The distance runner is mysteriously reconciling the separations of body and mind, of pain and pleasure, of the conscious and the unconscious. He is repairing the rent, and healing the wound in his divided self. He has found a way to make the ordinary extraordinary; the commonplace unique; the everyday eternal.

We who run...are different from those who merely study us. We are out there experiencing what they are trying to put into words.

And while these pounds were being shed, while the physiological miracles were occurring with the heart and muscle and metabolism, psychological marvels were taking place as well. Just so, the world over, bodies, minds, and souls are constantly being born again, during miles on the road.

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

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

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.

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