Review: A film: Without Limits

Citius, Altius, Fortius

"It means 'Faster, higher, stronger.' It's been the motto of the Olympic Games for a hundred years. It doesn't mean faster, higher, or stronger than your competitors... just faster, higher, stronger." These are the first words spoken by Bill Bowerman, running coach of the University of Oregon, in the film Without Limits and they speak to the spirit of the man for whom the film is made. Without Limits is one of three movies made about the iconic Steve Prefontaine, one of America's greatest distance runners. The film stars Billy Crudup as the running star and Donald Sutherland as his University of Oregon running coach the great Bill Bowerman, founder of Nike. I saw this movie five years ago, when I had just picked up running and couldn't make it around the block without needing to stop, breathe, and do everything in my power to keep from dropping to my knees. This isn't an instructional film, it's an inspirational film about one of the most heralded athletes in the history of American running hailing from what was the center of running at the time, the University of Oregon.

At the beginning of the film Bowerman is addressing the team:
"One might say running is an absurd pastime. But if you can find the meaning in the kind of running you must do to stay on my team then you may find meaning in the other absurd pastime. Life."

Beyond this I will not spoil the movie. Suffice it to say that Bowerman was Pre’s coach, and Pre his own man. The challenge of faster, higher, stronger, still lies on our horizon. It exists because we have the desire to strive out to be better than we are, it exists as the motto to the Olympics because athletes need “freedom of excess” said Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the man responsible for applying this motto to the games, it is “a motto for people who dare to try to break records.”

As athletes we can find something deeper in what we're doing that just another workout. There's a sense of symetry that follows through the different pursuits in our lives, our jobs, hobbies, relationships with others, and the thread that holds them all together.

Though I'd heard of Bill Bowerman, I'd only known him as the co-founder of Nike, and had never heard of Steve Prefontaine. Bowerman as a coach took his team to a 114-20 dual meet record during his coaching career (for a winning percentage of 0.843, lifetime). As a runner Pre held 8 American records at once for every distance between 2,000 and 10,000 meters. As of 2001 Pre's collegiate record for the 3 mile was still standing.

Running is a passion,
it is a pursuit,
a life.