race is the way that Pre's character and attitude shine through: he runs for first, and only first place (as Ricky Bobby says in Talladega Nights, "If you're not first, you're last.") With 300 meters to go, Pre wastes energy trying to surge to the front, and again with 240 meters left in the race. These two surges leave him completely bankrupt in the final straight, allowing Ian Stewart to catch up. He could have easily taken bronze by using a different tactic, but he put himself on the line and went for the gold--a strategy that sent him home empty handed.The 1972 5000m final is also a moral tale about the folly of hubris. Prefontaine announced his strategy to the world before the race, saying he would run the last mile under 4 minutes and he dared anyone to stay with him. Maybe he really believed that this work, or that people would think he was bluffing, but as it turned out, he ran 4:06 and several people had no problem staying with him. It probably helped them mentally that they knew exactly what he was trying to do. If he had stayed quiet, his opponents would have been confused by a surge so early in the race and some of them may have allowed him to break a gap. The start was extremely slow, even for an Olympic final, and I can't help thinking that Pre may have had something to do with that. They likely expected him to take the lead, since he was often a front-runner and was known to be insecure in his finishing speed.
Despite the shortcomings, you have to love the guy for his confidence and gumption. The 1972 Olympic 5000m Final was a great race, but without Pre, probably wouldn't be very memorable.
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