Memorable quotes for
Without Limits (1998)

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Steve Prefontaine: I don't want to win unless I know I've done my best, and the only way I know how to do that is to run out front, flat out until I have nothing left. Winning any other way is chicken-shit.

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Steve Prefontaine: I'd like to work it out so that at the end, it's a pure guts race. If it is, I'm the only one who can win it.

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Steve Prefontaine: I can endure more pain than anyone you've ever met. That's why I can beat anyone I've ever met.

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Steve Prefontaine: Bill, has it ever occurred to you that there's such a thing as overcoaching?
Bill Bowerman: Yeah... I'm against it.

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Mary Marckx: You ran great in Munich.
Steve Prefontaine: No, Viren ran great, I was fourth.

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Bill Bowerman: Know what your problem is, Pre? Vanity!
Steve Prefontaine: Vanity?
Bill Bowerman: Yes, vanity, Pre! Your belief that you have no talent is the ultimate vanity. If you have no talent then you have no limits, it's all an act of will. Your heart can probably pump more blood than anyone else's on earth, and that takes talent. The bones in your feet are so strong, it'd take a sledgehammer to break 'em. Be thankful for your limits, Pre, they're about as limitless as they get in this life.

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Mary Marckx: Do you believe in God?
Steve Prefontaine: I believe in myself.

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Bill Bowerman: All my life, man and boy, I've operated under the assumption that the main idea in running was to win the race. Naturally, when I became a coach I tried to teach people how to do that. Tried to teach Pre how to do that. Tried like hell to teach Pre to do that. And Pre taught me. Taught me I was wrong. Pre, you see, was troubled by knowing that a mediocre effort can win a race and a magnificent effort can lose one. Winning a race wouldn't necessarily demand that he give it everything he had from start to finish. He never ran any other way. I couldn't get him to, and God knows I tried... but... Pre was stubborn on holding himself to a higher standard than victory. 'A race is a work of art' is what he said and what he believed and he was out to make it one every step of the way.
Bill Bowerman: Of course he wanted to win. Those who saw Pre compete or who competed against him were never in doubt how much he wanted to win. But how he won mattered to him more. Pre thought I was a hard case. But he finally got it through my head that the real purpose of running isn't to win a race. It's to test to the limits of the human heart. That he did... No one did it more often. No one did it better.

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Steve Prefontaine: It's the hardest thing in the world to believe in something, if you do it's a miracle.

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Steve Prefontaine: You know me Bill, I've always been sort of an Adidas freak.

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Bill Bowerman: George Young is in town.
Steve Prefontaine: So?
Bill Bowerman: So, he holds the world record in the two mile.
Steve Prefontaine: Well we're running the 5,000 at the trials, Bill. What... you don't think I can beat George Young?
Bill Bowerman: He's got one hell of a finishing kick. Now you're not gonna run away from him... flat out.
Steve Prefontaine: Ah shit, we're back to front running again?
Bill Bowerman: Nothing would please George Young more... or the crowd. You'd be giving the crown the performance they want and the one he expects.
Steve Prefontaine: Well you could call a race any goddamn you want, but I wouldn't call it a performance.
Bill Bowerman: What would you call it?
Steve Prefontaine: A work of art!
Bill Bowerman: If you can't beat George Young, you can't win in Munich. Beating George Young is gonna take some kind of time.
Steve Prefontaine: O.K... what kind of time?
Steve Prefontaine: 13:23? 13:23? That's seven seconds faster than the American record, MY American record!
Bill Bowerman: Your American record.
Steve Prefontaine: How do I do that?
Bill Bowerman: You wear him out. Decending series... negative splits.
Bill Bowerman: Slowly, you go a little faster than he thinks your going. By the time he figures it out, he won't be able to do a thing about it.

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