It is apparent that when someone steps up to a challenge the human spirit acts in a different manner allowing them to overcome obstacles which wouldn't normally be considered. In the film Remember the Titans, the players had to overcome many different obstacles such as race, location of their homes and religion. The movie took place around the 1960-70's when blacks and whites still didn't associate together much. When the black football players started playing on the team there was a lot of hostility between the different races but they managed to overcome this obstacle and help each other as a team to come together and win. In the novel Once a Runner, the biggest theme is overcoming obstacles and doing things you have set your sights on and accomplishing your goals. Cassidy, a collegiate runner overcomes his obstacle, which is to break the four-minute mile barrier. Cassidy, a slightly above average runner in high school becomes a great runner in College by setting goals and obstacles for himself. By doing this he does overcome his obstacle. The book Pre, based on the life of Steve Prefontaine, is all about overcoming obstacles. He starts out by overcoming his high school obstacle that is to get into the University of Oregon, the founder of distance running. He does this by setting goals. By college, Pre is the best and most famous distance runner to ever live in the United States; people would come from all over just to watch his unique form and style. A quotation from Pre that shows his unique style is, "Some people create with words or music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more that just a race; it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else is. It's being creative."(p107) When Pre runs he makes a style out of it and that's why he is so famous. What Prefontaine is to a distance runner is like what Micheal Jordan is to a basketball player. He is unique in his own nature and his style is like no o

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Approximate Word count = 1396
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)