“Running is just such a monestary-- a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal.”

“And while these pounds were being shed, while the physiological miracles were occurring with the heart and muscle and metabolism, psychological marvels were taking place as well. Just so, the world over, bodies, minds, and souls are constantly being born again, during miles on the road.”

“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.”

“The true runner is a very fortunate person. He has found something in him that is just perfect.”

“It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is notto beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition isagainst the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.”

“Boredom, like beauty, is in the mind of the beholder. ’There is no such thing as an uninteresting subject,’ said Chesterton. ’The only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.”

“The distance runner is mysteriously reconciling the separations of body and mind, of pain and pleasure, of the conscious and the unconscious. He is repairing the rent, and healing the wound in his divided self. He has found a way to make the ordinary extraordinary; the commonplace unique; the everyday eternal.”