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No doubt a brain and some shoes are essential for marathon success, although if it comes down to a choice, pick the shoes. More people finish marathons with no brains than with no shoes.
Sep 15, 2025
Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.
The real competition is against the little voice inside you that wants to quit
The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.
You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming.
Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.
The real purpose of running isn't to win a race, it's to test the limits of the human heart.
In golf, as in life, you get out of it what you put into it.
It is true that speed kills. In distance running, it kills anyone who does not have it.
Good things come slow, especially in distance running.
It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse.
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.
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.
A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.
Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.
You must see yourself run the race over and over, time and time again. You must put yourself in critical positions and see how you would react in those positions before the race so when and if they do happen, the feedback is automatic.
Cross Country: No half times, no time outs, no substitutions. It must be the only true sport.
It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.
The mile has a classic symmetry....It's a play in four acts.
The gun goes off and everthing changes... the world changes... and nothing else really matters.
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.
If you can't win, make the one ahead of you break the record.
Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run
Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best.
The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.
Don't bother just to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself.
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.
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.
I run to see who has the most guts.
Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'.
One chance is all you need.
Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.
My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win... channel your energy. Focus.
Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body.
Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.
Your body will argue that there is no justifiable reason to continue. Your only recourse is to call on your spirit, which fortunately functions independently of logic.
I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners.
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.
You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.
Run like hell and get the agony over with.
A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're capable of understanding.
There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Attitude determines how well you do it.
Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.