"Blink and you miss a sprint. The 10,000
meters is lap after lap of waiting. Theatrically, the mile is just
the right length- beginning, middle, end: a story unfolding."
-Sebastian Coe
"Almost every part of the mile is
tactically important- you can never let down, never stop thinking,
and you can be beat at almost any point. I suppose you can say it is
like life."
-John Landy
"I love running cross-country, especially
where I live in Northern California...You come up a hill and see two
deer going, 'What the hell is he doing?' On a track, I feel like a
hamster."
-Robin Williams, film star / comic
"Mind is everything: muscle--pieces of
rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind."
-Paavo Nurmi
"A lot of people run a race to see
who's the fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts."
-Steve Prefontaine "Pre"
"Push yourself! Minutes of pain are
insignificant to a lifetime of glory."
-Nick Aschbrenner
"We few, we happy few, we band of
brothers
For he who sheds his blood with me today
Shall be my brother."
-Shakespeeare, Henry V
"You must work hard, or you will not bring
honor to your family."
-Chinese proverb
"There are three things you don't bet
against. They are taxes, death- and Alberto."
-Bill Squires, 1981 (On Salazar)
"Run like hell and get the agony over
with."
-Clarence DeMar
"I could let this guy beat me... but what
would my coach say?"
-Nick Aschbrenner
"It is simply that we can all be good boys
and wear our letter sweaters around and get our little degrees and
find some nice girl to settle, you know, down with ... take up what a
friend of ours calls the hearty challenges of lawn care ... Or we can
blaze! Become legends in our own time, strike fear in the heart of
mediocre talent everywhere! We can scald dogs, put records out of
reach! Make the stands gasp as we blow into an unearthly kick from
three hundred yards out! We can become God's own messengers
delivering the dreaded scrolls! We can race black Satan himself till
he wheezes fiery cinders down the back straightaway.... They'll speak
our names in hushed tones, 'those guys are animals' they'll say. We
can lay in on the line, bust a gut, show them a clean pair of heels.
We can sprint the turn on a spring breeze and feel the winter leave
our feet! We can, by God, let our demons loose and just wail on!"
-Quentin Cassidy, fictional miler in John Parker's Once a Runner
"I have to give up so many things, make so
many personal sacrifices to perform at my level, that I cannot even
contemplate losing."
-Sebastian Coe
"The will to win means nothing without the
will to prepare."
-Juma Ikangaa
"If the furnace is hot enough, it will
burn anything."
-John L. Parker
"I just want to make sure it's living hell
for anyone out there who's going to beat me."
-Ken Souza
"The key thing is not to be fast, but to
be faster."
-Nick Aschbrenner
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