Welcome to the home of the Sandpoint High School Cross Country team. SHSXC is dedicated to Sandpoint High School Cross Country all year round.

Quotes


One's philosophy is not best expressed in words. It is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibilty
- Elenor Roosevelt
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
- Winston Churchill
People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.
- John Maxwell
A smooth sea never make a skillful sailor.
- Unknown
Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs: the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so.
- Unknown
The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example.
- John Wooden
You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do.
- Henry Ford
Excellence is never an accident; it is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities.
- Unknown
Great leaders don't set out to be a leader... The set out to make a difference. It's never about the role-always about the goal.
- Lisa Haisha
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
- Babe Ruth
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
- Jim Rohn
If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse.
- Jim Rohn
In those long, lonely miles you put in during the off-season, and in those knife-in-the-gut repetitions and hill repeats that buckly your knees - at that moment in almost every race when you ask yourself how much you're willing to hurt to catch one more runner - you can draw strength and inspiration from your running mates.
- Don Kardong
Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time.
- Arnold Glasow
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
- Saint Augustine
There is little success where there is little laughter.
- Andrew Carnegie
If I had nine hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first six sharpening my ax.
- Abraham Lincoln
Yesterday you said tomorrow.
- Nike Slogan
There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing someething, you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses; Only results.
- Kenneth Blanchard
If it doesn't challenge you it won't change you.
- Zig Ziglar
Strength does not come from winning. Your stuggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.
- Gandhi
Beautiful things happen when you distance yourself from the negative.
- Unknown
You have to fight through the bad days in order to earn the best days.
- Unknown
It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.
- Babe Ruth
The struggle you are in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.
- Robert Tew
When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful.
- Eric Thomas
Most people don't listen with the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to reply.
- Kushandwizdom
Don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done.
- Manuel Tratter
If there be any truer measure of a man than by what he does it must be by what he gives.
- Robert South
Watch your thoughts for they become words.
Watch your words for they become actions.
Watch your actions for they become habits.
Watch your habits for they become your character.
And watch your character for it becomesyour destiny.
What we think, we become.
- Margaret Thatcher
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
- John Quincy Adams
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
- Leo Tolstoy
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
- Albert Camus
The meaning of life is that it ends
- Franz Kafka
Sweat is fat crying.
- Unknown
Worry is a misuse or your imagination.
- Unknown
When each day is the same as the next, people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day
- The Alchemist
Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.
- John Wooden
It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.
- John Wooden
Discipline yourself and others won't need to.
- John Wooden
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
- John Wooden
Be quick, but don't hurry.
- John Wooden
Make every day your masterpiece.
- John Wooden
There are no shortcuts to Awesome!
- Zoe Winters
I want this team to be remembered.
- Jacob Graham
Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream
- Malcolm Muggeridge
If you don't stick to your values when they're being testing, they're not values: they're hobbies.
- John Stewart
The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything.
- Unknown
You become the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.
- Unknown
The hottest fire makes the strongest steel.
- Unknown
One of the greatest moments in life is realizing that two weeks ago your body couldn't do what it just did.
- Unknown
Success travels in the company of very hard work. There is no trick. There is no easy way.
- John Wooden
Success is very intentional and deliberate.
- Unknown
We forget that every good that is worth possessing must be paid for in strokes of daily effort. We postpone and postpone, until those smiling possibilities are dead.
- William James
In order to trust your training, your training has to be trustworthy.
- Mark Kennaly
You become the athlete you train to be.
- Unknown
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
- Thomas Edison
While I made my living as a coach, I have lived my life to be a mentor—and to be mentored!—constantly.Everything in the world has been passed down. Every piece of knowledge is something that has been shared by someone else. If you understand it as I do, mentoring becomes your true legacy. It is the greatest inheritance you can give to others. It is why you get up every day—to teach and be taught.
- John Wooden
There has never been a statue erected to honor a critic.
- Zig Ziglar
Remember that failure is an event, not a person.
- Zig Ziglar
There are no traffic jams in the extra mile.
- Zig Ziglar
If you aim at nothing you will hit every time.
- Zig Ziglar
Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
- Buddha
Some people train knowing they’re not working as hard as other people. I can’t fathom how they think.
- Alberto Salazar
It is not so much the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.
- Sir Edmund Hillary
Today I will run what you will not so that tomorrow I will run what you cannot.
- Unknown
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did so.
- Mark Twain
The road of a champion is paved with the bodies of those who have quit.
- Anonymous
Don't view hard work as a punishment, instead see it for what it is, the opportunity for self improvement.
- Matt Brass
The shortest answer is doing the thing.
- Ernest Hemingway
To some its Hump Day. To us, it's Wednesday's getting its ass kicked and Thursday just asked Friday to switch places.
- The Rock
The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.
- Roger Bannister
It always seems impossible until it's all done.
- Nelson Mandela
Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.
- Gandhi
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.
- Garrison Keillor
We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility.
- Albert Einstein
Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.
- Garrison Keillor
Teamwork makes the dream work!
- Unknown
Deeds not words.
- Unknown
Skip the quote... let your legs do the talking.
- Unknown
The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.
- Unknown
This is what really matters: running. This is where I know where I am.
- Steve Jones
But if you never try, you'll never know.
- Coldplay
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
- Stephen Covey
When in doubt, when in fear, be aggressive. Commit yourself and never look back.
- Unknown
Every runner knows running is about more than just putting one foot in front of the other. It is about our lifestyle and who we are.
- Joan Benoit Samuelson
Nobody said it would be easy, they only said it would be worth it.
- Unknown
Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.
- Aesop
In this world of change, nothing which comes stays, and nothing which goes is lost.
- Anne Sophie
You can always make a change during your race.
- MB
Training can be a lonely endeavor, that's why your goals are so important. They kick you out of bed and don't accept excuses. When the day comes to achieve your goal, you have to honestly ask yourself, 'Did I do everything I could'. A true athlete can always answer yes, until that time this is just a hobby.
- MB
Will this be one of the best experiences of your life?
- MB
Be fearful today that you will waste this opportunity, all of this training. Don't be afraid of failing, be afraid of the wasted opportunity.
- MB
A team is only as strong as its weakest member.
- Unknown
I fear that you don't even grasp the scope of the opportunity in front of you. This is something that will mean more to you as life goes on.
- Anonymous
Men are born to be great, and greatness does not come without Cross Country.
- Grant Kennaly
Have you ever really kept your nose to the grindstone? The amount of blood that comes out is shocking.
- Dwight Schrute
To me, success is simply the opposite of failure.
- Dwight Schrute
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
What are characteristics of great team?
Passion from the top down
Sincere leadership
Love of team over self (welcome, push, desire)
Tireless effort and commitment matched by all
Year round focus
Exclusivity
It's fun to be a part of
Avoid cop outs, what ifs and accept what they have.
- Unknown
It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt
To give anything less than your best is the sacrifice the gift.
- Steve Prefonataine
A runner must run with dreams in his heart.
- Emil Zatopek
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
- Benjamin Franklin
Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks.
- Joe Paterno
A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you've done it, you feel you can do anything.
- Anonymous
Don't give up on the impossible before you try it.
- Biggie Munn, MSU football
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
- John Wooden, UCLA basketball
Ninety-eight percent of success is in the head and the heart.
- Cathy Ferguson, Olympic swimming
The biggest mistake an athlete can make is to be afraid of making one.
- L. Ron Hubbard, author
You don't get to choose when opportunity is going to knock, so you better be prepared for it when it does.
- Ted Anderson, U of Nebraska Omaha
If what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.
- Wid Matthews, Chicago Cubs
1. Stress improvement, not perfection (or winning). 2. Don't take yourself too seriously; laugh at yourself and have fun. 3. Set attainable goals; reach them and then set higher ones. 4. Be positive, walk tall, smile often, don't complain or procrastinate. 5. Prepare purposely, but don't overtrain. 6. Remember- Sports is a game and meant to be enjoyable.
- Dick Gould, Stanford tennis
They say the breaks even up in the long run, and the trick is to be a long-distance runner.
- Chuck Knox, LA Rams
The race does not always go to the swift, but to the ones who keep running.
- Anonymous
Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude is how well you do it.
- Lou Holtz, U of S. Carolina football
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
- Earl Weaver
The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.
- Vince Lombardi
Just do the best with what you have, and you'll soon be doing it better.
- Gil Hodges
Winners never quit, and quitters never win.
- Vince Lombardi
You play the way you practice.
- Pop Warner
The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.
- John Wooden, UCLA basketball
One late afternoon, after swimming in a lake, he began to jog around to ease his chill. Soon enough he found himself running for the sheer exhilaration of it, across the moor and toward the coast. The sky filled with crimson clouds, and as he ran a light rain started to fall. With the sun warming his back, a rainbow appeared in front of him, and he seemed to run toward it. Along the coast the rhythm of the water breaking against the rocks eased him, and he circled back to where he had begun. Cool, wet air filled his lungs. Running into the sun now, he had trouble seeing the ground underneath his feet, but still he rushed forward, alive with the movement. Finally spent as the sun disappeared from the horizon, he tumbled down a light hill and rested on his back, his feet bleeding, but feeling rejuvenated. He needed to reconnect to the joy of running, to get away from the tyranny of the track
- Neil Bascomb, The Perfect Mile
You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.
- Joe Louis
Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.
- Dr. Joyce Brothers
Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
- Margaret Lee Runbeck
You can't go back and make a brand new start, but you can start now and make a brand-new end.
- Jack Garmise
It takes education to be successful in the game of life.
- Bob Lanier
A star can win any game; a team can win every game
- Jack Ramsay, National Basketball Association
Never give up.
- Jim Valvano, NC State basketball
One thing about racing is that it hurts. You better accept that from the beginning or you're not going anywhere.
- Bob Kennedy, US 5000m record holder and first non-African under 13 minutes
Bid me run and I will strive with things impossible.
- Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Anything is possible, but you have to believe and you have to fight.
- Lance Armstrong
Any idiot can train himself into the ground; the trick is working in training to get gradually stronger.
- Keith Brantley
Most people are like a falling leaf that drifts and turns in the air, flutters, and falls to the ground. But a few others are like stars which travel one defined path: no wind reaches them, they have within themselves their guide and path.
- Siddhartha
Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.
- Bruce Barton
Second place is not a defeat. It is a stimulation to get better. It makes you even more determined.
- Carlos Lopes, Portugal
Out on the roads there is fitness and self-discovery and the persons we were destined to be.
- Dr. George Sheehan
Life is short... running makes it seem longer.
- Baron Hansen
I eat whatever the guy who beat me in the last race ate.
- Alex Ratelle
We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.
- Jesse Owens
If you want to become the best runner you can be, start now. Don't spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it.
- Priscilla Welch, Master Marathon Great
Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win.
- Tom Fleming's Boston Marathon training motto
A coach can be like oasis in the desert of a runner's lost enthusiasm.
- Ken Doherty
I think there's only one sensible place for a person to be at 5:30 in the morning. That's in bed. And what am I doing? I'm out running. And I completely hate this.
- Derek Clayton, Australian marathoner, first tobreak 2:09
The greatest danger to most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.
- Michelangelo
Dream the impossible, do the incredible.
- Unknown
Run hard, be strong, think big!
- Percy Cerutty
In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that.
- Fred Lebow
Act like a horse. Be dumb. Just run.
- Jumbo Elliot
If the hill has its own name, then it's probably a pretty tough hill.
- Marty Stern
Don't attack a hill from the very bottom- it's bigger than you are!
- Harry Groves, Penn State coach
I think some of the most celebrated moments in human achievement should be those times when everything is going against a person and they are down in the dumps but they simply choose to get up. That's real greatness!
- Ryan Hall
Life (and running) is not all about time but about our experiences along the way.
- Jen Rhines
To keep from decaying, to be a winner, the athlete must accept pain - not only accept it, but look for it, live with it, learn not to fear it.
- Dr. George Sheehan
I run because I used to be envious of people that could run, and now I am that person.
- Kendra Thompson
Everything I know about life, I learned it from running.
- Ruben Toledo Rosado
No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life's most rewarding experiences. My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: each race a drama, each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another, and each race telling me more about myself and others.
- Dr. George Sheehan
I have met my hero, and he is me.
- Dr. George Sheehan
A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.
- Steve Prefontaine
You only grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone.
- Percy Cerutty
There's nothing better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve.
- OG Mandino
Self-trust is the essence of heroism.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Only those who will risk going to far can possibly find out how far they can go.
- T.S. Eliot
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
- Susan Jeffers
Winning isn't everything. Wanting to is.
- Catfish Hunter
The impossible is often the untried.
- Jim Goodwin
Success doesn't come to you... you go to it.
- Marva Collins
Running is one of the best solution to a clear mind.
- Sasha Azevedo
The most important message I stress to beginners is to learn to love the sport. Like other endeavors, if running is not undertaken properly, it can be difficult and discouraging.
- Cliff Held
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 to quit.
- George Sheehan
Passion is pushing myself when there is no one else around- just me and the road.
- Ryan Shay
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
- Aristotle
The essential thing in life is not so much conquering as fighting as well.
- Baron de Coubertin
Some runners judge performance by whether they won or lost. Others define success or failure by how fast they ran. Only you can judge your performance. Avoid letting others sit in judgment of you.
- Hal Higdon
In running it is man against himself, the cruelest of opponents. The other runners are not the real enemies. His adversary lies within him, in his ability with brain and heart to master himself and his emotions.
- Glenn Cunningham
The most important day in any running program is rest. Rest days give your muscles time to recover so you can run again. Your muscles build in strength as you rest.
- Hal Higdon
In order to succeed, we must first believe we can.
- Nikos Kazantzakis
The crime is not to avoid failure, the crime is to not give triumph a chance.
- H. Weldon
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.
- GEORGE SHEEHAN
There is something about the ritual of the race-putting on the number, lining up, being timed-that brings out the best in us.
- Grete Waitz
A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected by in as many ways as they're capable of understanding.
- Steve Prefontaine
Every time I fail I assume I will be a stronger person for it.
- Joan Benoit Samuelson
You train best where you are the happiest.
- Frank Shorter
This is what really matters: running. This is where I know where I am.
- STEVE JONES
If you set your aim too high and don't fulfill it, then your enthusiasm turns to bitterness. Try for a goal that's reasonable, and then gradually raise it.
- Emil Zatopek
Recognize your victories.
- Joan Benoit Samuelson
Citius, altius, fortius...swifter, higher, stronger.
- Olympic Motto
You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.
- Steve Prefontaine
Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself.
- Mahatma Ghandi
I ran to be free; I ran to avoid pain; I ran to feel pain; I ran out of love and hate and anger and joy
- Dagny Scott
Do no go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Success does not come to the most righteous and rigorously disciplined but to those who continue running.
- AMBY BURFOOT
When you run in places you visit, you encounter things you'd never see otherwise.
- TOM BROKAW
We all need goals. Life is hard to live without one.
- TORY BAUCUM
Running gives me confidence.
- STEVE PREFONTAINE
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
- MARK TWAIN
Running is my sunshine.
- JOAN TWINE
If you want to achieve a high goal, you're going to have to take some chances.
- ALBERTO SALAZAR
There's nothing a man can't do if the spirit's there.
- FRANZ STAMPFL
Life is complicated. Running is simple. Is it any wonder that people like to run?
- KEVIN NELSON
If you ask me how I want to be remembered, it is as a winner...A winner is somebody who gave his best effort, who has tried the hardest they possibly can...who has utilized every ounce of energy and strength within them to accomplish something. It doesn't mean that they accomplished it or failed, it means they've given it their best. That's a winner.
- WALTER PAYTON
The important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top.
- Herb Elliott
I run because it's my passion, and not just a sport. Every time I walk out the door, I know why I'm going where I'm going and I'm already focused on that special place where I find my peace and solitude. Running, to me, is more than just a physical exercise... it's a consistent reward for victory!
- Sasha Azevedo
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.
- Unknown
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.
- Stacy Jones
Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you.
- William Arthur Ward
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have received.
- Unknown
Even if you fall flat on your face at least you are moving forward
- Sue Luke
Desire is the most important factor in the success of any athlete.
- Willie Shoemaker
You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
- Rosalynn Carter
If you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
- Erica Jong
Men are born to succeed, not fail.
- Henry David Thoreau
Nothing's better than the wind to your back, the sun in front of you, and your friends beside you.
- Aaron Douglas Trimble
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
- Thomas A. Edison
If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win.
- Carl Lewis
Faith is believing. Believing is winning.
- Jeremy Paxston
Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hardwork, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.
- Gail Devers
Never surrender opportunity to security.
- Branch Rickey
Spirit...has fifty times the strength and staying power of brawn and muscle.
- Unknown
The more I train, the more I realize I have more speed in me.
- Leroy Burrell
Thus I urge you to go onto your greatness if you believe it is in you. Think deeply and separate what you wish from what you are prepared to do.
- Percy Cerutty
Jogging is very beneficial. It's good for your legs and your feet. It's also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed.
- Charles Schultz
There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.
- Bill Bowerman
Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant.
- Dr. George Sheehan
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
The trouble with jogging is that by the time you realize you're not in shape for it, it's too far to walk back.
- Franklin P. Jones
It is true that speed kills. In distance running, it kills anyone who does not have it.
- Brooks Johnson
You can't win them all - but you can try.
- Babe Didrikson Zaharias
If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I will help you become that.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If the furnace is hot enough it will burn anything.
- John Parker author of Once A Runner
If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's beside the point. It's simply that I just have to.
- Emil Zatopek
Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.
- Unknown
Good things come slow, especially in distance running.
- Bill Dellinger, Oregon Coach
Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, "Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today.
- Peter Maher
The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.
- Sven Goran Eriksson
If you want to win a race you have to go a little berserk.
- Bill Rodgers
The freedom of cross country is so primitive. It's woman vs. nature.
- Lynn Jennings
You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
- Voltaire
I've always taken the philosophy that you have to dream a little in this sport. If you stay in your comfort zone, you're not going to do anything special.
- Deena Kastor
Running changed my life as it will change yours, just give it a chance. Once you get that blood moving, it's show time!
- Wilfredo Melendez, US soldier
When I do the best I can with what I have, then I have won my race.
- Jay Foonberg, 72 year old runner
Running makes my life whole.
- Julie Frondyman, runner
Get out there and do what you love!
- Kara Goucher
The thought of later in the day having to explain to myself why I didn't run that morning is enough to get me out the door.
- Linda Johnson
The one thing that I really appreciate about being a runner is the incredible friendships and camaraderie that we, as runners, share. Although it will always be a cutthroat competition for every spot on every team, our companionship transcends these competitive rivalries.
- Jen Rhines
No negative thoughts cross my mind on race day. When I look into their eyes, I know I'm going to beat them.
- Danny Harris
Tough times don't last but tough people do.
- A.C. Green
Good judgment is the result of experience, experience is the result of bad judgment.
- Mark Twain
Running is ultimately a personal experience. It is a revival of the spirit, a private oasis for the thirsty mind. Yet, its healing power only increases in the presence of others. Run together and the oasis grows cooler and more satisfying.
- Amby Burfoot
The most beautiful motion is that which accomplishes the greatest results with the least amount of effort.
- Plato
If you have a bad run, don't obsess about it. You're always going to have days when your legs feel dead.
- Heather Hanscom
Running is 80 percent mental.
- Joan Benoit Samuelson
As athletes, we have ups and downs. Unfortunately, you can't pick the days they come on.
- Deena Kastor on breaking her foot at the 5K mark during themarathon at the Beijing Olympic Games.
Out on the roads there is fitness and self-discovery and the persons we were destined to be.
- Dr. George Sheehan
You were born to run. Maybe not that fast, maybe not that far, maybe not as efficiently as others. But to get up and move, to fire up that entire energy-producing, oxygen-delivering, bone-strengthening process we call running.
- Florence Griffith-Joyner
The desire to run comes from deep within us- from the unconscious, the instinctive, the intuitive.
- George Sheehan
We may train or peak for a certain race, but running is a lifetime sport.
- Alberto Salazar
Learn to run when feeling the pain, then push harder.
- William Sigei
I was born to run. I love to run. It's almost like the faster I go, the easier it becomes.
- Mary Decker Slaney
If you train your mind for running, everything else will be easy.
- Amby Burfoot
Reality can destroy the dream; why shouldn't the dream destroy reality?
- George Moore
The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.
- Roger Bannister
Fitness if like the blade of a knife; you want to sharpen it without ruining the blade.
- Sally Jenkins
The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.
- Jesse Owens
'Come to the edge,' he said.They said, 'But we're afraid.''Come to the edge,' he said.They came.He pushed them,and they flew.
- Guillaume Apollinaire
Independence is the outstanding characteristic of the runner.
- Noel Carroll
I tell my athletes, 'When you compete, concentrate on yourself. Don't focus on anger against a competitor.'
- Joe Douglas
Racing is pain, and that's why you do it, to challenge yourself and the limits of your physical and mental barriers. You don't experience that in an armchair watching television.
- MARK ALLEN
Once you have decided that winning isn't everything, you become a winner.
- GEORGE SHEEHAN
I'd rather run a gutsy race, pushing all the way and lose, than run a conservative race only for a win.
- ALBERTO SALAZAR
It's not about speed and gold medals. It's about refusing to be stopped.
- AMBY BURFOOT
Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running.
- SARAH CONDOR
Motivation is a skill. It can be learned and practiced.
- AMBY BURFOOT
Running well is a matter of having the patience to persevere when we are tired and not expecting instant results.
- ROBERT DE CASTELLA
For me, like so many others, running is the answer. Out on the road it is just you, the pavement, and your will.
- JOHN BINGHAM
Keep your dream in front of you. Never let it go regardless of how farfetched it might seem.
- HAL HIGDON
Exercise is done against one's wishes and maintained only because the alternative is worse.
- GEORGE SHEEHAN
This is not about instant gratification. You have to work hard for it, sweat for it, give up sleeping in on Sunday mornings.
- LAUREN FESSENDEN
My outlook is that I never want to look back and wonder how fast I could have been.
- DOUG MOCK
It's my own space, my own time, when I'm just out there letting my thoughts go. It's part of my day like eating, and it's one of my favorite parts.
- LOUISE KENT
Methinks that the moment my legs began to move, my thoughts began to flow.
- HENRY DAVID THOREAU
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
- ARTHUR C. CLARKE
Carpe diem (sieze the day)
- Dead Poets Society
Tis only in their dreams that men truly be free, 'twas always thus, and always thus will be.
- John Keating
Fortis fortuna juvat (Fortune favors the brave)
- Virgil
Don't ask for a light load, but rather ask for a strong back.
- unknown
The heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight.
But they, while their companions slept,
were toiling upward in the night.
- Thomas S. Monson
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.
- Garrison Keillor
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
- George Washington
Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.
- Walter Anderson
Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.
- Robert F. Kennedy
That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
- William J. H. Boetcker
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
- Jack London
Act as if it were impossible to fail.
- Dorothea Brande
Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.
- John Keats
This thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.
- Mary Pickford
Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal.
- Mike Ditka
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
- Calvin Coolidge
We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are.
- Tobias Wolff, 'In Pharaoh's Army'
I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.
- Anna Freud
It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.
- Philip Adams
A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.
- Patricia Neal
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity.
- Michael Johnson
I'm going to go out a winner if I have to find a high school race to win my last race.
- Johnny Gray
I always loved running...it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.
- Jesse Owens
It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse.
- Ann Trason
Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.
- Steve Prefontaine
The gun goes off and everthing changes... the world changes... and nothing else really matters.
- Patti Sue Plummer
You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming.
- Frank Shorter
Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.
- Doug Larson
If you start to feel good during an ultra, don't worry you will get over it.
- Gene Thibeault
The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.
- Robert Frost
I have met my hero, and he is me.
- George Sheehan
I cannot have survival as my only goal. That would be too boring. My goal is to come back in my best running form. It is good for me to have that goal; it will help me.
- Ludmila Engquist (Olympic champion hurdler facing cancer and chemotherapy)
When I came back, after all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. Now what's the difference?
- Jesse Owens
There are clubs you can't belong to, neighborhoods you can't live in, schools you can't get into, but the roads are always open.
- Nike Slogan
What matters is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
- Jules Renard
I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners.
- Sebastian Coe
We can't all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.
- Will Rogers
The will to win means nothing if you haven't the will to prepare.
- Juma Ikangaa
Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired...You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going.
- George S. Patton
Mind is everything: muscle - pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.
- Paavo Nurmi
The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed.
- Jacqueline Gareau
Sport is not about being wrapped up in cotton wool. Sport as about adapting to the unexpected and being able to modify plans at the last minute. Sport, like all life, is about taking risks.
- Sir Roger Bannister
There are people who have no bodies, only heads. And many athletes have no heads, only bodies. A champion is a man who has trained his body and his mind, who has learned to conquer pain for his own purposes. A great athlete is at peace with himself and at peace with the world; he has fulfilled himself. He envies nobody. Wars are caused by people who have not fulfilled themselves.
- Sam Dee
That is the sort of race which one really enjoys - to feel at one's peak on the day when it is necessary, and to be able to produce the pace at the very finish. It gives a thrill which compensates for months of training and toiling. But it is the sort of race that one wants only about once a season.
- Jack Lovelock
I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart.
- Mike Fanelli
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.
- Mark Twain
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
- Mark Twain
Who loves the Monster?
- Isaac Zentner
If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life.
- Abraham Maslow
People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.
- George Allen
A man may make mistakes, but he isn't a failure until he starts blaming someone else.
- John Wooden
Young people need models not critics.
- John Wooden
Talent is God give; be humble
Fame is man given; be thankful
Conceit is self-give; be careful
- John Wooden
Learn as if you were to live forever, Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
- John Wooden
Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what your really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
- John Wooden
If we did all the things that we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
- Thomas Edison
Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.
- Stephen Vincent Benét
Only by going too far can one possibly find out how far one can go.
- Jon Dyer
The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
- Unknown
Know that almost no success or failure is a permanent condition. Always be prepared to move to your next level.
- Joe Henderson
In every race there is a crucial moment when the body wants to quit. Then it needs imagination and mental tenacity to survive the crisis. Otherwise the penalty is defeat.
- Derek Ibbotson
It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life that those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest men. When you see 20 or 30 men line up for a distance race in some meet, don't pity them, don't feel sorry for them. Better envy them instead.
- Brutus Hamilton
Run the best you can with the talent you have and the training you've done, and you can call yourself a winner
- Joe Henderson
Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
- Jules Renard
Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.
- Carl Jung
The willow knows what the storm does not: that the power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it.
- Blood of the Martyr
Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more wisely.
- unknown
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
- Albert Einstein
The most important thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else – the desire has to be yours. That is all that will justify the hard work needed to achieve success. Compete against yourself, not others, for you are truly your best competition . . .
- Peggy Fleming,
Figure Skater, Olympic Gold Medalist
You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
- Steve Prefontaine
Training was a time where resolutions made in the enthusiasm of an inspired moment were put to personal test
- Herb Elliot,
Distance Runner, Olympic Gold Medalist
Wanting desperately to achieve taps that hidden resource that every one of us has . . .
- Herb Elliot,
Distance Runner, Olympic Gold Medalist
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult
- Seneca
Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.
- Confucius
Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.
- William Faulkner
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.
- Steve Prefontaine
Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.
- Steve Prefontaine
I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it.
- Steve Prefontaine
Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.
- Wilma Rudolph
First American Woman Runner to win 3 Gold Medals at a single Olympics
Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.
- Wilma Rudolph
First American Woman Runner to win 3 Gold Medals at a single Olympics
The triumph cannot be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams.
- Wilma Rudolph
First American Woman Runner to win 3 Gold Medals at a single Olympics
My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces.
- Wilma Rudolph
First American Woman Runner to win 3 Gold Medals at a single Olympics
My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble.
- Bill Rogers, Marathoner
Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go.
- Patti Sue Plummer
In the achievement of greater performances, of beating formidable rivals, the athlete defeats fear and conquers himself.
- Franz Stamfl
Never take the lead unless you really want it, and if you take it, do something with it.
- Tom Courtney, Olympic Champion
Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.
- T.S. Eliot
There are as many reasons for running as there are days in a year, years in a life. But I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.
- Dr. George Sheehan
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
- Confucius
When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.
- Edward Teller
With victory in hand, running at maximum effort becomes very difficult. Without some company in the difficult miles, the body's mission becomes lonely and dark.
- Frank Shorter
The medal is not for myself. It couldn't be done without the support and help of my people, runners, and coaches.
- Alberto Juantorena
Whatever moves the other runners made, I knew I could respond...I felt if I had to, I could fly.
- Grete Waitz
In running you can't say you want to be the best. You just have to work very hard, really. You're only a hamstring injury away from oblivion.
- Steve Jones
There is no finish line
- Nike Slogan
You either ran today, or you didn't
- Nike Slogan
Runs end. Running doesn't.
- Nike Slogan
Test your faith daily.
- Nike Slogan
Where your world becomes the next two strides
- Nike Slogan
There are two types of people: Those who run and those who should. Nike believes in both.
- Nike Slogan
Mother's, there's a mad man running in the streets, And he's humming a tune, And he's snarling at dogs, And he still has four more miles to go.
- Nike Slogan
It starts about the time I walk out my front door. I reach the woods, smell the river, and I just feel myself come to life again. It's like yeah, I'm back.
- Nike Slogan
The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
- William James
I never run a bad race when my training has gone well. If I train well, I'll run well.
- Alberto Salazar
I was born to be a runner. I simply love to train.
- Mary Decker Slaney
There are three things to remember about drugs. The first is that if you take drugs, you'll never know your full potential; second, there is the obvious health risk; and third, if you do drugs, you're giving up on yourself.
- Carl Lewis
Twenty years from now, I can look at this medal and say, "I was the best quarter-miler in the world on that day." If you don't thing that's important, you don't know what's inside an athlete's soul.
- Vince Matthews
Be a champion in practice, that's where champions are made.
- Unknown
A team is only as strong as its weakest member.
- Unknown
Strong athletes criticize themselves.
- Unknown
No athlete has become a failure without his own consent.
- Unknown
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
- Frank Tibolt
Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.
- Saint Augustine
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
- Beverly Sills
You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone.
- Percy Cerutty
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong
- Winston Churchill
The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.
- Max Lerner
Number one is just to gain a passion for running. To love the morning, to love the trail, to love the pace on the track. And if some kid gets really good at it, that's cool too.
- Pat Tyson
A great coach is an artist. You have to be creative, and you have to capture enough kids to create your artwork
- Pat Tyson
Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals
- Henry Ford
The Truth is that Running Hurts. No one gets faster without meeting their personal pain barrier straight on. No amount of junk miles, fun runs or affirmations are going to get you over the hill at the five mile mark in a 10k. However, what will pull you through is solid prep with hard hill runs and interval work
- Manciata
The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top.
- Herb Elliott
To exercise at or near capacity is the best way I know of reaching a true introspective state. If you do it right, it can open all kinds of inner doors.
- Al Oerter
Often I visualize a quicker, like almost a ghost runner, ahead of me with a quicker stride. It's really crazy. In races, this always happens to me. I see the vision of a runner ahead of me, maybe just 15, 20 meters ahead of me, and the cadence of that runner, which is actually me in the future, is a little quicker, so if I'm going (his rhythm/breathing), then my ghost runner, the vision of me, ahead of me, like opening up and just going for it, is quicker. It's like (quicker rhythmic noises).
- Gabe Jennings on technique
The five S's of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit.
- Ken Doherty
If you feel like eating, eat. Let your body tell you what it wants.
- Joan Benoit Samuelson
Out of the silver heat mirage he ran. The sky burned, and under him the paving was a black mirror reflecting sun-fire. Sweat sprayed his skin with each foot strike so that he ran in a hot mist of his own creation. With each slap on the softened asphalt, his soles absorbed heat that rose through his arches and ankles and the stems of his shins. It was a carnival of pain, but he loved each stride because running distilled him to his essence and the heat hastened this distillation.
- James Tabor
Once you're beat mentally, you might was well not even go to the starting line.
- Todd Williams
The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed.
- Jacqueline Gareau, 1980 Boston Marathon champ
When the meal was over we all had a quiet rest in our rooms and I meditated on the race. This is the time when an athlete feels all alone in the big world. Opponents assume tremendous stature. Any runner who denies having fears, nerves or some kind of disposition is a bad athlete, or a liar.
- Gordon Pirie
We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves...The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable.
- Sir Roger Bannister
God determines how fast you're going to run; I can help only with the mechanics.
- Bill Bowerman
I still bother with runners I call hamburgers. They're never going to run any record times. But they can fulfill their own potential.
- Bill Bowerman
The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.
- Bill Squires
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
- Aristotle
Men, today we die a little.
- Emil Zatopek at the start of the 1956 Olympic Marathon
The ultimate is not to win, but to reach within the depths of your capabilities and to compete against yourself to the greatest extent possible. When you do that, you have dignity. You have the pride. You can walk about with character and pride no matter in what place you happen to finish.
- Billy Mills, 1964 Olympic 10,000m champion
If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough
- Steve Jones
I like running because it's a challenge. If you run hard, there's the pain - and you've got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is? Don't overdo it' and? Don't push yourself.' Well, I think that's a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond.
- Bob Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers general manager, NHL Hall of Fame.
When the meal was over we all had a quiet rest in our rooms and I meditated on the race. This is the time when an athlete feels all alone in the big world. Opponents assume tremendous stature. Any runner who denies having fears, nerves or some kind of disposition is a bad athlete, or a liar.
- Gordon Pirie
A lot of people don't realize that about 98 percent of the running I put in is anything but glamorous: 2 percent joyful participation, 98 percent dedication! It's a tough formula. Getting out in the forest in the biting cold and the flattening heat, and putting in kilometer after kilometer.
- Rob de Castella
Remember when you see someone at the top of a mountain, he didn't fall there.
- Anonymous
Talent without discipline is talent wasted
- Zeb Smith
I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field.
- Walter Payton
If you don't invest very much, then defeat doesn't hurt very much and winning is not very exciting.
- Dick Vermeil
The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.
- Vince Lombardi
The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.
- Wayne Gretzky
It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up.
- Vince Lombardi
I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win--if you don't, you won't.
- Bruce Jenner, Olympic Gold Medalist, Decathlon
There are only two options regarding commitment; you're either in or you're out. There's no such thing as life in-between.
- Pat Riley
The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move.
- John Wooden
The man who has no imagination has no wings.
- Muhammad Ali
Luck? Sure. But only after long practice and only with the ability to think under pressure.
- Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Records are made to be broken.
- Anonymous
Second place is not a defeat. It is a stimulation to get better. It makes you even more determined.
- Carlos Lopes, Portugal, prior to 1984 Games
Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about.
- PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian
Everyone in life is looking for a certain rush. Racing is where I get mine.
- John Trautmann
A runner's creed: I will win; if I cannot win, I shall be second; if I cannot be second, I shall be third; if I cannot place at all, I shall still do my best.
- Ken Doherty
I haven't seen too many American distance men on the international scene willing to take risks. I saw some U.S. women in Barcelona willing to risk, more than men. The Kenyans risk. Steve Prefontaine risked. I risked—I went through the first half of the Tokyo race just a second off my best 5000 time.
- Billy Mills
At this point (the backstretch), I abandoned the studied relaxation. This is the moment when you stop consciously controlling what you are doing and pour everything into driving out the utmost speed.
- Peter Snell
Coming off the last turn, my thoughts changed from 'One more try, one more try, one more try. . .' to 'I can win! I can win! I can win!
- Billy Mills
Never really give in as long as you have any earthly chance, and above all don't allow yourself to fancy that you are in this predicament until the gruesome knowledge is absolutely forced upon you. For however bad you may be feeling, it is by no means impossible that the other fellows may be feeling quite as much, if not even more, distressed.
- Alf Shrubb
The only tactics I admire are do-or-die.
- Herb Elliot
After 5 or 6 laps I have read everyone like a newspaper. and I know who is able to do this or that. And I know what I am able to do.
- Miruts Yifter
Don't struggle and burst yourself every yard. There is no sense in making a quarter-mile race of a section of the course between yourself and your immediate attendants, so as to crack you all up and leave the field open for the others to jog comfortably in.
- Alf Shrubb
Even [Glenn] Cunningham, strong though he is, could not live up to the strain of setting such a pace, combined with the mental worry of having a lightly stepping black shadow right on his shoulder, locking strides with him, almost breathing in his ear—for the trick of shadowing an opponent within sight and hearing is one of the more maddening and distracting forms of tactics that one can use in any race.
- Jack Lovelock
I guess I prefer to stay unpredictable so that people cannot say, 'Dixon's a front-runner' or 'Dixon, he stays back in the pack and then comes up strong at the end.' Strategy, my dear. I don't mind setting the pace, though, when I have to run my own race. I do what the situation requires.
- Rod Dixon
Perhaps the most intriguing, yet at the same time most tragic aspect of distance running is racing strategies and tactics or the lack of them. A slight hesitance, a single step to the inside, a few seconds miscalculation of the right pace of the timing of the final kick, and any other seemingly minor error, may throw away months and years of careful preparation and sacrifice. The race is not always to either the swift or the strong, but to the clever, the skillful, and the constantly wary.
- Ken Doherty
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
- Henry David Thoreau
Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.
- Henry David Thoreau
I stand in awe of my body.
- Henry David Thoreau
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
- Henry David Thoreau
Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.
- Henry David Thoreau
Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.
- Thomas H. Huxley
If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.
- Anna Quindlen
My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that 'achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.'
- Helen Hayes
Underpromise; overdeliver.
- Tom Peters
Cross Country: you'll be glad you did it.
- Christine Miller
It's more than just a fall sport, cross country is a lifestyle.
- Christine Miller
A runner must run with dreams in his heart.
- Emil Zatopek
I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it, I want to live the width of it as well.
- Diane Ackerman
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
- Marianne Williamson
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work
- unknown
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead
The world is divided into two classifications of people, distance runners and candy asses.
- Wyoming XC Team
Hard work, given time, will defeat talent.
- Unknown
Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places that soap will never reach.
- George Sheehan
The only difference between Champ and Chump is "U"!
- Unknown
The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.
- Moliere
Excuses only satisfy those who make them.
- Unknown
do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
- Theodore Roosevelt
You can always run faster… It is just going to hurt.
- Unknown
You don’t get what you wish for; you get what you work for.
- Unknown
Some people ask why I run so fast… well what do you do when you hear a gun.
- Unknown
You’re running on guts. On fumes. Your muscles twitch. You throw up. You’re delirious. But you keep running because there is no way out of this hell you are in, because there is no way that you are not crossing the finish line. It is a misery that non-runners don’t understand.
- Martine Costello
Heart pumping, muscles burning, feet aching, lungs screaming for air… yea we run for fun
- Unknown
no refs, out of bounds, timeouts, fouls, or benchwarmers. Cross Country… Not a Game!
- Unknown
Cross Country; all it takes is all you have got.
- Unknown
Running won’t kill you… you’ll pass out first.
- Anonymous
Running is for everyone… Cross Country is for athletes.
- Anonymous
There is a moment in every race where you can quit, fold or say to your self "I can do this".
- Gatorade Commercial
A true runner runs even when he doesn’t feel like it, and races when he is supposed to, without excuses and nothing held back. He runs to win and would rather die than not finish what he has started.
- Once a runner
Why do I run? You ask. Why do you breathe? I ask.
- Nike Ad
People can’t understand why a man runs. They don’t see any sport in it. Argue it lacks the sight and the thrill of body contact. Yet, the conflict is there, more raw and challenging than any man versus man competition. For in running it is man against himself, the cruelest of all opponents. His adversary lies within him, in his ability, with brain and heart to master himself, his emotions and his pain.
- Glenn Cunningham
Games require skill. Running requires endurance, character, pride, physical strength and mental toughness. Running is a test, not a game. A test of faith, belief, will and trusts in ones self. so hardcore that it needs a category all to itself to the define pain. When game players criticize, it’s because they aren’t willing to understand, not because they’re stronger. Running is more than sport; it’s a lifestyle. If you have to ask us why we run, you’ll never understand, so just accept it.
- Jessica Post
When you win nothing hurts.
- Unknown
It is true that speed kills. In distance running, it kills anyone who doesn’t have it.
- Brooke Johnson
Thos who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it.
- Michael Johnson’s Personal Trainer
Cross Country isn’t for everyone, only those "weirdos" who like to run through the woods, mud and hills in little more than underwear.
- Unknown
People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within.
- Romana Anderson
Runners have balls; all others just play with them.
- Unknown
There are two types of people: those who run, and those who should.
- Unknown
Running: Our sport is you sports punishment.
- Unknown
There is no I in team, but there is a "U" in suck.
- Anonymous
Nobody said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it.
- Preacher
Catch the person in front of you. Stay in front of the person behind you. Beat the shadow next to you!
- Unknown
The talent to be great runner is a gift from God; utilizing that talent is a gift from you to yourself.
- Anonymous
Some people say religion is life, if that is the case then running is life.
- Marathon competitor
Cross Country: finally a good reason for a golf course
- Anonymous
The miracle isn’t that I finished… The miracle is that I had the courage to start.
- Anonymous
Run like hell and get the agony over quicker.
- Anonymous
Only think of two things- the gun and the tape. When you hear the one, just run like hell until you break the other.
- Sam Mussabini
Runners just do it- they run for the finish line even if someone else has reached it first.
- Unknown
Success comes before work only in the dictionary.
- Unknown
Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.
- AC Green
Stadiums are for spectators. Runners have nature and that is much better.
- Unknown
In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack or dead last. You can say "I have finished" There is a lot of satisfaction in that.
- Unknown
Above all, train hard, eat right, and avoid television and people with bad attitudes.
- Scott Tinley
Don’t underestimate “easy days.” Easy days help you beat fatigue, to keep fatigue from beating you.
- Bob Glover
Train to near death, rest, and repeat.
- Unknown
The answer to the big questions in running is the same as to the answers to the big questions in life. Just do the best you can with what you’ve got, and that includes your stride length.
- George Sheenan
Don’t let fatigue or pain make you a coward.
- Unknown
You either plan for what is ahead or you fight with what you have got: worry is a waste of time.
- Richard Bach
I just want to make sure it’s a living hell for anyone out there that’s going to beat me.
- Ken Souza
The best conditioned athlete is a long distance runner
- Anonymous
I love controlling a race, chewing up an opponent. Let’s get down and dirty. Let’s fight it out. It’s raw, animalistic, with no one to rely on but you. There is no better feeling in life!
- Adam Goucher
You can’t become a winner overnight or even in a couple of years- it takes time… You will lose races and you will have to accept that, learn from it and believe that you will win the next one, knowing that you will probably lose that as well. You have to just keep believing that one day you will win.
- Paula Radcliffe
A sobering thought "what if, right at this very moment, I am living up to my full potential?"
- Jane Wagner
Just go out there and do what you have got to do.
- Martina Navratilova
It is easier to stay up with the pack than to catch up.
- Unknown
Hard work given time will beat all.
- Unknown
Ask yourself. "Can I give more?" The answer is usually "Yes".
- Paul Tergat
It is not the amount of time you put into practice that counts; it is the effort you put into practice everyday that counts.
- Unknown
If you want to be great, "Pretty Good" is really pretty bad.
- Pavvo
The only thing that limits you is you!
- Unknown
Talk is cheap. Don’t tell me what you can do, show me!
- Unknown
The tougher the experience, the tougher you become.
- Unknown
I have no control over how fast my opposition can run. It’s not like I can tackle them. All I can do is work harder, train smarter, train when my opposition doesn’t. In blood-chilling temperatures, in rain, in sleet, in wind, in snow.
- Unknown
The weather, your opponents, the time, the course, your finishing, all these things don’t matter. What matters is how you did to day compared to how you did yesterday.
- Unknown
If we needed butt pads, timeouts, halftimes, and substitutes, we’d play football.
- Marathon runner
Good teams become great ones, when the members trust each other enough to surrender the "Me" for the "We".
- Unknown
People begin running for any number of motives, but we stick to it for one basic-reason- to find out who we are.
- George Sheehan
Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste death but once.
- Julius Caesar
Fear of slacking resides deep in the heart of every great runner.
- Unknown
Nothing of importance can be taught. It can only be learned with blood and sweat.
- Unknown
Other people may not have high expectations of me, but I have high expectations of myself.
- Unknown
I do not run to add days to my life… I run to add life to my days.
- Ron Rook
Some people don’t have the guts for distance racing. The polite term for them is Sprinter!
- Unknown
Some running is good, more is better, and too much is just enough.
- Unknown
If it hurts, make it hurt just a bit more.
- Unknown
Nobody is going to finish this damn thing for me, but me.
- Unknown
The finish line is not given, it is earned.
- Unknown
Don’t be content with being average. Average is as close to the bottom as it is to the top.
- Unknown
A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
- Unknown
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
- USMC
If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with aboard and knock me down, because that means I didn’t run hard enough.
- Steve Jones
Run so hard you come in with bloody feet and missing toenails.
- Unknown
Man imposes his own limitations, don’t set any.
- Unknown
A lot of people run to see who is the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.
- Steve Prefontaine
Somewhere in the world someone is training when you aren’t. When you race him, he will win.
- Tom Flemig
I don’t train. I just run my 3-15 miles a day.
- Jack Foster
Dead tired, Dog tired, Sore as hell…
- Laura Mykytok’s Diary Entry
If you can’t win, make the guy in front of you win.
- Unknown
The pride you gain is worth the pain.
- Dennis Ogilve
Anyone can run a 100 meters, it is the next 4900 that counts.
- Frank Shorter
Hills are simply "Speed work" in disguise.
- Frank Shorter
Running hills breaks up your rhythm and forces your muscles to adapt to new stresses. The result you ask? You become stronger.
- Eamonn Coghlam
I have always felt that long slow distances produces long slow runners
- Sebastian Cole
There are clubs you can’t belong to, and neighborhoods you can’t live in, schools you can’t get into, but the roads… The roads are always open.
- Nike Ad
"Why do you run?" Because you are wondering if your grandchildren will too. Because it is raining. Because you can, and others can’t. Because it is faster than walking. Because that shaky leg thing is all about nervous energy. Because you can’t fly. Because your personal best is just that, yours. Because the pain of a blister is nothing compared to the pain of stopping. Because you like the resistance the wind gives you. Just Because!
- Unknown
Fall seven times, stand up eight
- Japanese Proverb
He conquers who endures.
- Persius
The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.
- Unknown
Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
- Walter Elliott
But the moment you turn a corner you see another straight stretch ahead and there comes some further challenge to your ambition.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
One may go a long way after one is tired.
- French Proverb
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