I think he had a wake-up call. It's a different kind of race, and I think maybe he didn't take it quite as seriously as he might have, but you can bet he learned a lot of lessons.

So, in a way I was hedging and saying that if the Olympic stuff doesn't work out at least I can be a lawyer.

Three half-mile repeats on the track at 5-K race pace with a short recovery jog in between shouldn't scare anyone away-and it will improve your speed.

There's always the feeling of getting stronger. I think that's what keeps me going.

Because running fast is more fun than running slow.

For the novice runner, I'd say to give yourself at least 2 months of consistently running several times a week at a conversational pace before deciding whether you want to stick with it. Consistency is the most important aspect of training at this point.

To put it another way, Michael Jordan was a gym rat.