"To give anything less than your best is the sacrifice the gift."
                                                    -Steve Prefonataine

"A runner must run with dreams in his heart."
                                                   - Emil Zatopek

"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."
                                                  -Benjamin Franklin

"Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks."
                                                  -Joe Paterno

"A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you've done it, you feel you can do anything."
                                                 -Anonymous

"Don't give up on the impossible before you try it."
                                                -Biggie Munn, MSU football

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
                                                -John Wooden, UCLA basketball

"Ninety-eight percent of success is in the head and the heart."
                                                -Cathy Ferguson, Olympic swimming

"The biggest mistake an athlete can make is to be afraid of making one."
                                                -L. Ron Hubbard, author

"You don't get to choose when opportunity is going to knock, so you better be prepared for it when it does."
                                                -Ted Anderson, U of Nebraska Omaha

"If what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today."
                                                -Wid Matthews, Chicago Cubs

"1. Stress improvement, not perfection (or winning). 2. Don't take yourself too seriously; laugh at yourself and have fun. 3. Set attainable goals; reach them and then set higher ones. 4. Be positive, walk tall, smile often, don't complain or procrastinate. 5. Prepare purposely, but don't overtrain. 6. Remember- Sports is a game and meant to be enjoyable."
                                                -Dick Gould, Stanford tennis

"They say the breaks even up in the long run, and the trick is to be a long-distance runner."
                                                -Chuck Knox, LA Rams

"The race does not always go to the swift, but to the ones who keep running."
                                                -Anonymous

"Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude is how well you do it."
                                                -Lou Holtz, U of S. Carolina football

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
                                                -Earl Weaver

"The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have."
                                                -Vince Lombardi

"Just do the best with what you have, and you'll soon be doing it better."
                                                -Gil Hodges

"Winners never quit, and quitters never win."
                                                -Vince Lombardi

"You play the way you practice."
                                                -Pop Warner

"The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary."
                                                -John Wooden, UCLA basketball

This describes the pure essence of why we run.  Spoken about Roger Bannister, the first man to break the 4-minute mile.
    "One late afternoon, after swimming in a lake, he began to jog around to ease his chill.       Soon enough he found himself running for the sheer exhilaration of it, across the moor and toward the coast.  The sky filled with crimson clouds, and as he ran a light rain started to fall.  With the sun warming his back, a rainbow appeared in front of him, and he seemed to run toward it. Along the coast the rhythm of the water breaking against the rocks eased him, and he circled back to where he had begun.  Cool, wet air filled his lungs.  Running into the sun now, he had trouble seeing the ground underneath his feet, but still he rushed forward, alive with the movement.  Finally spent as the sun disappeared from the horizon, he tumbled down a light hill and rested on his back, his feet bleeding, but feeling rejuvenated. He needed to reconnect to the joy of running, to get away from the tyranny of the track"
                                            -Neil Bascomb, The Perfect Mile

"You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough."
                                            - Joe Louis

"Success is a state of mind.  If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success."
                                            -Dr. Joyce Brothers

"Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling."
                                            -Margaret Lee Runbeck

"You can't go back and make a brand new start, but you can start now and make a brand-new end."
                                            -Jack Garmise

"It takes education to be successful in the game of life."
                                            -Bob Lanier

"A star can win any game; a team can win every game"
                                            -Jack Ramsay, National Basketball Association

"Never give up."
                                            -Jim Valvano, NC State basketball

"One thing about racing is that it hurts. You better accept that from the beginning or you're not going anywhere."
                                                            -Bob Kennedy, US 5000m record holder and
                                                             first non-African under 13 minutes

"Bid me run and I will strive with things impossible."
                                            -Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

"Anything is possible, but you have to believe and you have to fight."
                                                           -Lance Armstrong

"Any idiot can train himself into the ground; the trick is working in training to get gradually stronger."
                              -Keith Brantley

"Most people are like a falling leaf that drifts and turns in the air, flutters, and falls to the ground.  But a few others are like stars which travel one defined path: no wind reaches them, they have within themselves their guide and path."
                                            -Siddhartha

"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance."
                                            -Bruce Barton

"Second place is not a defeat.  It is a stimulation to get better.  It makes you even more determined."
                                            -Carlos Lopes, Portugal

"Out on the roads there is fitness and self-discovery and the persons we were destined to be."
                                           --Dr. George Sheehan

"Life is short... running makes it seem longer."
                                           --Baron Hansen

"I eat whatever the guy who beat me in the last race ate."
                                                         --Alex Ratelle

"We all have dreams.  In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort."
                                           --Jesse Owens

"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."
                                                        --Priscilla Welch, Master Marathon Great

"Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not.  When you race him, he will win."
                                          --Tom Fleming's Boston Marathon training motto

"A coach can be like oasis in the desert of a runner's lost enthusiasm."
                                          --Ken Doherty

"I think there's only one sensible place for a person to be at 5:30 in the morning.  That's in bed.  And what am I doing?  I'm out running.  And I completely hate this."
                                          --Derek Clayton, Australian marathoner, first to
                                                                                break 2:09  

"The greatest danger to most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."
                                                     --Michelangelo (Italian sculptor, painter, architect
                                                       & poet, considered the creator of the Renaissance)

"Dream the impossible, do the incredible."
                                                     --Unknown (courtesy Jeremy Paxston)

"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."
                                       --PattySue Plumer, U.S. Olympian

"Run hard, be strong, think big!"
                                                   --Percy Cerutty

"In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last.  You can say, 'I have finished.'  There is a lot of satisfaction in that."
                                                 --Fred Lebow

"Act like a horse. Be dumb. Just run."
                                                 --Jumbo Elliot

"If the hill has its own name, then it's probably a pretty tough hill."
                                                --Marty Stern

"Don't attack a hill from the very bottom- it's bigger than you are!"
                                    --Harry Groves, Penn State coach

"I think some of the most celebrated moments in human achievement should be those times when everything is going against a person and they are down in the dumps but they simply choose to get up. That's real greatness!"
                                                --Ryan Hall

"Life (and running) is not all about time but about our experiences along the way."
                                                --Jen Rhines

"To keep from decaying, to be a winner, the athlete must accept pain - not only accept it, but look for it, live with it, learn not to fear it."
                                                --Dr. George Sheehan

"I run because I used to be envious of people that could run, and now I am that person."
                                                --Kendra Thompson

"Everything I know about life, I learned it from running."
                                   --Ruben Toledo Rosado

"No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life's most rewarding experiences. My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: each race a drama, each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another, and each race telling me more about myself and others."
                                               --Dr. George Sheehan

"I have met my hero, and he is me."
                                   --Dr. George Sheehan

"A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else."
                                              --Steve Prefontaine

"You only grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone."
                                               --Percy Cerutty

"There's nothing better than adversity.  Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve."
                                               --OG Mandino

"Self-trust is the essence of heroism."
                                               --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Only those who will risk going to far can possibly find out how far they can go."
                                               --T.S. Eliot

"Feel the fear and do it anyway."
                                               --Susan Jeffers

"Winning isn't everything.  Wanting to is."
                                               --Catfish Hunter

"The impossible is often the untried."
                                               --Jim Goodwin

"Success doesn't come to you... you go to it."
                                              --Marva Collins

"Running is one of the best solution to a clear mind."
                                   --Sasha Azevedo

"The most important message I stress to beginners is to learn to love the sport.  Like other endeavors, if running is not undertaken properly, it can be difficult and discouraging."
                                    --Cliff Held

"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 to quit."
                                     --George Sheehan

"Passion is pushing myself when there is no one else around- just me and the road."
                                     --Ryan Shay

"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
                                                 --Aristotle

"The essential thing in life is not so much conquering as fighting as well."
                                     --Baron de Coubertin

"Some runners judge performance by whether they won or lost. Others define success or failure by how fast they ran. Only you can judge your performance. Avoid letting others sit in judgment of you."
                                      --Hal Higdon

 "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

"The most important day in any running program is rest.  Rest days give your muscles time to recover so you can run again.  Your muscles build in strength as you rest."
                                    --Hal Higdon

"In order to succeed, we must first believe we can."
                                                --Nikos Kazantzakis

"The crime is not to avoid failure, the crime is to not give triumph a chance."
                                    --H. Weldon

"To make your life a work of art, you must have the material to work with. The race, any race, is just such an experience."
                                               -- GEORGE SHEEHAN

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

"There is something about the ritual of the race-putting on the number, lining up, being timed-that brings out the best in us."
                                   -- GRETE WAITZ

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

"Every time I fail I assume I will be a stronger person for it."
                                  --JOAN BENOIT SAMUELSON

"You train best where you are the happiest."
                                  --FRANK SHORTER

"This is what really matters: running. This is where I know where I am."
                                  --STEVE JONES

"If you set your aim too high and don't fulfill it, then your enthusiasm turns to bitterness. Try for a goal that's reasonable, and then gradually raise it."
                                 --EMIL ZATOPEK

"Recognize your victories."
                                 --JOAN BENOIT SAMUELSON

"Citius, altius, fortius...swifter, higher, stronger."
                                --OLYMPIC MOTTO

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
                                --WILLIAM FAULKNER

"You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back."
                                          --Prefontaine

"Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself."
                                          --Mahatma Ghandi

"I ran to be free; I ran to avoid pain; I ran to feel pain; I ran out of love and hate and anger and joy."
                                          --Dagny Scott

"Do no go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
                               --RALPH WALDO EMERSON

"Success does not come to the most righteous and rigorously disciplined but to those who continue running."
                                         --AMBY BURFOOT

"When you run in places you visit, you encounter things you'd never see otherwise."
                                         --TOM BROKAW

"We all need goals. Life is hard to live without one."
                              --TORY BAUCUM

"Running gives me confidence."
                                        --STEVE PREFONTAINE

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
                                         --MARK TWAIN
 

"Running is my sunshine."
                    --JOAN TWINE

"If you want to achieve a high goal, you're going to have to take some chances."
                   --ALBERTO SALAZAR

"There's nothing a man can't do if the spirit's there."
              --FRANZ STAMPFL

"Life is complicated. Running is simple.  Is it any wonder that people like to run?"
                  --KEVIN NELSON

"If you ask me how I want to be remembered, it is as a winner...
A winner is somebody who gave his best effort, who has tried the hardest they possibly can...who has utilized every ounce of energy and strength within them to accomplish something.  It doesn't mean that they accomplished it or failed, it means they've given it their best.  That's a winner."
              --WALTER PAYTON

"The important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top."
                                            -Herb Elliott

"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

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

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

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."
                                                            -Stacy Jones

"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 Ikanhaa, 1989 NYC Marathin winner.

"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

"If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have received."
                                                            --Unknown

"Even if you fall flat on your face at least you are moving forward"
                                                            --Sue Luke

"Desire is the most important factor in the success of any athlete."
                                                            --Willie Shoemaker

"You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through."
                                                            --Rosalynn Carter

"If you don't risk anything, you risk even more."
                                                            --Erica Jong

"Men are born to succeed, not fail."
                                                            --Henry David Thoreau

"Nothing's better than the wind to your back, the sun in front of you, and your friends beside you."
                                                            --Aaron Douglas Trimble

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
                                                            -Thomas A. Edison

"If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win."
                                                            --Carl Lewis

"Faith is believing. Believing is winning."
                                                            --Jeremy Paxston

"Keep your dreams alive.  Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hardwork, determination, and dedication.  Remember all things are possible for those who believe."
                                            -- Gail Devers

"Never surrender opportunity to security."
                                            --Branch Rickey

"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

"Spirit...has fifty times the strength and staying power of brawn and muscle."
                                            --Unknown

           ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The wise words of Calvin and Hobbes
"We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are."

"I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long.  If we're in each other's dreams, we can be together all the time."

"Some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants won't help."

"Who was the first guy that looked at a cow and said, 'I think that I'll drink whatever comes out those things when I squeeze them?'"

"What fun is it being cool if you can't wear a sombrero?"

"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine, and valleys of frustration and failure."

       --------------------------------------------------------------------

"The more I train, the more I realize I have more speed in me."
                                             --Leroy Burrell

"Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals."
                                            --Henry Ford

"Thus I urge you to go onto 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

"Jogging is very beneficial.  It's good for your legs and your feet.  It's also very good for the ground.  It makes it feel needed."
                                                         --Charles Schultz

"There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people."
                                                         --Bill Bowerman

"Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant."
                                          --Dr. George Sheehan

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face."
                                          --Eleanor Roosevelt

"The trouble with jogging is that by the time you realize you're not in shape for it, it's too far to walk back."
                                          --Franklin P. Jones

"It is true that speed kills.  In distance running, it kills anyone who does not have it."
                                         --Brooks Johnson

"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

"You can't win them all - but you can try."
                                                        --Babe Didrikson Zaharias

"If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I will help you become that."
                                                       -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"If the furnace is hot enough it will burn anything."
                                         --John Parker author of Once A Runner

"If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem.  It's raining?  That doesn't matter.  I am tired?  That's beside the point.  It's simply that I just have to."
                                        --Emil Zatopek

"Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams."
                                                    --Unknown

"Good things come slow, especially in distance running."
                                      --Bill Dellinger, Oregon Coach

"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

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure."
                                     --Sven Goran Eriksson

"If you want to win a race you have to go a little berserk."
                                     --Bill Rodgers

"The freedom of cross country is so primitive.  It's woman vs. nature."
                                                --Lynn Jennings

"You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."
                                              --Eleanor Roosevelt

"Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them.  The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."
                                  --Voltaire

"I've always taken the philosophy that you have to dream a little in this sport. If you stay in your comfort zone, you're not going to do anything special."
                                             --Deena Kastor

"Running changed my life as it will change yours, just give it a chance. Once you get that blood moving, it's show time!"
                                            --Wilfredo Melendez, US soldier

"When I do the best I can with what I have, then I have won my race."
                                --Jay Foonberg, 72 year old runner

"Running makes my life whole."
                                          --Julie Frondyman, runner

"Get out there and do what you love!"
                                         --Kara Goucher

"The thought of later in the day having to explain to myself why I didn't run that morning is enough to get me out the door."
                                        --Linda Johnson

"The one thing that I really appreciate about being a runner is the incredible friendships and camaraderie that we, as runners, share. Although it will always be a cutthroat competition for every spot on every team, our companionship transcends these competitive rivalries."
                                      --Jen Rhines

"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

"Tough times don't last but tough people do."
                                    --A.C. Green

"Good judgment is the result of experience, experience is the result of bad judgment."
                          --Mark Twain

"Number one is to just 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

"Running is ultimately a personal experience.  It is a revival of the spirit, a private oasis for the thirsty mind.  Yet, its healing power only increases in the presence of others.  Run together and the oasis grows cooler and more satisfying."
                                 --Amby Burfoot

"The most beautiful motion is that which accomplishes the greatest results with the least amount of effort."
                                 --Plato

"If you have a bad run, don't obsess about it.  You're always going to have days when your legs feel dead."
                                 --Heather Hanscom

"Running is 80 percent mental."
                                 --Joan Benoit Samuelson

"As athletes, we have ups and downs. Unfortunately, you can't pick the days they come on."
                                 --Deena Kastor on breaking her foot at the 5K mark during the
                                   marathon at the Beijing Olympic Games.

"Out on the roads there is fitness and self-discovery and the persons we were destined to be."
                         --Dr. George Sheehan

"You were born to run.   Maybe not that fast, maybe not that far, maybe not as efficiently as others.  But to get up and move, to fire up that entire energy-producing, oxygen-delivering, bone-strengthening process we call running."
                                 --Florence Griffith-Joyner

"The desire to run comes from deep within us- from the unconscious, the instinctive, the intuitive."
                                 -- George Sheehan

"We may train or peak for a certain race, but running is a lifetime sport."
                                 --Alberto Salazar

"Learn to run when feeling the pain, then push harder."
                                 --William Sigei

"I was born to run.  I love to run.  It's almost like the faster I go, the easier it becomes."
                                  --Mary Decker Slaney

"If you train your mind for running, everything else will be easy."
                                  --Amby Burfoot

"Reality can destroy the dream; why shouldn't the dream destroy reality?"
                                  --George Moore

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

"Fitness if like the blade of a knife; you want to sharpen it without ruining the blade."
                                 --Sally Jenkins

"The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at."
                               --Jesse Owens

"'Come to the edge,' he said.
They said, 'But we're afraid.'
'Come to the edge,' he said.
They came.
He pushed them,
and they flew."
                        --Guillaume Apollinaire

"Independence is the outstanding characteristic of the runner."
                       --Noel Carroll

"I tell my athletes, 'When you compete, concentrate on yourself. Don't focus on anger against a competitor.'"
                      --JOE DOUGLAS

"Racing is pain, and that's why you do it, to challenge yourself and the limits of your physical and mental barriers. You don't experience that in an armchair watching television."
                     --MARK ALLEN

"Once you have decided that winning isn't everything, you become a winner."
                    --GEORGE SHEEHAN

"I'd rather run a gutsy race, pushing all the way and lose, than run a conservative race only for a win."
                   --ALBERTO SALAZAR

"It's not about speed and gold medals. It's about refusing to be stopped."
                   --AMBY BURFOOT

"Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running."
                  --SARAH CONDOR

"Motivation is a skill. It can be learned and practiced."
                  --AMBY BURFOOT

"Running well is a matter of having the patience to persevere when we are tired and not expecting instant results."
                 --ROBERT DE CASTELLA

 "For me, like so many others, running is the answer. Out on the road it is just you, the pavement, and your will."
                --JOHN BINGHAM

"Keep your dream in front of you. Never let it go regardless of how farfetched it might seem."
                --HAL HIGDON

"Exercise is done against one's wishes and maintained only because the alternative is worse."
               --GEORGE SHEEHAN

"This is not about instant gratification. You have to work hard for it, sweat for it, give up sleeping in on Sunday mornings."
               --LAUREN FESSENDEN

"My outlook is that I never want to look back and wonder how fast I could have been."
                    --DOUG MOCK

"It's my own space, my own time, when I'm just out there letting my thoughts go.  It's part of my day like eating, and it's one of my favorite parts."
                    --LOUISE KENT

The Funny Side

"Oh yes, I will work out today. I will work out a way to avoid running for a stupid cause."
              --STANLEY, from THE OFFICE

"I can make a difference. Remember I'm the one who started this whole thing off by hitting Meredith with my car. And I owe it to her to finish the G.D. 5K."
              --MICHAEL, from THE OFFICE

"Finishing that 5K was the hardest thing I ever had to do.  I ate more fettuccine Alfredo, and drank less water than I have in my entire life.  People always talk about triumphs of the human spirit.  Today I had a triumph of the human body. My guts.  My heart. While I eventually puked my guts out, I never puked my heart out. And I am very, very proud of that."
             --MICHAEL, from THE OFFICE

"A woman shouldn't have to be hit by a car to learn that she might have rabies.  But that is where we are in America and that does not sit right with me.  And that's why I am hosting a fun race for the cure for rabies.  To raise awareness of that fact that there is a cure for rabies.  A disease that has largely been eradicated in the United States but not many people know that."
             --MICHAEL, from THE OFFICE

"Michael, "5K" means five kilometers, not five thousand miles..."
                 --PAM
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"Methinks that the moment my legs began to move, my thoughts began to flow."
                  --HENRY DAVID THOREAU