Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running.

Run as if you are racing you ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend.

To me, the real test of one's character isn't defined by completing the marathon on race day, but rather by having the self-discipline and dedication to commit, sacrifice, and endure the months of training required to complete such an event.

Enjoying your runs will be the make or break of whether you stick with it or not. Quite simply, if we don't enjoy something, we don't do it! If you have to force yourself to get out there and run, creating a regular running habit is unlikely to happen — you are running for the wrong reasons. There are many different reasons for exercising, which can be split into extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Tick off any of the examples below to help you decide whether your motivations for running are, or have been, intrinsic or extrinsic:

INTRINSIC (YOU GAIN SATISFACTION FROM RUNNING ITSELF) 
-I enjoy the way running makes me feel
-Regular running makes me feel healthier
-Running energizes me

EXTRINSIC (YOU ARE RUNNING FOR A BENEFIT OTHER THAN RUNNING ITSELF) 
-I need to run to lose weight
-I have to run to train for my event
-I must start running to get in better shape

The difference between our motivations for running (or any exercise) is that extrinsic factors are less likely to help us stick with it in the long run. If you run because you feel you have to, ought to or should do, these are shaky grounds for a long-term running habit. If, however, you find your reasons for running are that you enjoy it, or you enjoy the way regular running makes you feel, these intrinsic factors are linked with a healthy, long-term habit. Extrinsic factors may have motivated you to begin running in the first place, but if the end goal — for example, weight loss or improved body shape — is not forthcoming quickly enough, you will soon lose that motivation.

This is where I feel sports supersede all other ventures and why I feel sports are something special. You may spend thirty years trying to prove you're the best writer in the business and you may gain that recognition only after a long and unfair struggle, or you may never gain that recognition since you are quiet and do not publicize yourself. But in running no one can deny you; you train, you receive your opportunity, you achieve and you are immediately granted your reward.

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.

I've trained myself to 'just say yes' to co-workers who cajole me into ducking out for a lunchtime run. I know from experience that I almost never regret the runs that I do, but I almost always regret the ones that I skip. And when my co-workers are weak or overwhelmed, I do the same for them. Its an informal deal we've worked out. Sort of a get-off-your-butt support group. Go find enablers. It's harder to skip a run if you know others are heading out and expecting you to join them.

It takes patience to become the best runner you can be. Top athletes realize that running is a long-term sport. It is set up for people who value delayed gratification and who like hard-earned success.

When you are a trail runner, nowhere is your somewhere.

If there's one thing we runners do, it's endure. We endure through long runs and hard workouts, weeks of bad weather, and days of low energy. We do what it takes to see things through to the end. We can achieve amazing things in the rest of our lives by practicing that virtue in our non-running endeavors.

Almost every competitive runner I know goes through a period when he or she feels like quitting. What's ironic is that the tools that help make an elite athlete - focus, effort, attention to the latest technology - definitely do not provide the answer to getting out of a funk. I find the best way to get your running mojo back is to lose the technology, forget the results, and run free. And forget that running needs to be painful or that it's punishment. (Definitely get rid of those echoes of countless coaches ordering you to 'take a lap' because you dropped a pass or double-dribbled.) Run for the same reason you ran as a child - for enjoyment. Take your watch off. Run in your jeans. Run with a dog (does HE seem worried?) Run with someone older or younger, and you'll see running, and the world, differently. I know I have.

Run a trail you have never run before. Pick a new goal, race, or a large loop that keeps you motivated to get out on those bad-weather days. Do all and any of these thing often enough, and you'll remember why you started running in the first place - it's fun.

Don't limit yourself by what you think you can do. In long distance running the majority of the effort is mental, not physical. If I plan to run five miles and that is mentally what I am prepared for, that is pretty much as far as I can run. With the same conditioning, if I plan to run 26.2 miles, that is doable. I almost never run more than I am mentally prepared to run.

Run with your heart instead of your mind. When you run with your mind, you think of the things you can and can't do. But when you run with your heart you forget about what you can't do, and you just go out and do it.

One of life's simplest pleasures is going for a run outside. The late Dr. George Sheehan summed it up best: 'Out on the roads there is fitness and self-discovery and the persons we were destined to be.' So once in a while let's forget about footwear, performance standards, and high-tech gadgetry -- and instead simply let your body and imagination take you to new and familiar places. Armed with a sense of play as you run, there is no purpose or outcome other than to escape and be in the moment.

Every long-time runner has experienced this phenomenon: week after week of great runs suddenly interrupted by one of the worst workouts in years, for no logical reason. I've found that the most successful athletes don't dwell on the bad days; instead, they're eager to move on to the next day's training or upcoming race.

Successful runners know that bad days don't last and aren't a true indication of their fitness. Bad days are just a freak occurrence that must be tolerated on the path to your goals. Running is hard but fun, and that short statement should tell us that there will be good days and there will be bad days. Live through both. Neither lasts forever.

It's crucial to record those moments of inspiration, like your first race, when you see a clear path between the runner you are today and the runner you know you can become - as fleeting as they may be. Hold onto them through your training log, and like the entries about your weak links, let these moments of clarity guide your long term goal-setting over the next 6 months to a year.

When I'm out on a long run, the only thing that matters is finishing the run. For once, my brain isn't going bleh-bleh-bleh all the time. Everything quiets down, and the only thing going on is pure flow. It's just me and the movement and the motion. That's what I love—just being a barbarian, running through woods.

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.

When we race, strange things happen to our minds. The stress of fatigue makes us forget why we wanted to race in the first place. In one of my early marathons I found myself unable to think of a single reason for continuing. Physically and mentally exhausted, I dropped out of the race. Now I won't enter a marathon unless I truly want to finish it. If during the race I can't remember why I wanted to run it, I tell myself, 'Maybe I can't remember now, but I know I had a good reason when I started.' I've finally learned how to fight back when my brain starts using tricky arguments.