Today I met up with an old friend, her name is running. Little known fact, I used to be quite the runner. During high school I was on the cross country team.Each summer I attended a grueling week long running camp. There was a single day in each session that stood out. That day was called “the big day”, it was named appropriately, the mileage for the day was 29 miles. Most of us threw up at least once during the day. Needless to say I was not your typical teen.

I never looked up to Michael Jordan, never had posters of juiced up football players. There was only one person I found fit to call an idol, his name was Steve Prefontaine. Some of you may be wondering who the hell Steve is.

Steve was a runner from Coos Bay, OR. At one point he held every American track & field record from the 2,000 to the 10,000. Pre was the badass of running, he was disliked by his competitors for his cocky attitude. But the fact is Pre could back it up. He was a front runner( meaning he held the front position from start to finish). He was not the best runner in the area of form,but he ran each race as if it were his last. Cliche but Steve was truely the definition of giving your all.

So most of you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with Suru. Well Steve’s coach was the infamous Bill Bowerman (pictured together above). Bill, is the co-founder of Nike, first called Blue Ribbon sports later re-named. Bowerman would experiment with his wifes waflle iron, trying to create a better gripping light weight sole. Steve was the first athlete with Nike, and some would argue the most influential.

Tragically Steve passed away at the age of 24 in a car accident. I highly recommend the movies, Pre and Without Limits if you wanna learn a little more.