Running is just such a monastery- a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal.

The answer to the big questions in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you've got.

The study of motivation goes back to the Greeks. Their sports were essential to their education. They saw in sports the integration of body, mind and soul, the creation of beauty, the mastering of athletics, and the challenge of competition. A French sociologist points this out. "Sports," he wrote, was part of the education of the citizen. He was expected to engage in exercise for a whole series of reasons that had to do with the shaping of the citizen; the relation between moral good and physical good; and the growth of a person.

I will not last forever. But I am damn well going to know I have been here.

No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life's most rewarding experiences.

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.

The music of a marathon is a powerful strain, one of those tunes of glory. It asks us to forsake pleasures, to discipline the body, to find courage, to renew faith and to become one's own person, utterly and completely.