| When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. |
| - Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. |
| - Theodore Roosevelt |
| Carpe diem (sieze the day) |
| - Dead Poets Society |
| Tis only in their dreams that men truly be free, 'twas always thus, and always thus will be. |
| - John Keating |
| Fortis fortuna juvat (Fortune favors the brave) |
| - Virgil |
| Don't ask for a light load, but rather ask for a strong back. |
| - unknown |
| The heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. |
| - Thomas S. Monson |
| Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. |
| - Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man. |
| - George Washington |
| Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves. |
| - Walter Anderson |
| Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. |
| - Robert F. Kennedy |
| That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong. |
| - William J. H. Boetcker |
| You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. |
| - Jack London |
| Act as if it were impossible to fail. |
| - Dorothea Brande |
| Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid. |
| - John Keats |
| This thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. |
| - Mary Pickford |
| Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal. |
| - Mike Ditka |
| Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. |
| - Calvin Coolidge |
| We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are. |
| - Tobias Wolff, 'In Pharaoh's Army' |
| I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time. |
| - Anna Freud |
| It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever. |
| - Philip Adams |
| A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug. |
| - Patricia Neal |
| Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity. |
| - Michael Johnson |
| I'm going to go out a winner if I have to find a high school race to win my last race. |
| - Johnny Gray |
| I always loved running...it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs. |
| - Jesse Owens |
| It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse. |
| - Ann Trason |
| Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts. |
| - Steve Prefontaine |
| The gun goes off and everthing changes... the world changes... and nothing else really matters. |
| - Patti Sue Plummer |
| You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming. |
| - Frank Shorter |
| Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. |
| - Doug Larson |
| If you start to feel good during an ultra, don't worry you will get over it. |
| - Gene Thibeault |
| The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. |
| - Robert Frost |
| I have met my hero, and he is me. |
| - George Sheehan |
| No negative thoughts cross my mind on race day. When I look into their eyes, I know I'm going to beat them. |
| - Danny Harris |
| I cannot have survival as my only goal. That would be too boring. My goal is to come back in my best running form. It is good for me to have that goal; it will help me. |
| - Ludmila Engquist (Olympic champion hurdler facing cancer and chemotherapy) |
| When I came back, after all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. Now what's the difference? |
| - Jesse Owens |
| There are clubs you can't belong to, neighborhoods you can't live in, schools you can't get into, but the roads are always open. |
| - Nike Slogan |
| What matters is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog. |
| - Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired. |
| - Jules Renard |
| I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners. |
| - Sebastian Coe |
| We can't all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by. |
| - Will Rogers |
| The will to win means nothing if you haven't the will to prepare. |
| - Juma Ikangaa |
| Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired...You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going. |
| - George S. Patton |
| Mind is everything: muscle - pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind. |
| - Paavo Nurmi |
| The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed. |
| - Jacqueline Gareau |
| Sport is not about being wrapped up in cotton wool. Sport as about adapting to the unexpected and being able to modify plans at the last minute. Sport, like all life, is about taking risks. |
| - Sir Roger Bannister |
| There are people who have no bodies, only heads. And many athletes have no heads, only bodies. A champion is a man who has trained his body and his mind, who has learned to conquer pain for his own purposes. A great athlete is at peace with himself and at peace with the world; he has fulfilled himself. He envies nobody. Wars are caused by people who have not fulfilled themselves. |
| - Sam Dee |
| That is the sort of race which one really enjoys - to feel at one's peak on the day when it is necessary, and to be able to produce the pace at the very finish. It gives a thrill which compensates for months of training and toiling. But it is the sort of race that one wants only about once a season. |
| - Jack Lovelock |
| I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart. |
| - Mike Fanelli |
| To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. |
| - Steve Prefontaine |
| Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. |
| - Mark Twain |
| The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit. |
| - Mark Twain |
| Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. |
| - Mark Twain |
| Who loves the Monster? |
| - Isaac Zentner |
| If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life. |
| - Abraham Maslow |
| People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to. |
| - George Allen |
| A man may make mistakes, but he isn't a failure until he starts blaming someone else. |
| - John Wooden |
| Young people need models not critics. |
| - John Wooden |
| Talent is God give; be humble Fame is man given; be thankful Conceit is self-give; be careful |
| - John Wooden |
| Learn as if you were to live forever, Live as if you were to die tomorrow. |
| - John Wooden |
| Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what your really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. |
| - John Wooden |
| If we did all the things that we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. |
| - Thomas Edison |
| Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways. |
| - Stephen Vincent Benét |
| Only by going too far can one possibly find out how far one can go. |
| - Jon Dyer |
| The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. |
| - Unknown |
| Know that almost no success or failure is a permanent condition. Always be prepared to move to your next level. |
| - Joe Henderson |
| In every race there is a crucial moment when the body wants to quit. Then it needs imagination and mental tenacity to survive the crisis. Otherwise the penalty is defeat. |
| - Derek Ibbotson |
| It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life that those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest men. When you see 20 or 30 men line up for a distance race in some meet, don't pity them, don't feel sorry for them. Better envy them instead. |
| - Brutus Hamilton |
| Run the best you can with the talent you have and the training you've done, and you can call yourself a winner |
| - Joe Henderson |
| Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired. |
| - Jules Renard |
| Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent. |
| - Carl Jung |
| The willow knows what the storm does not: that the power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it. |
| - Blood of the Martyr |
| Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more wisely. |
| - unknown |
| Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. |
| - Albert Einstein |
| The most important thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else – the desire has to be yours. That is all that will justify the hard work needed to achieve success. Compete against yourself, not others, for you are truly your best competition . . . |
| - Peggy Fleming, Figure Skater, Olympic Gold Medalist |
| You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement. |
| - Steve Prefontaine |
| Training was a time where resolutions made in the enthusiasm of an inspired moment were put to personal test |
| - Herb Elliot, Distance Runner, Olympic Gold Medalist |
| Wanting desperately to achieve taps that hidden resource that every one of us has . . . |
| - Herb Elliot, Distance Runner, Olympic Gold Medalist |
| It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult |
| - Seneca |
| Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. |
| - Confucius |
| Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. |
| - William Faulkner |
| Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. |
| - Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| Some people create with words or with 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 than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative. |
| - Steve Prefontaine |
| Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it. |
| - Steve Prefontaine |
| I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it. |
| - Steve Prefontaine |
| Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle. |
| - Wilma Rudolph First American Woman Runner to win 3 Gold Medals at a single Olympics |
| Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday. |
| - Wilma Rudolph First American Woman Runner to win 3 Gold Medals at a single Olympics |
| The triumph cannot be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams. |
| - Wilma Rudolph First American Woman Runner to win 3 Gold Medals at a single Olympics |
| My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces. |
| - Wilma Rudolph First American Woman Runner to win 3 Gold Medals at a single Olympics |
| My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble. |
| - Bill Rogers, Marathoner |
| If you want to win a race, you have to go a little berserk. |
| - Bill Rogers, Marathoner |
| Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. |
| - Patti Sue Plummer |
| In the achievement of greater performances, of beating formidable rivals, the athlete defeats fear and conquers himself. |
| - Franz Stamfl |
| Never take the lead unless you really want it, and if you take it, do something with it. |
| - Tom Courtney, Olympic Champion |
| Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible. |
| - William Shakespeare |
| Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. |
| - T.S. Eliot |
| There are as many reasons for running as there are days in a year, years in a life. But I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be. |
| - Dr. George Sheehan |
| Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. |
| - Confucius |
| When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly. |
| - Edward Teller |
| With victory in hand, running at maximum effort becomes very difficult. Without some company in the difficult miles, the body's mission becomes lonely and dark. |
| - Frank Shorter |
| The medal is not for myself. It couldn't be done without the support and help of my people, runners, and coaches. |
| - Alberto Juantorena |
| Whatever moves the other runners made, I knew I could respond...I felt if I had to, I could fly. |
| - Grete Waitz |
| In running you can't say you want to be the best. You just have to work very hard, really. You're only a hamstring injury away from oblivion. |
| - Steve Jones |
| There is no finish line |
| - Nike Slogan |
| You either ran today, or you didn't |
| - Nike Slogan |
| Runs end. Running doesn't. |
| - Nike Slogan |
| Test your faith daily. |
| - Nike Slogan |
| Where your world becomes the next two strides |
| - Nike Slogan |
| There are two types of people: Those who run and those who should. Nike believes in both. |
| - Nike Slogan |
| Mother's, there's a mad man running in the streets, And he's humming a tune, And he's snarling at dogs, And he still has four more miles to go. |
| - Nike Slogan |
| It starts about the time I walk out my front door. I reach the woods, smell the river, and I just feel myself come to life again. It's like yeah, I'm back. |
| - Nike Slogan |
| The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. |
| - William James |
| I never run a bad race when my training has gone well. If I train well, I'll run well. |
| - Alberto Salazar |
| I was born to be a runner. I simply love to train. |
| - Mary Decker Slaney |
| There are three things to remember about drugs. The first is that if you take drugs, you'll never know your full potential; second, there is the obvious health risk; and third, if you do drugs, you're giving up on yourself. |
| - Carl Lewis |
| Twenty years from now, I can look at this medal and say, "I was the best quarter-miler in the world on that day." If you don't thing that's important, you don't know what's inside an athlete's soul. |
| - Vince Matthews |
| Be a champion in practice, that's where champions are made. |
| - Unknown |
| A team is only as strong as its weakest member. |
| - Unknown |
| Strong athletes criticize themselves. |
| - Unknown |
| No athlete has become a failure without his own consent. |
| - Unknown |
| We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. |
| - Frank Tibolt |
| Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation. |
| - Saint Augustine |
| There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. |
| - Beverly Sills |
| You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone. |
| - Percy Cerutty |
| Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. |
| - Mark Twain |
| Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong |
| - Winston Churchill |
| The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt. |
| - Max Lerner |
| Number one is just to gain a passion for running. To love the morning, to love the trail, to love the pace on the track. And if some kid gets really good at it, that's cool too. |
| - Pat Tyson |
| A great coach is an artist. You have to be creative, and you have to capture enough kids to create your artwork |
| - Pat Tyson |
| Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals |
| - Henry Ford |
| The Truth is that Running Hurts. No one gets faster without meeting their personal pain barrier straight on. No amount of junk miles, fun runs or affirmations are going to get you over the hill at the five mile mark in a 10k. However, what will pull you through is solid prep with hard hill runs and interval work |
| - Manciata |
| Thus I urge you to go on to your greatness if you believe it is in you. Think deeply and separate what you wish from what you are prepared to do. |
| - Percy Cerutty |
| The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top. |
| - Herb Elliott |
| To exercise at or near capacity is the best way I know of reaching a true introspective state. If you do it right, it can open all kinds of inner doors. |
| - Al Oerter |
| Often I visualize a quicker, like almost a ghost runner, ahead of me with a quicker stride. It's really crazy. In races, this always happens to me. I see the vision of a runner ahead of me, maybe just 15, 20 meters ahead of me, and the cadence of that runner, which is actually me in the future, is a little quicker, so if I'm going (his rhythm/breathing), then my ghost runner, the vision of me, ahead of me, like opening up and just going for it, is quicker. It's like (quicker rhythmic noises). |
| - Gabe Jennings on technique |
| The five S's of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit. |
| - Ken Doherty |
| If you feel like eating, eat. Let your body tell you what it wants. |
| - Joan Benoit Samuelson |
| Out of the silver heat mirage he ran. The sky burned, and under him the paving was a black mirror reflecting sun-fire. Sweat sprayed his skin with each foot strike so that he ran in a hot mist of his own creation. With each slap on the softened asphalt, his soles absorbed heat that rose through his arches and ankles and the stems of his shins. It was a carnival of pain, but he loved each stride because running distilled him to his essence and the heat hastened this distillation. |
| - James Tabor |
| Once you're beat mentally, you might was well not even go to the starting line. |
| - Todd Williams |
| The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed. |
| - Jacqueline Gareau, 1980 Boston Marathon champ |
| When the meal was over we all had a quiet rest in our rooms and I meditated on the race. This is the time when an athlete feels all alone in the big world. Opponents assume tremendous stature. Any runner who denies having fears, nerves or some kind of disposition is a bad athlete, or a liar. |
| - Gordon Pirie |
| We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves...The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable. |
| - Sir Roger Bannister |
| God determines how fast you're going to run; I can help only with the mechanics. |
| - Bill Bowerman |
| I still bother with runners I call hamburgers. They're never going to run any record times. But they can fulfill their own potential. |
| - Bill Bowerman |
| The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat. |
| - Bill Squires |
| Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. |
| - Aristotle |
| Men, today we die a little. |
| - Emil Zatopek at the start of the 1956 Olympic Marathon |
| The ultimate is not to win, but to reach within the depths of your capabilities and to compete against yourself to the greatest extent possible. When you do that, you have dignity. You have the pride. You can walk about with character and pride no matter in what place you happen to finish. |
| - Billy Mills, 1964 Olympic 10,000m champion |
| If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough |
| - Steve Jones |
| I like running because it's a challenge. If you run hard, there's the pain - and you've got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is? Don't overdo it' and? Don't push yourself.' Well, I think that's a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond. |
| - Bob Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers general manager, NHL Hall of Fame. |
| When the meal was over we all had a quiet rest in our rooms and I meditated on the race. This is the time when an athlete feels all alone in the big world. Opponents assume tremendous stature. Any runner who denies having fears, nerves or some kind of disposition is a bad athlete, or a liar. |
| - Gordon Pirie |
| A lot of people don't realize that about 98 percent of the running I put in is anything but glamorous: 2 percent joyful participation, 98 percent dedication! It's a tough formula. Getting out in the forest in the biting cold and the flattening heat, and putting in kilometer after kilometer. |
| - Rob de Castella |
| Remember when you see someone at the top of a mountain, he didn't fall there. |
| - Anonymous |
| Talent without discipline is talent wasted |
| - Zeb Smith |
| I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field. |
| - Walter Payton |
| If you don't invest very much, then defeat doesn't hurt very much and winning is not very exciting. |
| - Dick Vermeil |
| The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur. |
| - Vince Lombardi |
| The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it. |
| - Wayne Gretzky |
| It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up. |
| - Vince Lombardi |
| I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win--if you don't, you won't. |
| - Bruce Jenner, Olympic Gold Medalist, Decathlon |
| There are only two options regarding commitment; you're either in or you're out. There's no such thing as life in-between. |
| - Pat Riley |
| The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move. |
| - John Wooden |
| The man who has no imagination has no wings. |
| - Muhammad Ali |
| Luck? Sure. But only after long practice and only with the ability to think under pressure. |
| - Babe Didrikson Zaharias |
| Records are made to be broken. |
| - Anonymous |
| Second place is not a defeat. It is a stimulation to get better. It makes you even more determined. |
| - Carlos Lopes, Portugal, prior to 1984 Games |
| Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about. |
| - PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian |
| Everyone in life is looking for a certain rush. Racing is where I get mine. |
| - John Trautmann |
| A runner's creed: I will win; if I cannot win, I shall be second; if I cannot be second, I shall be third; if I cannot place at all, I shall still do my best. |
| - Ken Doherty |
| I haven't seen too many American distance men on the international scene willing to take risks. I saw some U.S. women in Barcelona willing to risk, more than men. The Kenyans risk. Steve Prefontaine risked. I risked—I went through the first half of the Tokyo race just a second off my best 5000 time. |
| - Billy Mills |
| At this point (the backstretch), I abandoned the studied relaxation. This is the moment when you stop consciously controlling what you are doing and pour everything into driving out the utmost speed. |
| - Peter Snell |
| Coming off the last turn, my thoughts changed from 'One more try, one more try, one more try. . .' to 'I can win! I can win! I can win! |
| - Billy Mills |
| Never really give in as long as you have any earthly chance, and above all don't allow yourself to fancy that you are in this predicament until the gruesome knowledge is absolutely forced upon you. For however bad you may be feeling, it is by no means impossible that the other fellows may be feeling quite as much, if not even more, distressed. |
| - Alf Shrubb |
| The only tactics I admire are do-or-die. |
| - Herb Elliot |
| After 5 or 6 laps I have read everyone like a newspaper. and I know who is able to do this or that. And I know what I am able to do. |
| - Miruts Yifter |
| Don't struggle and burst yourself every yard. There is no sense in making a quarter-mile race of a section of the course between yourself and your immediate attendants, so as to crack you all up and leave the field open for the others to jog comfortably in. |
| - Alf Shrubb |
| Even [Glenn] Cunningham, strong though he is, could not live up to the strain of setting such a pace, combined with the mental worry of having a lightly stepping black shadow right on his shoulder, locking strides with him, almost breathing in his ear—for the trick of shadowing an opponent within sight and hearing is one of the more maddening and distracting forms of tactics that one can use in any race. |
| - Jack Lovelock |
| I guess I prefer to stay unpredictable so that people cannot say, 'Dixon's a front-runner' or 'Dixon, he stays back in the pack and then comes up strong at the end.' Strategy, my dear. I don't mind setting the pace, though, when I have to run my own race. I do what the situation requires. |
| - Rod Dixon |
| Perhaps the most intriguing, yet at the same time most tragic aspect of distance running is racing strategies and tactics or the lack of them. A slight hesitance, a single step to the inside, a few seconds miscalculation of the right pace of the timing of the final kick, and any other seemingly minor error, may throw away months and years of careful preparation and sacrifice. The race is not always to either the swift or the strong, but to the clever, the skillful, and the constantly wary. |
| - Ken Doherty |
| I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. |
| - Henry David Thoreau |
| Every man is the builder of a temple called his body. |
| - Henry David Thoreau |
| I stand in awe of my body. |
| - Henry David Thoreau |
| If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. |
| - Henry David Thoreau |
| Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. |
| - Henry David Thoreau |
| Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly. |
| - Thomas H. Huxley |
| If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all. |
| - Anna Quindlen |
| My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that 'achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.' |
| - Helen Hayes |
| Underpromise; overdeliver. |
| - Tom Peters |
| Cross Country: you'll be glad you did it. |
| - Christine Miller |
| It's more than just a fall sport, cross country is a lifestyle. |
| - Christine Miller |
| A runner must run with dreams in his heart. |
| - Emil Zatopek |
| I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it, I want to live the width of it as well. |
| - Diane Ackerman |
| There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. |
| - Nelson Mandela |
| Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. |
| - Marianne Williamson |
| Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work |
| - unknown |
| Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. |
| - Margaret Mead |
| The world is divided into two classifications of people, distance runners and candy asses. |
| - Wyoming XC Team |
| Hard work, given time, will defeat talent. |
| - Unknown |
| Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places that soap will never reach. |
| - George Sheehan |
| The only difference between Champ and Chump is "U"! |
| - Unknown |
| The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. |
| - Moliere |
| Excuses only satisfy those who make them. |
| - Unknown |
| do what you can, with what you have, where you are. |
| - Theodore Roosevelt |
| You can always run faster… It is just going to hurt. |
| - Unknown |
| You don’t get what you wish for; you get what you work for. |
| - Unknown |
| Some people ask why I run so fast… well what do you do when you hear a gun. |
| - Unknown |
| You’re running on guts. On fumes. Your muscles twitch. You throw up. You’re delirious. But you keep running because there is no way out of this hell you are in, because there is no way that you are not crossing the finish line. It is a misery that non-runners don’t understand. |
| - Martine Costello |
| Heart pumping, muscles burning, feet aching, lungs screaming for air… yea we run for fun |
| - Unknown |
| no refs, out of bounds, timeouts, fouls, or benchwarmers. Cross Country… Not a Game! |
| - Unknown |
| Cross Country; all it takes is all you have got. |
| - Unknown |
| Running won’t kill you… you’ll pass out first. |
| - Anonymous |
| Running is for everyone… Cross Country is for athletes. |
| - Anonymous |
| There is a moment in every race where you can quit, fold or say to your self "I can do this". |
| - Gatorade Commercial |
| A true runner runs even when he doesn’t feel like it, and races when he is supposed to, without excuses and nothing held back. He runs to win and would rather die than not finish what he has started. |
| - Once a runner |
| Why do I run? You ask. Why do you breathe? I ask. |
| - Nike Ad |
| People can’t understand why a man runs. They don’t see any sport in it. Argue it lacks the sight and the thrill of body contact. Yet, the conflict is there, more raw and challenging than any man versus man competition. For in running it is man against himself, the cruelest of all opponents. His adversary lies within him, in his ability, with brain and heart to master himself, his emotions and his pain. |
| - Glenn Cunningham |
| Games require skill. Running requires endurance, character, pride, physical strength and mental toughness. Running is a test, not a game. A test of faith, belief, will and trusts in ones self. so hardcore that it needs a category all to itself to the define pain. When game players criticize, it’s because they aren’t willing to understand, not because they’re stronger. Running is more than sport; it’s a lifestyle. If you have to ask us why we run, you’ll never understand, so just accept it. |
| - Jessica Post |
| When you win nothing hurts. |
| - Unknown |
| It is true that speed kills. In distance running, it kills anyone who doesn’t have it. |
| - Brooke Johnson |
| Thos who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it. |
| - Michael Johnson’s Personal Trainer |
| Cross Country isn’t for everyone, only those "weirdos" who like to run through the woods, mud and hills in little more than underwear. |
| - Unknown |
| People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within. |
| - Romana Anderson |
| Runners have balls; all others just play with them. |
| - Unknown |
| There are two types of people: those who run, and those who should. |
| - Unknown |
| Running: Our sport is you sports punishment. |
| - Unknown |
| There is no I in team, but there is a "U" in suck. |
| - Anonymous |
| Nobody said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it. |
| - Preacher |
| Catch the person in front of you. Stay in front of the person behind you. Beat the shadow next to you! |
| - Unknown |
| The talent to be great runner is a gift from God; utilizing that talent is a gift from you to yourself. |
| - Anonymous |
| Some people say religion is life, if that is the case then running is life. |
| - Marathon competitor |
| Cross Country: finally a good reason for a golf course |
| - Anonymous |
| The miracle isn’t that I finished… The miracle is that I had the courage to start. |
| - Anonymous |
| Run like hell and get the agony over quicker. |
| - Anonymous |
| Only think of two things- the gun and the tape. When you hear the one, just run like hell until you break the other. |
| - Sam Mussabini |
| Runners just do it- they run for the finish line even if someone else has reached it first. |
| - Unknown |
| Success comes before work only in the dictionary. |
| - Unknown |
| Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. |
| - AC Green |
| Stadiums are for spectators. Runners have nature and that is much better. |
| - Unknown |
| In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack or dead last. You can say "I have finished" There is a lot of satisfaction in that. |
| - Unknown |
| Above all, train hard, eat right, and avoid television and people with bad attitudes. |
| - Scott Tinley |
| Don’t underestimate “easy days.” Easy days help you beat fatigue, to keep fatigue from beating you. |
| - Bob Glover |
| Train to near death, rest, and repeat. |
| - Unknown |
| The answer to the big questions in running is the same as to the answers to the big questions in life. Just do the best you can with what you’ve got, and that includes your stride length. |
| - George Sheenan |
| Don’t let fatigue or pain make you a coward. |
| - Unknown |
| You either plan for what is ahead or you fight with what you have got: worry is a waste of time. |
| - Richard Bach |
| I just want to make sure it’s a living hell for anyone out there that’s going to beat me. |
| - Ken Souza |
| The best conditioned athlete is a long distance runner |
| - Anonymous |
| I love controlling a race, chewing up an opponent. Let’s get down and dirty. Let’s fight it out. It’s raw, animalistic, with no one to rely on but you. There is no better feeling in life! |
| - Adam Goucher |
| You can’t become a winner overnight or even in a couple of years- it takes time… You will lose races and you will have to accept that, learn from it and believe that you will win the next one, knowing that you will probably lose that as well. You have to just keep believing that one day you will win. |
| - Paula Radcliffe |
| A sobering thought "what if, right at this very moment, I am living up to my full potential?" |
| - Jane Wagner |
| Just go out there and do what you have got to do. |
| - Martina Navratilova |
| It is easier to stay up with the pack than to catch up. |
| - Unknown |
| Hard work given time will beat all. |
| - Unknown |
| Ask yourself. "Can I give more?" The answer is usually "Yes". |
| - Paul Tergat |
| It is not the amount of time you put into practice that counts; it is the effort you put into practice everyday that counts. |
| - Unknown |
| If you want to be great, "Pretty Good" is really pretty bad. |
| - Pavvo |
| The only thing that limits you is you! |
| - Unknown |
| Talk is cheap. Don’t tell me what you can do, show me! |
| - Unknown |
| The tougher the experience, the tougher you become. |
| - Unknown |
| I have no control over how fast my opposition can run. It’s not like I can tackle them. All I can do is work harder, train smarter, train when my opposition doesn’t. In blood-chilling temperatures, in rain, in sleet, in wind, in snow. |
| - Unknown |
| The weather, your opponents, the time, the course, your finishing, all these things don’t matter. What matters is how you did to day compared to how you did yesterday. |
| - Unknown |
| If we needed butt pads, timeouts, halftimes, and substitutes, we’d play football. |
| - Marathon runner |
| Good teams become great ones, when the members trust each other enough to surrender the "Me" for the "We". |
| - Unknown |
| People begin running for any number of motives, but we stick to it for one basic-reason- to find out who we are. |
| - George Sheehan |
| Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste death but once. |
| - Julius Caesar |
| Fear of slacking resides deep in the heart of every great runner. |
| - Unknown |
| Nothing of importance can be taught. It can only be learned with blood and sweat. |
| - Unknown |
| Other people may not have high expectations of me, but I have high expectations of myself. |
| - Unknown |
| I do not run to add days to my life… I run to add life to my days. |
| - Ron Rook |
| Some people don’t have the guts for distance racing. The polite term for them is Sprinter! |
| - Unknown |
| Some running is good, more is better, and too much is just enough. |
| - Unknown |
| If it hurts, make it hurt just a bit more. |
| - Unknown |
| Nobody is going to finish this damn thing for me, but me. |
| - Unknown |
| The finish line is not given, it is earned. |
| - Unknown |
| Don’t be content with being average. Average is as close to the bottom as it is to the top. |
| - Unknown |
| A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work. |
| - Unknown |
| Pain is weakness leaving the body. |
| - USMC |
| If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with aboard and knock me down, because that means I didn’t run hard enough. |
| - Steve Jones |
| Run so hard you come in with bloody feet and missing toenails. |
| - Unknown |
| Man imposes his own limitations, don’t set any. |
| - Unknown |
| A lot of people run to see who is the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts. |
| - Steve Prefontaine |
| Somewhere in the world someone is training when you aren’t. When you race him, he will win. |
| - Tom Flemig |
| Good things come slow – especially in distance running. |
| - Bill Dellinger |
| I don’t train. I just run my 3-15 miles a day. |
| - Jack Foster |
| Dead tired, Dog tired, Sore as hell… |
| - Laura Mykytok’s Diary Entry |
| If you can’t win, make the guy in front of you win. |
| - Unknown |
| The pride you gain is worth the pain. |
| - Dennis Ogilve |
| Anyone can run a 100 meters, it is the next 4900 that counts. |
| - Frank Shorter |
| Hills are simply "Speed work" in disguise. |
| - Frank Shorter |
| Running hills breaks up your rhythm and forces your muscles to adapt to new stresses. The result you ask? You become stronger. |
| - Eamonn Coghlam |
| I have always felt that long slow distances produces long slow runners |
| - Sebastian Cole |
| There are clubs you can’t belong to, and neighborhoods you can’t live in, schools you can’t get into, but the roads… The roads are always open. |
| - Nike Ad |
| "Why do you run?" Because you are wondering if your grandchildren will too. Because it is raining. Because you can, and others can’t. Because it is faster than walking. Because that shaky leg thing is all about nervous energy. Because you can’t fly. Because your personal best is just that, yours. Because the pain of a blister is nothing compared to the pain of stopping. Because you like the resistance the wind gives you. Just Because! |
| - Unknown |
| Fall seven times, stand up eight |
| - Japanese Proverb |
| He conquers who endures. |
| - Persius |
| The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running. |
| - Unknown |
| Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another. |
| - Walter Elliott |
| But the moment you turn a corner you see another straight stretch ahead and there comes some further challenge to your ambition. |
| - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. |
| One may go a long way after one is tired. |
| - French Proverb |
| Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. |
| - The Fray, All at Once |
next 5 days
Nada
Nothing on the schedule
inspirations
I haven't seen too many American distance men on the international scene willing to take risks. I saw some U.S. women in Barcelona willing to risk, more than men. The Kenyans risk. Steve Prefontaine risked. I risked—I went through the first half of the Tokyo race just a second off my best 5000 time.
- Billy Mills