Fast Running Blog

Post some of your favorite quotes.

Here are some of mine:
"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." -Gandhi
"You miss 100% of the shots you never take." -W. Gretzky
"The gun goes off and everything changes... the world changes... and nothing else really matters." -Patti Sue Plummer
"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
"The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost."
"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, You can become it."
Right Now
STS
XC Forever!!!!!!!
I also like all the PRE quotes everyone knows and Muhammad Ali.

I saw one on a shirt during the marathon that stood out:
"The pain of discipline is nothing compared to the pain of regret."

The Runners' High

It's no longer sport,
No longer just a game.
It has become a way of life.

Every breath is a stride,
Every heartbeat a string of silence.
It is a compulsion from deep within.
It is a passion for glory.
To go through the torment.
To last through the waiting.
To gain that one moment,
Alone with myself.

And only the few,
Who chance to strive,
Can know the experience.
To hear nothing but breath.
To feel nothing but heartbeat.
To feel so much like hell,
Running so close to heaven.

This is the Runners' High.

This is the feeling I live for.
This is the goal I strive toward.
If my chance disappears,
Part of my life would end.

Anonymous

"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 a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

- Unknown

"If you ever get a second chance in life for something, you've got to go all the way."

- Lance Armstrong

"Anybody can do just about anything with himself that he really wants to and makes his mind to do. We are capable of greater than we realize."

- Norman Vincent Peale, author

"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'"

- Peter Maher, Irish-Canadian Olympian and Sub-2:12 marathoner

"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat."

- Napoleon Bonaparte, legendary military leader

"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

"How does a kid from Coos Bay, with one leg longer than the other win races? All my life people have been telling me, 'You're too small Pre', 'You're not fast enough Pre', 'Give up your foolish dream Steve'. But they forgot something, I HAVE TO WIN."

- Steve Prefontaine

"I prefer to remain in blissful ignorance of the opposition. That way I'm not frightened by anyone's reputation."

- Ian Thompson, 2:09.12 marathon at the 1974 Commonwealth Games

"Believe in yourself, know yourself, deny yourself, and be humble."
          - John Treacy's four principles of training prior to Los Angeles 84

"Dream barriers look very high until someone climbs them.  They are not barriers anymore."
          - Lasse Viren

"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

"Bob does well in big races because he doesn't stand at the starting line and establish a pecking order.   He doesn't look around and say: 'Oh, sp-and-so is here...'  His great gift is his ability to focus completely on himself and his own race, and then let the place or the time take care of itself."
          - Coach Vince Lananna on Bob Kempainen

"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

"[Scientific testing] can't determine how the mind will tolerate pain in a race.  Sometimes, I say, "Today I can die.'"
          - Gelindo Bordin

"God determines how fast you're going to run; I can help only with the mechanics."
          - Bill Bowerman

And now for some great Sasha quotes. Sasha Azevedo that is but I can see our Sasha saying these as well.

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!
Sasha Azevedo

I believe in the runner's high, and I believe that those who are passionate about running are the ones who experience it to the fullest degree possible. To me, the runner's high is a sensational reaction to a great run! It's an exhilarating feeling of satisfaction and achievement. It's like being on top of the world, and truthfully... there's nothing else quite like it!
Sasha Azevedo

Running has never failed to give me great end results, and that's why I keep coming back for more!
Sasha Azevedo

Running is one the best solutions to a clear mind.
Sasha Azevedo

My greatest ideas stem from running.
Sasha Azevedo

Thanks for those quotes. I have heard that one about the lions and I really like it. I have never heard The Runner's High but it is one of my favorites now. I love quotes. They help to give me something to think about and I guess a motto. Some help me put my feeling into words. I love to find a new quote to inspire me.

Ok, a Lydiard qoute about why distance runners need to be skinny:

"Lasse Viren, who I worked with in Finland, when he took his shirt off, he looked like a plucked chicken. There is no muscle there at all just ribs sticking out. He won four Olympic Gold Medals!"

So a new goal for us runners, to look like a plucked chicken.

I could add a quote by Mark Wetmore from Running with the Buffaloes about the subject of being skinny, but it wouldn't be family-friendly. It's a good one though.

Save me some time Paul. What page???

I don't know.

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

"I had to go anaerobic for one step."
Sasha Pachev

Other good Sasha lines:
 
"Where's Google?"

"BINGO"

"Sucking on garlic will cure anything, well that and raspberry tea."

Enter this into google and it should give you the quote: "mark wetmore" "skeleton"

Here's a few running and ultrarunning related quotes.  When it comes to running quotes, I have an odd (or morbid) sense of humor.

"I refuse to tip-toe through life only to arrive at death safely."
- Scott Weber

"The thing I don't like about Western States is that you show up at the
starting line in the best shape of your life and a day later you are in
Auburn in the worst shape of your life."
- Andy Black, on Western States 100

"You'll be wistful for the "wall" of the marathon,
when you hit the "death grip" of the ultra."
- Bob Glover

"A 50K on trails is easier than a marathon on the road."
- Unknown

"The best long distance runners eat raw meat, run naked and sleep in the snow."
- Alaska Airlines advertisement honoring Iditarod dogs

"Any idiot can run a marathon.  It takes a special kind of idiot to run
an ultramarathon."
- Alan Cabelly

"The race continued as I hammered up the trail, passing rocks and trees
as if they were standing still."
- Red Fisher, Wasatch '86

"What doesn't kill me sure does make me hungry."
- Unknown

"26 miles 385 yards is where racing ends and ludicrous extremes begin."
- from "Runner's World"

and finally-

"All the disruptive arguments among my friends as to whether or not I
was sane when I took up marathon running have been entirely resolved
since I ran my first 50-miler."
- John Kendall

I like em, Jim.

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."
-Mohandas Gandhi

"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning."
-Catherine Aird

"People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness."
-John Wanamaker

"Without play-without that child still alive in all of us-we will always be incomplete. And not only physically, but creatively, intellectually, and spiritually as well."
-George Sheehan

“Success is maintaining your enthusiasm between failures.”
-Winston Churchill

“No matter how slow you run, you are faster than someone on a couch.”
-Anonymous

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.”
-T.S. Elliot

“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
-Abraham Lincoln

1. WHY DO I RUN?
Why do I run? 'Taint no mystery --
Wanna have a good medical history,
Doctor told me runnin' is great --
Helps them blood cells circulate.
Great for the lungs,
Great for the ticker,
Can't nothin' getcha in better shape quicker,
Feels so healthy, feels so sweet,
Pumpin' my arms and flappin' my feet,
Moldin' my muscles, firmin' my form,
Pantin' like a pack mule, sweatin' up a storm,
Keeps me youthful, keep me loose,
Tightens my tummy and shrinks my caboose,
Beats bein' sluggish, beats bein' lazy --
Why do I run? Maybe I'm crazy!
by Ed Cunningham

This was a poster that my dad had in his office for a good long time--he was a marathoner who took up running later in life

LOL!  I like that poster.

Cool! I like those quotes.

Awesome quotes everyone! Thanks!!

"We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."

Emil Zatopek

"The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals."

Hal Higdon

Some Favorite Running Quotes:
"Top results are reached only through pain. But eventually you like this pain. You'll find the more difficulties you have on the way, the more you will enjoy your success."
   ~Juha Väätäinen

"Everyone in life is looking for a certain rush. Racing is where I get mine."
   ~John Trautmann

"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 yourself. There's no better feeling than that."
   ~Adam Goucher

Some Favorite "Other" Quotes:
"Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad."
   ~Norm Papernick

"It's like: never relax, never take that breath, never stop to get that drink of water. You know you can always smell roses when you're running with them in your hand."
   ~Garth Brooks

“A positive attitude may not solve every problem but it makes solving any problem a more pleasant experience.” 
   ~Grant Fairley