Distance Running Quotes

Long distance running is meditation. When I finish a long run, it's like my brain has been washed. All the stress and negative thoughts are left somewhere on those long kilometers. At the end, the illusions of the past and future are removed from my mind, and it is set back to zero, so I feel I am totally in the present moment, reset, and ready to restart my life afresh. ~ Robert Black

There was something terribly sad, yet terribly uplifting, about watching this prophet of the ancient art of distance running turning his back on everything except his dream, and heading back down to "the best place in the world to run." Alone. ~ Christopher McDougall

I enjoyed the discipline and solitariness of long-distance running, which allowed me to escape from the hurly-burly of school life. ~ Nelson Mandela

In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be. ~ Haruki Murakami

I'm not totally uncompetitive. It's just that for some reason I never cared all that much whether I beat others or lost to them. This sentiment remained pretty much unchanged after I grew up. It doesn't matter what field you're talking about
beating somebody else just doesn't do it for me. I'm much more interested in whether I reach the goals that I set for myself, so in this sense long-distance running is the perfect fit for a mindset like mine. ~ Haruki Murakami

You shall become the person you are. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Distance running to a professional athlete in my day was five laps around the field. And you stopped each lap to take your pulse. ~ Lynn Swann

A career in showbiz is like a distance run. You have to have patience and pace yourself. ~ Tate Donovan

Look," he tried, "put two men in a rail car, one a soldier, the other a farmer. One talks war, the other wheat; and bore each other to sleep. But let one spell long-distance running, and if the other once ran the mile, why, those men will run all night like boys, sparking a friendship up from memory. So, all men have one business in common: women, and can talk that till sunrise and beyond. Hell. ~ Ray Bradbury

The mile has all the elements of a drama. ~ Roger Bannister

I found I could also be good in cross country. I don't think my running style has anything to do with it. If you have speed and your body feels good, you can do any distance. ~ Catherine Ndereba

Like a lot of gym teachers, Coach Babcock loved to torture his students. He felt he had failed as a teacher if his students didn't cry out for mercy. He often bragged that he held the school district's record for causing the most hysterical breakdowns in one afternoon. He used such classic forms of torture as weight training, wrestling, long-distance running, rope climing, wind spirits, chin-ups, and the occasional game of wet dodgeball (the wet ball was superloud when it hit a kid, and it left a huge red welt). But his favorite device of torment was so horrible, so truly evil, that it would drive most children to the brink of madness. It was the square dance.
For six weeks of the school year, his students suffered through the Star Promenade, the Slip the Clutch, and the Ferris Wheel. As Babcock saw it, square dancing was the most embarrassing and uncomfortable form of dancing ever created, and a perfect way to prepare his students for the crushing heartbreak of life. Square dancing was a metaphor for like- you got swung around and just when you thought you were free, you got dragged back into the dance. He really thought he was doing the kids a favor. ~ Michael Buckley

Ninety percent of hockey is mental and the other half is physical. ~ Wayne Gretzky

It is true that speed kills. In distance running, it kills anyone who does not have it. ~ Brooks Johnson

At least for soccer players, it comes down to a blend of two types of fitness - your base endurance, which comes from longer distance running, and your speed, which comes from sprint-based workouts. ~ Heather O'Reilly

The single biggest change in middle-distance running, from the 1500 metres to 10,000 metres, has been the track surface. ~ Herb Elliott

Racing a marathon is a true and simple way to test the human spirit. Whether it goes perfectly or poorly you will certainly learn something about yourself and be a better person for having tackled the distance. ~ Blake Russell

Some sessions are stars and some sessions are stones, but in the end they are all rocks and we build upon them. ~ Chrissie Wellington

The Existentially Preoccupied Long Distance Runner

Sometimes I like to run so hard and for so long
with each mile I can feel the pain of my own awareness,
my own heightened consciousness of what ails me,
the ills of the world,
the limitations of our existence,
the losses we must endure,
the superficial interactions.

Sometimes I like to run so hard and for so long
that I can feel all of these feelings seep out of the pours of my own skin,
the sweat cleansing my very being,
my awareness of beauty heightened,
the experience of joy possible,
each mile, each minute, ridding me of these feelings,
washing away the illusions,
showing me the truth.

Sometimes I like to run so hard and for so long…
until finally I feel free…
until finally I AM free… ~ Jacqueline Simon Gunn

When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time. ~ Haile Gebrselassie

Everyone is an athlete. The only difference is that some of us are in training, and some are not. ~ George A. Sheehan

And if any of you want some tips on running, don't be in a hurry, and never let any of the other runners know you are in a hurry even if you are. You can always overtake on long-distance running without letting others smell the hurry in you. ~ Colin S. Smith

One of the beautiful things about running is that it is direct and elegant. The formula is simple: put one foot in front of the other. It doesn't take much to figure out that if you want to improve sprint speed, you run faster. If you want to improve distance-running performance, you run farther. ~ Bernd Heinrich

Once I was running and there was someone on the treadmill next to me who stopped running to answer a question I asked and flew of the back of the treadmill. Being fully engaged has many benefits. ~ Sakyong Mipham

No one knows the fear in a front runner's mind more than me. When you set off at a cracking pace for four or five laps and find that your main rivals are still breathing down your neck, that's when you start to panic. ~ Ron Clarke

If you run out of ideas follow the road; you'll get there ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Death, of course, is a refuge. It's where you go when a new name, or a mask and cape, can no longer hide you from yourself. It's where you run to when none of the principalities of your conscience will grant you asylum. ~ Chris Cleave

Ain't that a sight? With all the things we know and learn, we still ain't touched the big mysteries
where we come from, where we go next, why we even her. And when something truly miraculous happens, we run and hide in our caves. We deny. ~ Libba Bray

A scary movie puts a lot of people, a mob, in one place. There are advantages to that because the panic runs through the audience. If it's a good movie, the fear jumps from one person to the next. You can find yourself screaming just because everybody around you is screaming. There's a real atmosphere of terror. It's also visual, which means that you can't look away from this thing - it's happening. You're in the dark. It's like a nightmare. It's like a dream. It's very, very visual. It works on all those levels. ~ Stephen King

How you refill. Lying there. Something like happiness, just like water, pure and clear pouring in. So good you don't even welcome it, it runs through you in a bright stream, as if it has been there all along. ~ Peter Heller

I touched Loki's chest, running my fingers over the bumps of his scar. I didn't know why exactly, but I felt compelled to, as if the scar connected us somehow.
"You just couldn't wait to get me naked, could you, Princess?" Loki asked tiredly. I started to pull my hand back, but he put his own hand over it, keeping it in pace.
"No,I-I was checking for wounds," I stumbled. I wouldn't meet his gaze.
"I'm sure." He moved his thumb, almost caressing my hand, until it hit my ring. "What's that?" He tried to sit up to see it, so I lifted my hand, showing him the emerald-encrusted oval on my finger. "Is that a wedding ring?"
"No, engagement." I lowered my hand, resting it on the bed next to him. "I'm not married yet."
"I'm not too late, then." He smiled and settled back in the bed.
"Too late for what?" I asked.
"To stop you, of course." Still smiling, he closed his eyes.
"Is that why you're here?" I asked, failing to point out how near we were to my nuptials.
"I told you why I'm here," Loki said.
"What happened to you, Loki?" I asked, my voice growing thick when I thought about what he had to have gone through to get all those marks and bruises.
"Are you crying?" Loki asked and opened his eyes.
"No, I'm not crying." I wasn't, but my eyes were moist.
"Don't cry." He tried to sit up, but he winced when he lifted his head, so I put my hand gently on his chest to keep him down.
"You need to rest," I said.
"I will ~ Amanda Hocking

You are weak, Savannah. I can feel it when our minds merge."
"Stay out of my mind. You certainly weren't invited." Her hands went to her hips. "And just for the record, your mind needs to be washed out with soap! Half the things you think we're going to do are never going to happen. I could never look at you again."
He laughed. Aloud.An actual, real laugh. It welled up unexpectedly and emerged low and husky, with genuine amusement. Gregori nearly leapt the distance between them and dragged her into his arms, grateful beyond imagining.
She flung a pillow at his head. "Go ahead and laugh, you arrogant jerk." She wished she had a two-by-four handy. ~ Christine Feehan

A child is nothing like a racing car ... Souping up babies doesn't work that way. The child is what she is. There is a certainirreducible if elusive core. Pushing, pulling, stretching, and shrinking will not really change it. There may be spectacular interim results. The baby may say the alphabet before she walks, master two-times or even ten-times table at three. In the long run, however, this forced precocity tends to be irrelevant ... Whatever gains there are become unimportant. The losses can be irrevocable. ~ Stella Chess

The voice was low and tinged with a hint of Scotland. It would have caused Alexia to shiver and think primal monkey thoughts about moons and running far and fast, if she'd had a soul. Instead it caused her to sigh in exasperation and sit up. ~ Gail Carriger

Though it is obligatory to hail our leaders for their sincere dedication to bringing democracy to a suffering world, perhaps in an excess of idealism, the more serious scholar/advocates of the mission of "democracy promotion" recognize that there is a "strong line of continuity" running through all administrations: the United States supports democracy if and only if it conforms to U.S. strategic and economic interests. ~ Noam Chomsky

Where I grew up, we had the three TV networks, maybe two radio stations, no cable TV. We still had a long-distance party line in our neighborhood, so you could listen to all your neighbors' phone calls. We had a very small public library, and the nearest bookstore was an hour away. ~ Marc Andreessen

I know this world is far from perfect. I am not the type to mistake a streetlight for the moon. I know our wounds are deep as the Atlantic. But every ocean has a shoreline and every shoreline has a tide that is constantly returning to wake the songbirds in our hands, to wake the music in our bones, to place one fearless kiss on the mouth of that new born river that has to run through the center of our hearts to find its way home. ~ Andrea Gibson

No Jewish blood runs among my blood,but I am as bitterly and hardly hatedby every anti-semiteas if I were a Jew. By thisI am a Russian. ~ Yevgeny Yevtushenko

She can't truly outrun her future, but you can't tell her body that. ~ Deb Caletti

All of the emotions that hit people at times like these, all of them, were coursing through us both like a secret we couldn't tell. Because if we said everything we were thinking and feeling right then ... if we laid it all out for one another ... we might not like the way the words strung together. Or the way fear and hope and bitterness and love mashed up into one big mess in the pits of our stomachs. ~ Laura Anderson Kurk

So to Hillary Clinton, Liz Cheney, Christine Quinn, Susana Martinez, Meg Whitman, Sheryl Sandberg, Carly Fiorina and every other woman out there who has ever felt more like a professional juggler than a politician, you are our best hope! Run sister, run. ~ Nicolle Wallace

Exercise, not philosophically and with religious gravity undertaken, but with the wild and romping activities of a spirited girl who runs up and down as if her veins were full of wine. ~ Lola Montez

The way my imagination was running I'd be thinking I was possessed by everyone in hell. ~ Karina Halle

I'll be there someday, I can go the distance.
I will find my way, if I can be strong.
I know every mile, will be worth my while,
When I go the distance, I'll be right where I belong. - Hercules ~ Walt Disney Company

I'm an action player. I like to be aggressive. I don't like to be on the run. I like to feel like I have the fates in my hands and that through my skill or lack thereof I control my fate. ~ Eugene Jarvis

We respect each other's need for distance, Georgie and I, and so I don't go after her--she always wants time after something like this, to scribble down new lines of her own verse. No one's ever allowed to read it--not me, not even Max. I suppose it's Georgie's way of wandering in the woods. ~ Laura E. Weymouth

I think from age 13, 14, 15, I thought, yes, this rich studio produced music is the future, but it can't be the future to go run away into the recording studio. How can we take that kind of complexity and richness and make it possible for people to touch it and play it live. That's what hyperinstruments are. ~ Tod Machover

Our modern industrial economy takes a mountain covered with trees, lakes, running streams and transforms it into a mountain of junk, garbage, slime pits, and debris. ~ Edward Abbey

We have to learn to be kind to ourselves. In the long run avoiding unpleasantness is a very unkind thing to do to yourself. ~ Henepola Gunaratana

Sports taught me how to compete on the court, and taught me how to compete in life. Sports and life run parallel with one another. ~ Ken Carter

Why they were loaded with bags of beans and peas and anything else they happened to pick up when they were still some distance away from the street where the first blind man and his wife lived, for that is where they are going, is a question that could only occur to someone who has never in his life suffered shortages. ~ Jose Saramago

Running around in circles on a sunny day, that was all they needed. He ~ Ken Altabef

The government doesn't run the economy. The economy is run by the private sector. The job of the president is to ensure we [the state] have policies that allow the private sector to grow and prosper. ~ Marco Rubio

Let not the spirit wander while the words of prayer run on out of our mouth. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Jax swung his leg over the seat and stood over her. Sarah looked at him now, really saw the whole man. Was it her imagination, or did he look even bigger in the moonlight? More muscled, more domineering? Stronger, sexier, hotter? She shivered.

"You cold?" he asked her.

"No."

"Come over here for a sec, doll."

She stood stock-still, suddenly afraid.

"It's OK." He gave her that grin that made her stomach flip. "Before we talk, there's one thing we need to get out of the way."

"What's that?"

"Come over here and I'll tell you."

Slowly, she covered the distance between them and stood in front of him. "Tell me what?"

"This." Jax gently took her face in both of his hands, avoiding her bruised cheek, and leaned down. She gasped, then his mouth was on hers, and all thought stopped.

The kiss was unlike anything Sarah had ever experienced in her life. His lips were surprisingly soft, and when she balanced herself on his chest, she felt his incredible muscle under her fingertips.

The contradiction of hard and soft, of pure animal strength tempered by a tender touch, shocked her, moved her. Sarah felt her legs weaken with lust, and she swayed forward. He moved his hands off her face then, and Jax wrapped his arms around her shaking body. He held her close, held her up. Jax cradled her, and Sarah felt protected and secure for the first time in a long time. Maybe the first ~ Marysol James

My impression is that most women public service workers have a long fuse. Precisely because they care so deeply about services, more than anyone, they still want to find a sensible and fair negotiated agreement. But their patience has run out. ~ Frances O'Grady

You see, insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops. ~ Joseph Kesselring

As a child, I had no idea that I would end up in the film industry. My ambitions changed from wanting to join the army like my grandfather to taking up merchant navy as a career to running for India, and finally, investment banking while I was a student of economics honour. But during my college days, I began to get offers for modelling. ~ Arjun Rampal