I don't think I would have been such a good runner if I hadn't enjoyed it.

To me, the runner's high is a sensational reaction to a great run! It's an exhilarating feeling of satisfaction and achievement. It's like being on top of the world, and truthfully, there's nothing quite like it.

I'll be happy if running and I can grow old together.

In training, you listen to your body. In competition, you tell your body to shut up.

My mama always said you got to put the past behind you before you can move on. And I think that's what my running was all about.

If one could run without getting tired, I don't think one would often want to do anything else.

I wish people could be like the relationship between the pavement and my feet - no games, just the truth.

If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass. No license to earn. No membership card to get. You just run.

For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to the rain, and look to the day when it is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight.

Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach.

For me, running is a lifestyle and an art. I'm far more interested in the magic of it than the mechanics.

You didn't beat me. You merely finished in front of me.

I always thought of running as just dancing forward.

Hills are speedwork in disguise.

I ran, I ran until my muscles burned and my veins pumped battery acid, then I ran some more.

Running is real and relatively simple but it ain't easy.

Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.

The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.

Running is kind of like coffee. The first time you drink it you might not like it. It's bitter and leaves a bad taste in your mouth but you kind of like the way it makes you feel. However, after a few times, it starts to taste better and then all of a sudden you're hooked and it's the new best part of waking up.

People can't understand why a man runs. They don't see any sport in it, argue that it lacks the sight-thrill of body contact, the color of rough conflict. Yet the conflict is there, more raw and challenging than any man versus man competition. In track it is man against himself, the cruelest of all opponents. The other runners are not the real enemies. His adversary lies deep within him, in his ability, with brain and heart, to control and master himself and his emotions.