"If you start to feel good during a race, dont' worry you will get over it." - Gene Thibeault
"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
There is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people. - Bill Bowerman
Everyone in life is looking for a certain rush. Racing is where I get mine. - John Trautmann
"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
People can't understand why a man runs. They don't see any sport in it. Argue it lacks the sight and 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 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. -Glenn Cunningham
If it hurts, make it hurt more.
-Percy Cerutty
You are gonna run so hard, for so long, that you will wear your opponent down, and when the race starts to narrow down, the only kick he'll have left is the one you give him in the ass on the way by!
-Bill Bowerman giving Pre racing advice
I don't train to absorb the pain, I train to break the pain. -Henry Rono
"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift."
-Steve Prefontaine
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
The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win." -Roger Bannister
"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. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself."
-Steve Prefontaine
Run like hell and get the agony over with. -Clarence DeMar
I love running cross country...On a track, I feel like a hamster. -Robin Williams
"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be moving."
"Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win."
Only think of two things - the gun and the tape. When you hear the one, just run like hell until you break the other.
There is no "I" in team, however, there is an "I" in win... And I will WIN!
Anyone can run 100 meters. . . . It's the next 4900 that count!
While running, it is rude to count the people you pass out loud.
Some people don't have the guts for distance racing. The polite term for them is sprinters.
American at birth, Kenyan at heart
To a runner, a side stich is like a car alarm. It signifies something is wrong, but you ignore it until it goes away.
"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
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 mile after mile." - Rob de Castella
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
Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have nature and that is much better. -Juha Väätäinen
The start of a 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. -Ed Eyestone
Get out well, but not too quickly, move through the field, be comfortable. Strategy-wise, go with your strengths. If you don't have a great finish, you must get away to win. I've always found it effective to make a move just before the crest of a hill. You get away just a little and you're gone before your opponent gets over the top. Also, around a tight bend, take off like holy hell. I've done that a number of times. You should not be flying down the home straight. Most of your efforts should have been put forth earlier. -John Treacy
It is true that speed kills. In distance running, it kills anyone who does not have it. -Brooks Johnson
"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
As a sportsman, I accept being beaten. Everybody tries to be a winner, but only one in a race will win. It’s fun to win. But I don’t find unhappiness if I lose. -Kip Keino
Running is a mental sport, and we're all insane!
Pain is temporary, pride is forever!
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
Run so hard you come in with bloody feet and missing toenails. -Rob Decestella
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
Running is just a matter of training and kicking a certain degree of ass, depending on the level of ass kicking you took in that training.
Races don't begin at the starting line, do they? They don't really start until it's just the pack running shoulder to shoulder with no one around. Doesn't it add some excitement knowing the race isn't really won at the finish line with everyone watching? It is won somewhere along the course, where no one can see. - Asics ad
"we just gotta get this site back to its old days.... back to when birds used to roost on the wires and deer were plentiful... back when the POPOLO ruled the mountain and we ruled the POPOLO! back to when we would go out to run because we liked the pain and the feeling of accomplishment after a grueling 10 miler... after a killer hill workout... when we were a pack of animals in the woods with the sun barely peaking over the horizon tempting us to call it quits warning us he was about to leave and leave us with the moon and the noctornal beasts! BACK TO WHEN WE RAN EVERYNIGHT BECAUSE WE HAD A FUCKING GOAL TO KILL THE GIANT AND TAKE WMASS BY STORM! this goals and dreams were lost. never to resurface.... never to come back again. I duno about you but i am training my ass off from now on untill xc next year to step back up to the plate after a dissapointing ending to our "dream team" season or what was supposed to be it... My fellow AG/XC runners... WE WILL BLAZE AGAIN.. WE WILL!... so post whenever u are in town... whatever u want to say... tell us how your training has been... GET YOU ASSES MOTIVATED!"
-Jason Olbrych
Feeling and Doing are different. Plato said that. Or Hugh Hefner. One of the philosophers anyways
-Jerry Mizner
"It's demons you see, they make you want to run through the jungle baby, cover countryside at a clip, slide by in the night like a scuttling cloud. They make you bolt awake in the middle of the night with an involantary shot of your own adrenaline, ready to run 100 miles; we're talking when you're there, four minute shape or better. They make you jittery with the smell of forest, ready to hurdle fallen trees, run down game, leave gore in the bushes. And then when you get them all reighned in, they make you lay back in the pack coasting three laps on an old melody, and then they make you wail out of the final turn and blow down the last godamn straightaway like the midnight train to hell
-Quenton Cassidy
"Or we can blaze! Become legends of our own time, put fear in the hearts of mediocre talent everywhere! We can scald dogs, put records out of reach! Make the stands gasp as we blow into an unearthly kick from three hundred yards out! We can become God's own messangers deliveing the dreaded scrolls! We can race dark satan himslef till he weezes fiery cinders down the back straightaway! They'll seak our names in hushed tones, 'Those guys are animals' they'll say! We can lay it on the line, bust a gut, show them a clean pair of heels. We can sprint the turn on a spring breeze and feel the winter leave our feet! We can by god, let our demons loose and just Wail On!!"
-Quenton Cassidy
In the mind's special process, a ten mile run takes far longer then the 60 minutes reported by a grandfather clock. Such time, in fact hardly exist at all i the real world; it is all out on the trail somewhere, and you only go back to it when you are out there.
He ran not for religious reasons, but to win races, to cover ground fast. Not only to be better thean his fellows, but better then himself. To be faster by a tenth of a second, by an inch, by two feet or two yards then he had been the week or year before. He sought to conquer the physical limitations placed upon him by a three-dimensional world. If he could conquer the weakness, the cowardice in himself, he wouldnt worry about the rest; it would come. Training was a right of purification; from it came speed. Racing was a right of death; from it came knowledge. such rites demand, if they are to be meaningful at all, a certain amount of time spent precisely on the Red Line.
He was not a health nut, was not out to mold himself a stylishly slim body. He did not live on nuts and berries; if the furnace was hot enough it would burn anything even Big Macs.
Running to him was real, the way he did it the realest thing he knew. it was all joy and woe, hard as a diamond; it made him wary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free.
The Trial of Miles, and Miles of Trials
...your shoes have more miles on them than your car does.
...all your socks are either stained or torn.
...you run farther in a week than your bus travels for meets.
...you need a magnifying glass to see your name in the paper.
...people say, "You run three miles...at once?"
...a 12 mile run is an easy day.
...you're running and you don't know why.
...your sport is other sports' punishment.
...you understand the speed limit signs in Canada.
...you can name a person from namibia, djibouti and zimbabwe.
...you set your alarm for 6 am on the weekend.
...your morning shower is about an hour after you wake up.
...you have contests to see who has the most blisters on their feet.
...your idea of "quality time" is a cool-down jog together.
...you mumble expletives when someone is walking faster than you.
...your mom tells you to run to the store because it takes too long to drive.
...you find yourself running between classes just because.
...you combine phrases like "10 mile run" and "Easy Run" in the same breath.
...you can eat your weight in spaghetti.
...your spit strings from your chin and you don't even care.
...a meal involves more than 3 servings.
...you spend more on training clothes than school clothes.
...your christmas list includes more than one pair of running shoes.
...you have running withdrawl if you don't run everyday.
...the mile in P.E. becomes your warm-up.
...you can see your ribs thru your shirt.
...you are running in your dreams.
...you have no life besides running.
...your are as skinny as a twig.
...you can maintain a 5:30 pace while throwing up.
...you can count all your ribs.
...pizza, pasta, pizza, & pasta are your four food groups.
...your watch is more expensive and complicated than your car.
...you laugh at sprinters while they run.
...you talk to your coaches more than your parents.
...watching the Boston Marathon on T.V. is not boring.
...your calves are bigger than your biceps.
...you refer to puke as a bodily function.
...you go to a golf course to run.
...you enjoy running hills.
...you don't know what an "off-season" means.
...you can pronounce those ridiculous kenyan names.
…ibuprofen is your recreational drug of choice.
…you don't laugh every time you hear fartlek.
…you are from the US and you think in terms of meters not feet or yards.
…all your white shirts have mud spots up the back of them.
…you have 5% body fat yet you don’t live in somalia.
…your school notebooks are covered with split times.
…you know at least three comebacks to "run forrest run".
…you time the splits of little old ladies jogging around the track "just in case"
…you can name every runner within 100 mile radius who has pr’s faster than yours.
…a "ladder" has nothing to do with home maintenance.
…"quarters" are not a monetary unit.
…a car honk makes your middle finger rise into the air by reflex.
...you think there needs to be a fourth movie made about the life of steve prefontaine.
…you can easily recognize the difference between gatorade and powerade.
...when a non-runner asks you if you "jog" you have to fight the urge to punch them in the face.
…your email address contains something to do with running.
…the "dont walk" sign means "run"
…you wish lance armstrong would run a 10k.
…it is no longer possible to sprain your ankles.
…you plan your meals around your workouts.
…when you run on trails and trip over a stump, you get your watch stopped before you hit the ground.
...you have a spike wrench on your keychain.
…you laugh when someone tells you 800m is long distance.
…you have heard of coos bay, oregon.
...can recognize a teammate by the sound of their breathing.
…you get bored and start stretching.
…during class, you zone out and start looking at splits on your watch.
…you laugh when a math problem involves running times that are not fast.
…you have a watch tan line.
…you have figured out a ways to sleep comfortably on a bus even with a large gym bag by your side.
…when running by a police radar, you sprint to see how fast your mph is.
…you try to apply every song’s lyrics to running.
…you do calf raises while brushing your teeth.
…you run to cross country practice.
…you have asked the question “so…what are your pr’s?” more than once.
…you can convert Kilometers to Miles in your head.
…you have been spiked
…you know the amount of time it takes for food to digest before you run
…you enjoy running in the rain
…you read each month's issue of Runner's World cover to cover within 24 hours.
…you get up earlier to run on the weekends than you do for school/work.
…you think that the inventor of Powerbar should have his likeness engraved on Mount Rushmore.
…you have hundreds of safety pins scattered around your house.
…you can use endorphins in a sentence.
…when you are about to finish something, anything, a gun goes off in your head
…when someone asks you what you did today, you respond with a number
…your "nice" shoes are your new running shoes.
…instead of candy bars you keep energy bars in your desk.
…you have a regular clothes section and a running clothes section (usually larger) in your closet
…you don't blink an eye at $100 for running shoes, but you have to think about $100 for anything else.
…your wall is covered by race numbers.
…you only work to keep yourself in running shoes.
…you use the left side of the road more frequently than the right.
…you know to the hundredth of a mile how far it is around your neighborhood.
…you look at other people's running shoes to see if they really run.
…you know when all the latest running shoes are to come out.
…all you can talk about was you're run from the day before.
…you have less than ten toenails and that's normal for you.
…you have ever had a craving for a powerbar.
…you consider school a break in between runs.
…you can hit targets with your snot rocket.
...your underwear covers more than your uniform shorts.
...you finish the race looking like you wrestled a bear and you don't care.
...your entire family goes to X-C meets because they have been or will be on the team.
...you have trouble benching the bar.
...Runner's World provides more pin-ups than Playboy
...you try to pick up a girl by telling her how fast your first mile is
...you have taken a piss in a heavily wooded area.
...You get a haircut before a race but not before a big date.
...National collegiate "powerhouses" are Colorado, Stanford, and Arkansas....not Florida St, Miami, and Oklahoma.
...you feel one second is a lot of time.
...You sneak out at night and paint mile marks on the road on your favourite running routes.
... you dont care when you hug a sweaty girl.
...you wish your school had an overseas program in Kenya.
...You buy Power Bars by the case.
...Your friend spits on you and you don't expect an apology.
...You threaten to kick the butt's of the whole lacrosse team because their benches and equipment had been moved into lane 1.
...You don't remember birthdays, anniversaries, appointments etc but you'll never forget the name of the guy who outkicked you at that xc race last year.
...Your wardrobe is made up of all the T-shirts from the Races you have participated in.
...You have heart rate competitions with your running buddies.
...You subconsciously start and stop your watch anytime you move.
...you've ever walked around with your hands in your pockets just so you could feel your quads flex with each stride.
...people from other neighborhoods think you look familiar or live there.
...call in sick to work because you need to recover from yesterday's workout.
...Your 2 mile time is lower then your SAT score.
...you wear your trainers to formal events.
...you have lost count of the times you have to explain the differences between xc and track.
...you've run 6 miles around a 300-meter parking lot.
...Weeds does not refer to drugs but the condition of your track.
...If you "buspool" to meets with your rival school.
...you have a poster of pre hanging on your ceiling that you look at in bed, even if your with a girl.
...you notice that the only footsteps in the snow are yours and yours from yesterday.
...a dog starts chasing you, and you laugh at the dog and tell him "good luck", and then proceed to race him.
...you have to make a serious effort to talk about something other than running with friends and family who dont run.
...when you go sledding on the same hill you do repeats on.
...You wear t-shirts based on if you've had good work outs when you've worn them before.
...you watch a football movie (i.e. friday night lights) and comment on how good their track looks.
...You copy these into a word document and have a life ambition to complete every single task.