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.

The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank.

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

Once you have decided that winning isn't everything, you become a winner.

Life is a positive-sum game. Everyone from the gold medallist to the last finisher can rejoice in a personal victory.

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 you to quit.