There are as many reasons for running as there are days in a year.... But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child.

People begin running for any number of motives, but we stick to it for one basic reason-to find out who we really are.

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

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.

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

I run each day to preserve the self I attained the day before and to secure the self yet to be.

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.