Our concept of a family holiday was going to a guest house in the Lake district or Wales, where walking was part of the holiday.

My concentration was really on getting to university and becoming a doctor. My parents let me know that school marks were important. Achievement was something which came by hard work.

We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves

The man who goes on, even when it's the hardest to be the winner.

The essence of sports is that while you're doing it, nothing else matters, but after you stop, there is a place, generally not very important, where you would put it.

No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed.

The reason sport is attractive to many of the general public is that it's filled with reversals. What you think may happen doesn't happen. A champion is beaten, an unknown becomes a champion.