The new “big man” on campus, running legend Steve Prefontaine (played by Billy Crudup), is a chick magnet.

One woman, though, fails to throw herself at the University of Oregon long-distance star. That elusiveness makes her far more attractive.

Mary Marckx (Monica Potter) — the original “There’s Something About Mary” — refuses his offer of free shoes as he arrives on campus from Coos Bay.

The national high school record holder sets his sights on more records — and the hard-to-get woman.

This is the one conquest for which he falls short. The athlete who became known simply as Pre takes a journey of self-discovery involving running prowess and romantic distress. Sparks fly in what the characters don’t do in this free-love era.

Set in the 1960s and early 1970s, “Without Limits” shines a light on Eugene and the Oregon coast.

In this character study, two giants — the young Prefontaine and legendary coach Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland) — each have ideas about how to dominate a race. Bowerman, who has strong Eastern Oregon ties with his Fossil-area ranch, goes by the motto faster, higher, stronger but believes runners do best in a pack and then kicking at the end.

Pre, by contrast, believes in front-running. He wants to give his all every step of the race. His gift, he believes, is the ability to endure more pain than his competitors. His specialty, the three-mile run, requires 13 minutes of pain for the best in the world.

Drafting off his competition and then charging ahead at the end is not the cocky Pre’s style.

The two men butt heads. Over time, though, they develop a strong bond based on mutual respect.

The millworker’s son is raised in Coos Bay. The film turns a bit Forest Gumpian when, as a grade-schooler, Pre outruns bullies who attack him for being from a German-speaking household. It’s why, people speculate, he always wants to run out front.

Later, he is recruited by every university with a strong track program in America.

He at first refuses to sign with the nearby University of Oregon despite its stellar track tradition because Bowerman won’t personally recruit him. Finally, Bowerman breaks down and writes Pre an invitation.

The supporting cast includes fellow runners Frank Shorter (Jeremy Sisto), Roscoe Devine (Matthew Lillard) and Kenny Moore (Billy Burke).

Pre’s style of front-running — some say “showboating” — helps him attain mythical status as he wins repeatedly, and sets nearly all American distance records, in front of adoring fans at iconic Hayward Field.

A charismatic hero at the University of Oregon, Pre takes a dizzying ride to the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, where he goes against the best in the world. Fans back home believe he is invincible. After all, they have never seen him lose.

Crudup gives a compelling performance, showing Pre’s drive as well as his prickly ego.

Sutherland carries the film as Bowerman, coach of the U.S. track team at the ill-fated Munich Games, where Israeli athletes are taken hostage by Arab terrorists and killed.

This brief blackness is overshadowed by gorgeous filmmaking. We go to Bowerman’s home in the Coburg Hills overlooking the McKenzie River and Eugene/Springfield, where he experiments with a waffle iron to invent Nike shoes, much to his wife Barbara’s chagrin.

We go to Hayward Field, the diamond on the ring of Tracktown USA.

After college and the Olympics, Pre maintains his amateur status at a cost. He turns down a $200,000 offer to go pro. He leads an effort to topple the AAU, the governing body of amateur track and field in the United States, to level the playing field for athletes worldwide.

All he wants is equal opportunity.

Pre leaves the viewer inspired. “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift,” he says.

The film takes liberties with the story to increase drama but is true to the spirit of Pre.