Why Pre Still MattersHe wasn't always the fastest nor the most decorated.
So why is Steve Prefontaine still the most influential American runner ever?
By Michael Heald
Published March 22, 2013
The grandstand at Marshfield High School is nearly empty, but it seems like everyone in Coos Bay, Oregon, is on the track. People are crossing the finish line in every way possible—the buzz-cut high school kids out in front, the stoic folks wearing earbuds, the willowy 9-year-olds accompanied by red-faced parents. Old-timers limp around the turn to huge applause. A handful of people propel themselves toward the finish line, unashamed of the spittle hanging from their lips and of their gasps and of having run themselves ugly. And then there's me up in the grandstand in my jeans and my Chuck Taylors and my different kind of ugliness.