When I go to the Boston Marathon now, I have wet shoulders—women fall into my arms crying. They're weeping for joy because running has changed their lives. They feel they can do anything.

There is an expression among even the most advanced runners that getting your shoes on is the hardest part of any workout

A lack of forgiveness is a waste of time and it's very enriching to forgive and move on but those are things that come with time.

At the finish line of the 1967 Boston Marathon, one crabby journalist said it was just a one-off deal and women weren't going to run. Only a 20-year-old who had just run a marathon and was shot full of endorphin would say this but I said that there's going to come a day in our lives when women's running is as popular and as men's.

When I forgave Jock Semple on Heartbreak Hill, I also got really cross with women. I couldn't understand why they didn't get it, why they didn't know that running was so cool and why they weren't in the race as well. Then I thought to myself "How stupid can you be? You've had so much encouragement and motivation and these women haven't."

If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.

Women were afraid and they would never even imagine running a marathon in 1967.