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

Like everyone else, I want to be challenged. I want to find out whether or not I am a coward. I want to see how much effort I can put out . . . what I can endure . . . if I measure up. Running allows that.

Why race? The need to be tested, perhaps; the need to take risks; and the chance to be number one.

Happiness is different from pleasure. Happiness has something to do with struggling and enduring and accomplishing.

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 desire to run comes from deep within us — from the unconscious, the intuitive, the instinctive. And that desire becomes a passion when the runner learns to race. Then, the race becomes all — the lovemaking of the runner.

Because until we write it down, we don't know what is actually at the root of our lives.