Running was in my blood from the beginning. If God has given you a talent, you have to show it. People told me, 'You won't have children if you run long distances.' It was lies. I wanted to be like the men. If no one gives you encouragement, you have to encourage yourself.

The greatest battle is not physical but psychological. The demons telling us to give up when we push ourselves to the limit can never be silenced for good. They must always be answered by the quiet steady dignity that simply refuses to give in.

It can be hard to stay focused during a race. A big part of staying mentally strong includes achieving calm amid the mental 'storm' of pressure and expectation. The athletes who are successful at achieving goals and PRs perform well under pressure by staying in the moment. I find it helpful to focus on things like my running form, breathing, fueling and hydrating. These focus points can take the edge off the discomfort and fatigue that set in during the second half of a race. Setting a PR is never an easy task but it's often more in your head than in your legs.

I would tell anyone who is thinking about a marathon to go for it and not fall into the 'I can't' syndrome. For that matter, I would tell anyone to follow their dream. Life is too short. Every day we should reach out as far we can to bring that dream into focus and grab it for all it's worth. I am a true believer in carpe diem — seize the day, squeeze every ounce out of it.

The line that separates possible from impossible; that line is my benchmark.

The challenge in running is not to aim at doing the things no one else has done, but to keep doing things everyone could do - but most never will.

The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top.

Accomplishing an unconventional or seemingly unattainable goal is a challenge, one we can all meet if we choose. If you undertake a project, physical or otherwise, you must first make the decision to reach the goal, then put all your energy into it and not doubt yourself in the process.

There are no shortcuts. Be patient and look long-term. It's a foolish idea that if you do a little more, faster, then you'll get better than the rest. It ignores the fact that you must train at your optimal level, not your maximum level. Consistency is the secret to improvement and success. You have to keep training when others lose interest.

The most important aspect of race strategy is to have faith in yourself. That is, to trust in the work that you've done to build up for the big day, to stick to the pacing that you've ground into your legs over all those training miles, to believe that following your own beat will take you to your goal – whether it is to win, to set a personal best, or just to finish.

Why run? I run because I am an animal. I run because it is part of my genetic wiring. I run because millions of years of evolution have left me programmed to run. And finally, I run because there's no better way to see the sun rise and set... What the years have shown me is that running clarifies the thinking process as well as purifies the body. I think best – most broadly and most fully – when I am running.

At some point, the marathon will move beyond the physical capacity of your body or training. You will enter a really tough, hard-to-define area where your ability to continue moving is what separates you from the competition, what allows you to achieve the goals you set before you started.

While the miles pass incrementally, fatigue sets in exponentially. Mile 13.1 is not, I repeat not, the 'real' halfway point of the race. Almost everyone feels great at this point. Mile 18 is where things start to get serious, and every mile after that point is twice as hard as the one before: Mile 19 is twice as hard as Mile 18. Mile 20 is twice as hard as Mile 19, but also four times harder than Mile 18. You get the idea!

Since we don't enter this space in our training, it pays to have a clear 'One Thing' or reason to keep you moving when your body starts to push back. Maybe you want to finish before a certain time or pace group. Maybe you are planning on a great post race party. Maybe you are running in the memory of a loved one or to support a charitable organization. Whatever the reason is that you have, know that reason and have it ready to go at a moment's notice!

Runners get more birthday wishes on Facebook than anyone on the planet.

The best advice a coach can give is to choose your battles appropriately, focusing your hard efforts on the training days that are the most important. How many times, however, have your gotten carried away on an easy run? The run was supposed to be a recovery day from a previous hard workout and a prep for the next day's race-specific training. Instead, it became the fastest you've ever run for your loop. Congratulations! You probably just screwed up the next day's key workout and possibly set yourself up for injury later on. To avoid this error, know and adhere to the purpose of each workout. If the schedule calls for an easy day, then run easy. If it calls for a hard track workout, then ensure you are properly rested in the days before. Don't let easy days get out of hand and become hard days, because of others, your own need for your running fix or just spacing out and not noticing the increasing pace. Be disciplined.

The pain I experienced in the marathon wasn't the type where I felt a sense of helplessness, like being in a car accident. I had control over the pain, could have stopped it if I chose to.

For the millions of us out there who enjoy training and even racing with music, the quest for ideal running songs is an endlessly fascinating pursuit. Dr. Costas Karageorghis has spent two decades researching the correlation between music and athletic output. Not surprisingly, he discounts the impact music has on top-flight distance runners. 'The elite choose to focus on regulating their bodies and efficiency,' he says. 'They focus inwardly, not on music.' Yet for the rest of us, he sings a different tune. 'With non-elite athletes, I've found that listening to the right songs before and during exercise will not simply reduce feelings of tiredness, it will also increase performance levels by up to 20 percent,' he says.

'Training,' one American coach told me, 'is a 24-hour proposition.' Even if you struggle to live up to this standard, you can still heed the idea behind the words: if you want to get the most out of your running, you need to think about how your style of living fits around your running. Your whole approach to training has to become more than just an occasional hobby. It has to become part of your everyday routine, even if this pattern of living lasts only for a short while.

When it comes to running long distance races, one of the biggest rookie mistakes is going out too fast in the beginning of the race. The best way to avoid the temptation of going out too fast is deliberately run your first mile slower than you plan to run the final one. It's tough to do, since you'll most likely feel really strong in the beginning. But keep in mind that for every second you go out too fast in the first half of your race, you'll lose double that amount of time in the second half of your race.

Training is like wrestling a gorilla—you don't quit when you are tired; you quit when the gorilla is tired.

Bad workouts and races - we all have them and we always will. Accept that the body has an ebb and flow that we don't quite understand. Some days you just feel 'off.' As hard as it is to accept a bad workout or race when there are valid reasons, it's doubly challenging when there appears to be no reason at all. I used to worry about this, but now I just shrug it off as the quirkiness of the body and mind. Don't invest in it or overthink it. Move on.