This time last year, we were hanging out on the Common in the sunshine, encouraging each other and slowly and calmly building up to the start of a fantastic day. The fundraising was done, almost 4,000 collected for the hospital, all that remained was the 26.2 miles around London in glorious weather with fantastic crowds, wending our way closer and closer to the Mall and one of the greatest finish lines i nteh world. Good luck to all there today, I’m sure Bobby Hawkshaw has doen his usual exceptional organisational job in getting the runners to the start. I came across a list of motivational quotes, none are mine, but I hope you enjoy, and maybe it might stir you out of the couch to run and collect for a worthwhile cause?
A goal is a dream with a deadline, and a dream is a gift to yourself
The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. (Muhammad Ali)
“I always loved running…it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.” (-Jesse Owens)
“In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, ‘I have finished.’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that.” -Fred Lebow, New York City Marathon co-founder
“Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it’s all about.” -PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian
Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even. (Muhammad Ali)
Lowell Thomas:”Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.”
Dr. George Sheehan: “It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.”
Losers look what they are going through. Winners look where they are going to.
Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing.
Just because your muscles start to protest doesn’t mean you have to listen. Champions are made when no one is watching.
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must out run the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It does not matter whether you are a lion or gazelle. When the sun comes up you had better be running.
You can never run a hill too hard, you will collapse before hurting it.
Every man dies, but not every man really lives.
“It’s at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys. 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
You only ever grow as a human being if you’re outside your comfort zone. (Percy Cerutty)
If you are going through hell, keep going. (Winston Churchill)
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. (Winston Churchill)
But if you never try you’ll never know, The best way to predict the future is to create it. (Stephen Covey)
No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life’s most rewarding experiences. My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: each race a drama, each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another, and each race telling me more about myself. (Dr. George Sheehan)
Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running.
Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.
This is not about instant gratification. You have to work hard for it, sweat for it, give up sleeping in on Sunday mornings.
“Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer.”
“For me, as for so many runners, there really are no finish lines. Runs end; running doesn’t.”
“I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we’re all cowards.”
-Alberto Salazar, three-time winner of the NYC marathon
There will be days when I don’t know if I can run a marathon. There will be a lifetime knowing that I have.
Go Team Temple Street!
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