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I
run to breathe the fresh air. I run
to explore. I run to escape the ordinary.
I run to savor the trip along the way.
Life becomes a little more vibrant,
a little more intense. I like that.
Dean Karnazes |
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It
amazes me to think that I'm putting a page on running on this site
only after thirteen years. What's taken so long? Running
always has been a very important part of my life, something that has
helped me to cope with, to endure, to enjoy, and to get the most out
of life. I've run in some of the most beautiful places I've
ever seen, sometimes all alone with no one around for many, many
miles. It's opened the doors to better health and a broader
perspective, it's given me something to work at improving without
any judgment or stress, and it's helped me to learn about pushing
through pain and exhaustion in order to reach my goals. Now,
finally, I get around to adding a page about it. It's about
time!
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People
sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming
they'll go to any length to live longer. But don't think
that's the reason most people run. Most runners run not
because they want to live longer, but because they want to
live life to the fullest. If you're going to while away
the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals
and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps
you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within
your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and
a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as whole.
I believe many runners would agree.
Haruki Murakami
What I Talk About When
I Talk About Running |
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Running!
If there's any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing
to the imagination, I can't think of what it might be. In running
the mind flees
with the body, the mysterious efflorescence of language seems to
pulse
in the brain, in rhythm with our feet and the swinging of our arms.
Joyce Carol Oates
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When people
ask me why I run, I tell them, there's not really a
reason,
it's just the adrenalin when you start, and the
feeling when you cross that
finish line, and know that you
are a winner no matter what place you got.
Courtney Parsons
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Running to him was real; the way he did it the
realest thing he knew.
It was all joy and woe, hard as a diamond; it made him
weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free.
John L. Parker Jr.
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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
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The miracle
isn't that I finished.
The miracle is that I had the courage to start.
John Bingham
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Running
long and hard is an ideal antidepressant, since it's hard to
run and feel sorry for yourself at the same time. Also, there are
those hours of clear-headedness that follow a long run.
Monte Davis |
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What distinguishes those of us at the starting line
from those of us
on the couch is that we learn through running to take what the days
gives us, what our body will allow us, and what our will can
tolerate.
John Bingham
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That
was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never
forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered
that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act
of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures
on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were
perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and
muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And
when our ancestors finally did make their first cave
paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash,
lightning bolts through the bottom and middle--behold, the
Running Man.
Distance running was revered because it was indispensable;
it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the
planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to
find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to
start a new life together. You had to love running, or you
wouldn't live to love anything else. And like everything
else we love--everything we sentimentally call our
'passions' and 'desires'--it's really an encoded ancestral
necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run.
We're all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always
known.
Christopher McDougall
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes,
and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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Everyone
who has run knows that its most important value is in
removing tension and allowing a release from whatever
other cares the day may bring.
Jimmy Carter |
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Anybody can be
a runner. We were meant to move.
We were meant to run. It's the easiest sport.
Bill Rodgers
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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
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Play
not only keeps us young but also maintains our perspective
about the relative seriousness of things. Running is play, for
even
if we try hard to do well at it, it is a relief from everyday cares.
Jim Fixx |
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I
often hear someone say I'm not a real runner. We are all runners,
some just run faster than others. I never met a fake runner.
Bart Yasso |
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I run because
it's so symbolic of life. You have to drive yourself to
overcome the obstacles. You might feel that you can't. But then
you find your inner strength, and realize you're
capable of so much more than you thought.
Arthur Blank |
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It's a treat being
a runner, out in the world by yourself with not
a soul to make you bad-tempered or tell you what to do.
Alan Sillitoe |
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Running
is not, as it so often seems, only about what you did in your
last race or about how many miles you ran last week. It is, in a
much
more important way, about community, about appreciating all
the miles run by other runners, too.
Richard O'Brien |
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When you think about it, the idea that running might
teach you
something about life shouldn't be too shocking. In a
fairly obvious
sense, running is life made small. A run has a
beginning and an end.
There are obstacles to overcome, good
days and bad days. You
pass some people and get passed by
others. There are tests and
challenges, disappointments and
achievements, days you feel you have
nothing left to give and other
days when you feel you can go forever.
Larry Shapiro
Zen and the Art of Running
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It
was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could
run.
The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in
the destination.
We have a better chance of seeing where we are
when we stop trying to
get somewhere else. We can enjoy every
moment of movement, as long
as where we are is as good as where
we'd like to be. That's not to say that
you need to be satisfied
forever with where you are today. But you need to
honor what
you've accomplished, rather than thinking of what's left to be
done.
John Bingham
No Need for Speed: A Beginner's
Guide to the Joy of Running |
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Elite
runners are genetically gifted, sure, but without intense training,
those gifts
are wasted. Their training creates a strong work ethic that leaves
humility in its
wake. There are no short cuts in marathoning, so anyone
who is a marathoner has worked hard.
Jeff Horowitz
My First 100 Marathons
Running cleared the day's cobwebs from my mind and focused my
thinking,
and gave me time and space to sort out anything that was bothering
me,
or to detach and think of nothing at all. |
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When it's pouring rain and you're bowling along
through the wet, there's
satisfaction in knowing you're out there and the others aren't.
Peter Snell |
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quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
our
current e-zine
-
the
people behind the words
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
|
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