Your biggest challenge isn't someone else. It's the ache in your lungs, the burning in your legs, and the voice inside you that yells 'CAN'T.' But you don't listen. You just push harder. And then you hear the voice whisper 'can.' And you discover that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are.

Placing limits on what I think I can accomplish is something I tend not to do. I've heard that people are actually able to cover about twice their imagined limit: If you think you can run only 1 mile, you can really run 2; if you think you can run 2, you can run 4. You might not be able to cut your 'best' time in half, but you can reduce it by a significant percentage. That has been my experience. While initially I never thought I would run the distances I have, or in the times in which I've done them, I haven't really put mental limitations on myself either. And truly, I've surprised myself. 

Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.

Anybody can train when he's psyched up, but it's the guy who can go out and force himself to run when he doesn't feel like it who is going to eventually succeed.

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.

Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive.

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.

When the body gets tired, when the winds pick up and hit you head on, when getting out the door for today's first mile seems harder than finishing yesterday's last mile, when the rain comes down in sheets, or sleet pelts you from the side and makes the skin of your legs sting, when you've given it everything you have and your body screams there's nothing left to give...you've got to ask yourself one question: How bad do you want it?

It takes faith and the courage to risk failure in order to realize one's destiny. Having had my share of failures throughout my career I know that it is well worth the risk.

To try is to live; not to try is to die. That is the real essence of life; the doing of something, irrespective of success or failure.

I think [my success] comes mainly from the passion I have for running. That's what keeps me coming back after all the hardships. I've had my injuries and my down years. People say I'm a big talent. But a lot of runners have good leg speed. The reason I keep coming back is because I have a fire in my belly.

Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win.

You woke up this morning with a plan of how your day would go, and that plan included running. But everything that has happened since has conspired to knock you out of your plan and stop you from running. Stick to the plan, and run. True, it may be a fight. True, you will have to hustle. But make no mistake: today you're making a stand; you're fighting like hell. You're not giving in; you're not caving. The plan includes running, and you're sticking with it.

The music of a marathon is a powerful strain, one of those tunes of glory. It asks us to forsake pleasures, to discipline the body, to find courage, to renew faith and to become one's own person, utterly and completely.

Indeed, in many ways, sweat is the stuff of life. Most people would agree that working up a sweat is the surest sign that you've given it your all, whatever your game.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second.

You can't flirt with the track. You must marry it.

Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.

Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all cost of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.

Your body will argue that there is no justifiable reason to continue. Your only recourse is to call on your spirit, which fortunately functions independently of logic.