London 1948 Marathon
February 23, 2010
Filed under Running Videos
Click here to like this post.Inspirational Running Quotes
August 7, 2009
Filed under Running
"I like running because it’s a challenge. If you run hard, there’s the pain – and you’ve got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is? Don’t overdo it’ and? Don’t push yourself.’ Well, I think that’s a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond."
-Bob Clarke
"Run hard, be strong, think big!"
-Percy Cerutty
"It is a paradox to say the human body has no ‘limit.’ There must be a limit to the speed at which men can run. I feel this may be around 3:30 for the mile. However, another paradox remains – if an athlete manages to run 3:30, another runner could be found to marginally improve on that time."
-Sir Roger Bannister
"A lot of people run a race to see who’s the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts."
-Steve Prefontaine
"We can’t all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."
-Will Rogers
"Once you’re beat mentally, you might was well not even go to the starting line."
-Todd Williams
"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired…You’ve always got to make the mind take over and keep going."
-George S. Patton
"The will to win means nothing if you haven’t the will to prepare."
-Juma Ikangaa
"When the meal was over we all had a quiet rest in our rooms and I meditated on the race. This is the time when an athlete feels all alone in the big world. Opponents assume tremendous stature. Any runner who denies having fears, nerves or some kind of disposition is a bad athlete, or a liar."
-Gordon Pirie
"That is the sort of race which one really enjoys – to feel at one’s peak on the day when it is necessary, and to be able to produce the pace at the very finish. It gives a thrill which compensates for months of training and toiling. But it is the sort of race that one wants only about once a season."
-Jack Lovelock
"We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves… The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, ‘You must not run faster than this, or hump higher than that.’ The human spirit is indomitable."
-Sir Roger Bannister
"We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."
-Emil Zatopek
"Marathoning is like cutting yourself unexpectedly. You dip into the pain so gradually that the damage is done before you are aware of it. Unfortunately, when the awareness comes, it is excruciating."
-John Farrington
"A lot of people don’t realize that about 98 percent of the running I put in is anything but glamorous: 2 percent joyful participation, 98 percent dedication! It’s a tough formula. Getting out in the forest in the biting cold and the flattening heat, and putting in kilometer after kilometer."
-Rob de Castella
"If someone says, ‘Hey, I ran 100 miles this week. How far did you run?’ ignore him! What the hell difference does it make?…. The magic is in the man, not the 100 miles."
-Bill Bowerman
"I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart."
-Mike Fanelli
"Those who say that I will lose and am finished will have to run over my body to beat me."
-Said Aouita
"I haven’t seen too many American distance men on the international scene willing to take risks. I saw some U.S. women in Barcelona willing to risk, more than men. The Kenyans risk. Steve Prefontaine risked. I risked – I went through the first half of the Tokyo race just a second off my best 5000 time."
-Billy Mills
"My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble."
-Bill Rodgers
"A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they’re capable of understanding."
-Steve Prefontaine
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Active Travel: Hit the Ground Running
August 2, 2009
Filed under Running
If you’re healthy and motivated enough, running is perhaps the best way to see a new city–or to see an old city in new ways. So pull those sneaks out of retirement and lace up. You’ll be surprised where they can take you. My first marathon training program took me across the mountainous coastline of the French Riviera, from Nice to Monaco, and finally to Barcelona for the race. While training for this year’s Marine Corps Marathon, which took place in October, I plodded my happy little feet through locations from Maine to Florida. In a single week, I ran through Boston, New York City, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. And of course, I got to know my home city of the District really, really well.
If you watch the ground while crossing Boston’s Harvard Bridge, you’ll notice it’s marked in smoots, a unit of measurement derived from Oliver Smoot, a former student at MIT who measured the bridge in 1958 for a fraternity pledge, using himself as a distance marker. And in D.C., there is no other reason I would ever have gotten up in time to watch the sunrise from the Jefferson Memorial, alone and free from the usual throng of tourists. (As an aside, I have learned that squirrels on the DC Mall are also up in the early mornings, and are prone to unprovoked attacks. Especially a half-albino one I named Fred. Don’t make any sudden moves near Fred. You’ll regret it.)
Marathon tourism is gaining momentum, but you don’t have to tackle extreme distances to be an on-foot explorer. A run of any length will do. It’s easy to get going: Several websites feature maps of running routes in cities across the U.S., contributed by local runners. The Route Finder on the Runner’s World magazine website is a particularly good one. Want to create your own? Try my favorite site: Gmaps Pedometer. Here you can map your own path, past landmarks that you want to see, and the pedometer will measure the distance for you. Check out this 6-mile run I created of the DC Mall and Tidal Basin. If you’re a real beginner, you’ll find some good tips on how to get started running here.
Worried about safety? Going somewhere a little more obscure than a large city? Contact a local running club (as I did when I ran in the Florida Keys). Communities of runners are tight-knit and excited to welcome visitors. They’ll eagerly give you the scoop on the prettiest and safest running routes. It’s likely you’ll even find a homegrown running buddy, who can act as a de facto tour guide as well as a jogging companion (we featured running tours on IT once before, but this approach is free and it’s more personal). Once you’re done, go ahead and grab that warm coffee – but maybe forgo the Starbucks for a local joint, because once those endorphins are gone, you’ll need a new buzz to give you an authentic sense of place.
Photos: Above, Running along the coast of the French Riviera affords striking views, like this one of Nice. By Kristen Gunderson. Below, ctankcycles via Flickr
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