Running

This is where my head has been for the last few weeks. Focusing and trying not to be overwhelmed by the fact that I'm about to run 21km for the first time in my life. I have already accomplished running further and longer than I ever have in my lifetime during my training for this half-marathon and am about to do it again this Sunday. As a present my friend Barry gave me a two page printout of inspirational running, racing and training quotes that he researched on the net. It was such a wonderful, thoughtful and useful gift that I wanted to share them. I am currently in my last week of training, the "taper" week where I give my body a bit of a break so it can rest up for what I'm about to put it through on Sunday. I will run this race, I will finish this race and I will be so relieved when it's all over. And when I feel like I can't go any further I will remember these words...

"I run because I can. When I get tired, I remember those who can't run, what they'd give to have this simple gift I take for granted, and I run harder for them. I know they would do the same for me."

"Champions are made when no one is watching."

"The extra mile is never crowded."
"Running 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."

"I have met my hero, and she is me."

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men and women are separated from the boys and the girls."

"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."

"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.

"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."

"Nothing worth having is easy."

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It does not matter whether you are a lion or gazelle. When the sun comes up you had better be running."

"There will be days when I don't know if I can run a marathon. There will be a lifetime knowing that I have."

"You can rest when you're dead."

"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."

"Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts." Steve Prefontaine.