Never sit back on your laurels. If you persist and keep plugging away, you're going to do all right in life. And that's a marathoner's message, too. There's no way to excel as a distance runner without putting in the nitty-gritty, day-in, day-out effort.

I used to always say, if the marathon is a part-time interest, you will only get part-time results. That's true of anything in life.