running

When we run away from something. We're usually running away from ourselves.

When I go to the Boston Marathon now, I have wet shoulders__omen fall into my arms crying. They're weeping for joy because running has changed their lives. They feel they can do anything.

Running is about finding your inner peace, and so is a life well lived.

Then, I started running. And everything was as good as it could be.

I want to run. To do what I always do, have always done, for the last five years of my life. Escape, flee into the shadows. But this time, I stand my ground. I'm tired of running.

You get hit the hardest when trying to run or hide from a problem. Like the defense on a football field, putting all focus on evading only one defender is asking to be blindsided.

Running is still running. It doesn't matter if it's a physical move from one place to another or if it's to within yourself.

I learned to run toward the pain, not away from it. There is nothing like that feeling: pushing, your legs like two powerhouses, your cadence a seemingly effortless rhythm in sync with your mind, every emotional pain you ever experienced washed away by your power to endure. A personal thought I often have after a great run: The pain of running relieves the pain of living.

They continued to run together for the next thirty minutes. Not a word between them, only the unspoken pulse of the run. Jacob believed runners shared an implicit doctrine: push through the pain to hit a point where it doesn't hurt anymore.

Faster and faster they raced, but no one got hot or tired or out of breath.

Winning isn't about finishing in first place. It isn't about beating the others. It is about overcoming yourself. Overcoming your body, your limitations, and your fears. Winning means surpassing yourself and turning your dreams into reality.

Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don't have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up.

The runner is coming to know, or will know if he runs enough...that the universe is the smallest divisible unit.

As one would expect, the Pope__ schedule is quite disciplined__e wakes up at four o__lock each morning and runs on the treadmill for an hour. I__ totally kidding. Nobody__ knees have time for that.

A substantial daily intake of alcohol was the perfect way to stay in shape.

Running is perhaps the most fundamental of all sports, and it is economically the least costly to perform. As a consequence, it is the most democratic and most competitive of all sports because individual merit can prevail despite economic equality. It is a sport for everyone, the whole world over.

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

I have to race because racing is a part of me. But I had to learn to race from a place of joy. Not pain. Not sorrow. Not anger. Not to fix things I can__ control. But for a connection with other people. With the wilderness. With myself.