Cross Country Running Quotes

Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have Nature, and that is much better.

It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse.

The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.

If you want to become the best runner you can be, start now. Don't spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it.

The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.

Go in any direction..seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.

The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.

Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.

A runners 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.

I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we're all cowards.

Cross Country: No half times, no time outs, no substitutions. It must be the only true sport.

I run because it's my passion, and not just a sport. Every time I walk out the door, I know why I'm going where I'm going and I'm already focused on that special place where I find my peace and solitude. Running, to me, is more than just a physical exercise... it's a consistent reward for victory!

Running is one the best solutions to a clear mind.

The gun goes off and everthing changes... the world changes... and nothing else really matters.

If you run 100 miles a week, you can eat anything you want - Why? Because (a) you'll burn all the calories you consume, (b) you deserve it, and (c) you'll be injured soon and back on a restricted diet anyway.

The start of a World Cross Country event is like riding a horse in the middle of a buffalo stampede. It's a thrill if you keep up, but one slip and you're nothing but hoof prints.

Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don't think about them, I just do them. The decision has already been made.

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.

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.

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.

Don't bother just to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself.

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.

Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.

Those who say that I will lose and am finished will have to run over my body to beat me.

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.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

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?

Mind is everything. Muscle - pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.

It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running.

I run to see who has the most guts.

My introduction to track racing was through the background of cross country running, which is not a sport perhaps as popular in America as it is in England.

Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

Art is nothing more than the shadow of humanity.

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.

I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners.

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.

I always loved running.... It was something you could do by yourself and under your own power.

Make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up.

But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.

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.

To describe the agony of a marathon to someone who's never run it is like trying to explain color to someone who was born blind.

When I was about 14 or 15, and running in a pretty muddy cross country race, one of my shoes stuck in the mud and came off. Boy, was I wild. To think that I had trained hard for this race and didn't do up my shoelace tightly enough! I really got aggressive with myself, and I found myself starting to pass a lot of runners. As it turned out, I improved something like twenty places in that one race. But I never did get my shoe back.

My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble.

A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're capable of understanding.

In running it is man against himself, the cruelest of opponents. The other runners are not the real enemies. His adversary lies within him, in his ability with brain and heart to master himself and his emotions.

When you put yourself on the line in a race and expose yourself to the unknown, you learn things about yourself that are very exciting.