Victory lap at rock where Pre stopped.Byline: Best of ... by The Register-Guard There's been a lot of talk of memorials lately, and with the Prefontaine Classic The Prefontaine Classic is one of the premier track and field meets in the United States. Every year it draws a world caliber field to compete at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field. History The first annual Prefontaine Classic took place in 1974. in town this weekend, we thought it was worth mentioning the best memorial of them all: Pre's Rock. Like the man it commemorates, this shrine is a one of a kind. Located on a dangerous curve where Steve Prefontaine Steve Roland Prefontaine (January 25, 1951 – May 30, 1975) (nicknamed Pre) was an American Olympic runner who inspired a running boom in the 1970s along with contemporaries Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers. crashed his car and and died in May 1975 at the age of 24, this memorial was not at all well-thought-out - and therein lies its charm. There were no juried art competitions, no neighborhood forums, no public debates about what the design was going to look like. It was just a place that people started visiting because it reminded them of Pre. With the exception of Jim Morrison's grave at Pere père n. 1. Used after a man's surname to distinguish a father from a son: Dumas père primarily wrote novels, while dramas occupied Dumas fils. 2. Lachaise cemetery in Paris, you'd be hard-pressed to name a more colorful memorial than this one. And unlike Jimbo's tomb, which is basically a monument to substance abuse covered in graffiti and littered with cigarette butts, Pre's Rock actually means something to the people who visit. If you don't believe us, just look at the stuff that's been left behind. There are running shoes, track numbers, student ID cards, handwritten hand·write tr.v. hand·wrote , hand·writ·ten , hand·writ·ing, hand·writes To write by hand. [Back-formation from handwritten.] Adj. 1. notes and a Gatorade bottle filled with flowers. The monument itself - a half-ton stone with a tribute from a prison running club that Prefontaine organized and a photo of the fiery-eyed distance runner distance runner n. A runner who competes in distance races. - brings home the point that this is solemn site. Still, we keep coming back to the offerings - a motley collection mot´ley col`lec´tion n. 1. A collection of objects of various kinds; a hodgepodge; a medley; a confused mixture; an omnium gatherum. of keepsakes Keepsakes - A Collection is an anthology by All About Eve released on 13 March 2006. It is available either as a double CD or as a limited edition double CD and DVD set (the DVD containing the band's videos and television performances). so personal, they have absolutely no value to anyone save the people who left them there. It's mostly runners who visit Pre's Rock, partly because it commemorates a world-famous runner and partly because the parking sucks. Runners of all kinds make the steep trek up to the site, which was recently acquired by the city of Eugene. During our recent visit, we spotted a pair of fit, college-age men who barely broke a sweat on their way up and a lumpy, middle-age jogger who appeared to have all the stamina of a court stenographer An individual who records court proceedings either in shorthand or through the use of a paper-punching device. A court stenographer is an officer of the court and is generally considered to be a state or public official. . Ultimately, it doesn't matter how you get to Pre's Rock, or what condition you're in when you arrive. You don't even have to be a runner to find inspiration here. Just take it from another visitor we encountered, a transient who emerged from a sliver of maples and cottonwoods behind the monument with an arm load of aluminum cans. "Good ole Pre's Rock," he said, nodding toward the basalt basalt (bəsôlt`, băs`ôlt), fine-grained rock of volcanic origin, dark gray, dark green, brown, reddish, or black in color. Basalt is an igneous rock, i.e., one that has congealed from a molten state. wall. Best of ... is like a flash mob dance party in a crowded London tube station. To groove on the Best of ... archive, go to www.registerguard.com/bestof. BEST MEMORIAL Pre's Rock Where: Skyline Boulevard, near Birch Lane CAPTION(S): Pre's Rock, where Steve Prefontaine died in a car crash in 1975, is now a shrine decorated with objects left by adoring runners. |
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