True toughness comes from overcoming personal limits. It's fighting against the internal dialogue in your head that stems from your body wanting to slow you down. It's overcoming the feedback signals from your muscles that say they're flooding with acid, or that your fuel stores are running dangerously low. How each runner experiences these sensations of fatigue is completely individual. No one else knows exactly what you're feeling and at what point you might give in to the pain. Toughness is knowing when you've gone past previous barriers and tangled just an instant longer with your brain as it tries to shut you down.

Running has taught me that adversity is better faced head-on than avoided. The hill in front of you won't go away, but it's easy enough to put it behind you if just press harder for a while. Call it discipline, or call it determination; without it you won't get very far. That lesson isn't taught enough, and too many people never realize that sacrifice is a requirement of life. You either sacrifice today to reach tomorrow's goals, or you give up your dreams in favor of the fleeting comfort that's distracting you.

Runners are like any other dream seekers. They have their sights set on a high and lofty goal, and they want to achieve it. Sometimes you get discouraged, though, because the dream seems so far away and so impossibly hard to achieve... But if you're discouraged, it may be because you're looking too far ahead. You need to quit judging yourself by where you're going and the fact that you haven't yet achieved it. Instead, look at how far you've come and appreciate what it's taken to get there. Progress is being made. It may seem slow and incremental at times, but you are gaining ground. Refuse to be discouraged by your seeming lack of progress. That's only your perception in the moment; that's not necessarily the reality. You can get better. You will get better. You are getting better. And you will get to the top of that mountain.

Set your bar as a hurdle not a ceiling.

If you're having trouble staying motivated, seek an attitude adjustment. Stop thinking of exercise as more of that self-improvement stuff and start thinking of it as rescue: private time, a tranquilizer (and energizer), an antidote for the poisons of modern life. Use exercise that way and you don't have to make yourself do it, you have to ration the dosage.

I just wanted to work hard and make them tired until they didn't have anything for the last mile.

Your body is a bank. Every mile you put in now you get to cash out later.

Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?

Keep these concepts in mind: You've failed many times, although you don't remember. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim... Don't worry about failure. My suggestion to each of you: Worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try.

Defiant? Defeated? The choice is yours.

IF YOU RAN WITHOUT SACRIFICE, CONGRATULATIONS. YOU JUST JOGGED. Running hurts. It always has... It teaches us that good things do not come easy. It teaches us that hard work will be rewarded and laziness will be punished. Don't expect to learn those life lessons from running's shiftless stepchild; jogging. Next time you suffer on the roads or trails, suffer proudly. It means you run like an animal.

If you can't run then walk. And if you can't walk, then crawl. Do whatever you have to do. Just keep moving forward and never, ever give up.

Character. You know you have it when it is easier to get up than to stay down.

You may start the day feeling rotten. But that doesn't mean you have to end the day that way. You can put out the effort and feel better because of it. Forget inspiration. All you need is effort. Your effort will create good works. Your good works will make you feel better. Feeling better will help you create more good works, and so it goes.

Feelings change. Meanwhile, let your effort be constant and unflagging. It's impossible to summon up inspiration every day. But you can almost always summon up the effort, and the effort will in itself motivate you. Effort is a product of will. Some days you are just going to have to slog away. If you make the effort, inspiration will follow, and if it doesn't, well, at least you will have done the work, made the effort - and you can be proud of that.

Work breeds inspiration. The more you work, the more effort you put forth, the more inspired you will be.

One thing you'll learn after you cross the big finish line, and all the little finish lines in the middle, is that rarely will you find glory without struggle. The things that are easy? The things that make sense? Those aren't the things you talk about for years to come. They aren't the things you hang on your wall with pride.

There are those of us who are always about to live. We are waiting until things change, until there is more time, until we are less tired, until we get a promotion, until we settle down –until, until, until. It always seems as if there is some major event that must occur in our lives before we begin living. Live Now!

Running may be solitary at times, but runners often use the inspiration of others to motivate them, both in training and racing. Heroes and heroines can inspire us. I have a photograph of Grete Waitz, nine-­time winner of the New York City Marathon, that I keep on my refrigerator door. It inspires me and reminds me that everyone - even Grete Waitz - lacks motivation at some point, and we all can get through those moments.

It will hurt. It will take time. It will require dedication. It will require willpower. You will need to make healthy decisions. It requires sacrifice. You will need to push your body to its max. There will be temptation. But, I promise you, when you reach your goal, it's worth it.

When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's besides the point. It's simply that I just have to.

Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you'll start believing in it. Life doesn't give you all the practice races you need. The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that's where it's at.