People ask why I run. I say, "If you have to ask, you will never understand". It is something only those select few know. Those who put themselves through pain, but know, deep down, how good it really feels.
Erin Leonard

 

Fear

Any runner who denies having fears, nerves or some kind of disposition is a bad athlete, or a liar.
Gordon Pirie

I prefer to remain in blissful ignorance of the opposition. That way I'm not frightened by anyone's reputation
Ian Thompson, who ran a 2:09.12 marathon at the 1974 Commonwealth Games

Jogging through the forest is pleasant, as is relaxing by the fire with a glass of gentle Bordeaux and discussing one's travels. Racing is another matter. The frontrunner's mind is filled with an anguished fearfulness, a panic, which drives into pain.
Kenny Moore

I limbered up just a little before entering the stadium, and even so I felt a twinge in my thigh, no doubt the fruit of my imagination. And I went back to the massage room so that my faithful Morizot could take the trouble off my muscles. This soothed me considerably and I thought I was back to a normal state until somebody summoned me to the starting line. It was like feeling a blade go through my flesh.
Jules Ladoumegue

As I stepped onto the track I felt my legs go rubbery. I saw over a 100,000 people in the stands, and before I knew it, I had collapsed onto the infield grass. "Can it be," I remembered thinking, as I lay there gazing up at the sky, "that I'm so nervous I'm not going to be able to run?" Then I realized how ridiculous I'd look, flat on my back on the grass as they started the race. I guess the humor of that image made me lose my nervousness. I was able to recover, get up and jog to the starting line.
Tom Courtney, on the moments before he won the Olympic 800m gold in Melbourne

I have never been a killer. I'm not an aggressive personality and if I can remember any emotion I felt during a race it was fear. The greatest stimulator of my running was fear.
Herb Elliott

Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished.
Jack Lovelock

Fear is the strongest driving-force in competition. Not fear of one's opponent, but of the skill and high standard which he represents; fear, too, of not acquitting oneself well. In the achievement of greater performances, of beating formidable rivals, the athlete defeats fear and conquers himself.
Frank Stampfl

Marathon

You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming.
Frank Shorter

I'm never going to run this again.
Grete Waitz after winning her first of nine New York City marathons

A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you've done it you feel that you can do anything.
unknown

To describe the agony of a marathon to someone who's never run it is like trying to explain color to someone who was born blind.
Jerome Drayton

Marathon running is a terrible experience: monotonous, heavy, and exhausting.
Veikko Karvonen, 1954 European and Boston Marathon Champ

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 awareness comes, it is excruciating.
John Farrington, Australian marathoner

There is the truth about the marathon and very few of you have written the truth. Even if I explain to you, you'll never understand it, you're outside of it.
Douglas Wakiihuri speaking to journalists

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

I felt like I played in a very rough football game with no hitting above the waist.
Alan Page, former Nfl football star

You can actually suffer a little bit more going slowly than when you're going really fast. A faster marathon might even be easier than a slow one, in terms of what it takes out of you mentally.
Frank Shorter

The marathon can humble you.
Bill Rodgers

I am too tired, even to be happy.
Gelindo Bordin, Italy, immediately after winning the Olympic Marathon in Seoul

That was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done...Nothing was as hard as that, and nothing left me feeling the way that I feel now in terms of just sheer fatigue and soreness. - Lance Armstrong after completing his 1st marathon.

 The answer now is no, I'll never be back. But I reserve the right to change my mind...I don't know how these guys do it. - Lance Armstrong when asked if he would ever run another marathon.

I was unable to walk for a whole week after that, so much did the race take out of me. But it was the most pleasant exhaustion I have ever known.
Emil Zatopek's description of the Olympic Marathon win in Helsinki

The Boston Marathon has had more to do with liberating and promoting women's marathoning than any other race in the world.
Joe Henderson

Get going. Get up and walk if you have to, but finish the damned race.
Ron Hill to Jerome Drayton during the 1970 Boston Marathon

I just run as hard as I can for 20 miles, and then race.
Steve Jones (when asked about his race plan, after he had won the "Chicago Marathon" in the then world's best time)

Anyone can run 20 miles. It's the next six that count.
Barry Magee, marathon bronze in Rome, 1960

Pain

Pain is temporary, pride is forever!
Anonymous

Learn to run when feeling the pain: then push harder.
William Sigei

Ask yourself: "Can I give more?". The answer is usually: "Yes".
Paul Tergat

A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I loose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself.
Steve Prefontaine