Vol. 2 No. 33 A Brief Conversation About Attitude and Forebearance

Conversation George Brose and Pete Brown
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Did you ever wonder whether guys like you and me ran without the self confidence that a lot of the great runners had? Ernie's going out fast , and Filbert Bayi as well to me were indicative that they had the attitude that they could do it, and if anybody wanted to try staying with them, let it them try. Some could, and responded to the challenge, but I'm sure a lot of them who might have, didn't, because they lacked that inner confidence and willingness to sacrifice their bodies to that extent for just a few minutes or seconds. When I was at Oklahoma , we had a shot putter ,Mike Lindsay, who was 4th at Rome for Great Britain . He told me about meeting Halberg the night before the 5000 final and asking him if he thought he could win. Murray 's reply was something like, "Well I don't know if I will win, but I do plan to break the world record." We know now that he didn't break the WR, but he broke the field with three laps to go in the 90 degree heat. He had to have incredible confidence to try doing such a move. George Brose

Well said, George, and Steve Prefontaine is the best example ever among US athletes for supreme and undeniable self-confidence.
Pete Brown
Bowerman sent three of his best distance men down to Coos Bay to recruit Prefonatine when he was still in HS and they went for a ten mile run on the beach. He announced beforehand, in all seriousness, that he would take it easy on them if they needed him to. He had some big brass balls for sure.
Pete Brown

I think there was a scene about that in one of the two movies made about him. George

The Bowerman book by Kenny Moore, which I thought was terrific, alludes to it as well.
Pete Brown
Ernie Cunliffe was cranking in that 1000 to go by in 1:51.3 (faster than my PR of 1:52.1) and come back with 26.2. Pete Brown

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