The worst injury I ever had was a stress fracture from running.

I am about to get involved with the biggest cancer hospital in Norway. They are building a fitness center to work with patients. I will be a consultant.

To suddenly be a hero on a world basis was hard for me to understand. God gave me a gift. I got the chance to use it. I didn't think I deserved what people were saying. My talent is just more visible than theirs.

Everyone wins the marathon. We all have the same feeling at the start-nervous, anxious, excited. It is a broader, richer, and even with twenty-seven thousand people-more intimate experience than I found when racing in track. New York is the marathon that all the biggest stars want to win, but has also been the stage for an array of human stories more vast than any other sporting event.

I tried to keep it secret, but the story got into the newspapers. It was more difficult for my family, who couldn't understand why the media wouldn't leave me in peace.

Sustained motivation is essential to achieving your potential.

For every finish-line tape a runner breaks -- complete with the cheers of the crowd and the clicking of hundreds of cameras -- there are the hours of hard and often lonely work that rarely gets talked about.