“Do you ever feel like running away?""Of course... Sometimes I feel like I want to run away from everything.""I remember having that feeling once when I was at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm... I climbed over the fence, but I was still in the world!”

“It's always the same when I feel the autumn coming. I want to be up and away somewhere, over the hills and far away.”

“I feel like run-over crap," I complained. "You look like run-over crap," Jenks said. "Drink your tea.”

“No matter how much long-distance running might suit me, of course there are days when I feel kind of lethargic and don’t want to run. Actually, it happens a lot. On days like that, I try to think of all kinds of plausible excuses to slough it off. Once, I interviewed the Olympic running Toshihiko Seko, just after he retired from running and became manager of the S&B company team. I asked him, “Does a runner at your level ever feel like you’d rather not run today, like you don’t want to run and would rather just sleep in?” He stared at me and then, in a voice that made it abundantly clear how stupid he thought the question was, replied, “Of course. All the time!”

“Is it that I want to run away from what I have or do I want to run to somewhere or something else?”

“I did nothing but run away from the time I was a puppy, and I kept on running and roving until one fine morning - a very fine morning, with the sun in my eyes - I fell over the world's edge chasing a butterfly.”