β
There is a way to be good again...
β
β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
People say that eyes are windows to the soul.
β
β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
Sad stories make good books
β
β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
Shouldn't someone give a pep talk or something?' Minho asked...
"Go ahead," Newt replied.
Minho nodded and faced the crowd. 'Be careful,' he said dryly. 'Don't die.'
Thomas would have laughed if he could, but he was too scared for it to come out.
'Great. We're all bloody inspired,' Newt answered.
β
β
James Dashner (The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1))
β
I run because if I didnβt, Iβd be sluggish and glum and spend too much time on the couch. I run to breathe the fresh air. I run to explore. I run to escape the ordinary. I runβ¦to savor the trip along the way. Life becomes a little more vibrant, a little more intense. I like that.
β
β
Dean Karnazes (Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner)
β
Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not demanding more from yourself - expanding and learning as you go - you're choosing a numb existence. You're denying yourself an extraordinary trip.
β
β
Dean Karnazes (Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner)
β
Great. We're all bloody inspired,β Newt answered, then pointed over his shoulder, towards the Maze.
β
β
James Dashner (The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1))
β
Great. We're all bloody inspired.
β
β
Newt The Maze Runner by James Dashner
β
I run because long after my footprints fade away, maybe I will have inspired a few to reject the easy path, hit the trails, put one foot in front of the other, and come to the same conclusion I did: I run because it always takes me where I want to go.
β
β
Dean Karnazes (Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner)
β
It was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could run. The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in the destination. We have a better chance of seeing where we are when we stop trying to get somewhere else. We can enjoy every moment of movement, as long as where we are is as good as where we'd like to be. That's not to say that you need to be satisfied forever with where you are today. But you need to honor what you've accomplished, rather than thinking of what's left to be done (p. 159).
β
β
John Bingham (No Need for Speed: A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Running)
β
There will be haters, there will be doubters, there will be non-believers, and then there will be you proving them wrong.
β
β
Jennifer Van Allen (Runner's World Big Book of Running for Beginners: Lose Weight, Get Fit, and Have Fun)
β
Disciplined runners consistently clear their heads and focus fully on the journey ahead.. .because their passion and zeal for the goal supersedes the strain. The goal beckons them onward. Passion doesn't negate weariness; it just resolves to press beyond it.
β
β
Priscilla Shirer (Gideon - DVD Leader Kit: Your Weakness. God's Strength.)
β
That's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does.
β
β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
I testify that no one of us is less treasured or cherished of God than another. I testify that He loves each of usβinsecurities, anxieties, self-image, and all. He doesnβt measure our talents or our looks; He doesnβt measure our professions or our possessions. He cheers on every runner, calling out that the race is against sin, not against each other.
β
β
Jeffrey R. Holland
β
Donβt be afraid of being alone; remember, when the sun rises, it rises with nobody at its side.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Wherever you are, be all there." I have lived the runner, panting ahead in worry, pounding back in regrets, terrified to live in the present, because here-time asks me to do the hardest of all: just open wide and receive.
β
β
Ann Voskamp (One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are)
β
As long as my heart's still in it, I'll keep going. If the passion's there, why stop?...
There'll likely be a point of diminishing returns, a point where my strength will begin to wane. Until then, I'll just keep plodding onward, putting one foot in front of the other to the best of my ability. Smiling the entire time.
β
β
Dean Karnazes (Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner)
β
I laughed. Partly at the joke, partly at how Afghan humor never changed. Wars were waged, the Internet was invented, and a robot had rolled on the surface of Mars, and in Afghanistan we were still telling Mullah Nasruddin jokes.
β
β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
Every day is a fresh start; don't measure yourself by yesterday's troubles.
β
β
Dagny Scott Barrios (Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running: The Best Advice to Get Started, Stay Motivated, Lose Weight, Run Injury-Free, Be Safe, and Train for Any Distance)
β
WINNER:is A Runner who βWins Inspite Of Ninety Nine Excellent
Runners!
β
β
Sujit Lalwani (Life Simplified!)
β
Shouldn't someone give a pep talk," Minho asked, pulling Thomas's attention away from Alby.
"Go ahead," Newt replied.
Minho nodded and faced the crowd. "Be careful," he said dryly, "Don't die."
Thomas would have laughed if he could, but he was too scared for it to come out.
"Great. We're all bloody inspired," Newt answered then pointed over his shoulder toward the Maze, "You all know the plan. After two years of being treated like mice, tonight we're making a stand. Tonight we're taking the fight back to the Creators, no matter what we have to go through to get there. Tonight the Grievers better be scared.
β
β
James Dashner (The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1))
β
Stars do not hide from darkness. Roses do not hide from thorns. Diamonds do not hide from pressure.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
If you tend to a flower, it will bloom, no matter how many weeds surround it.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
For a long while I have believed β this is perhaps my version of Sir Darius Xerxes Camaβs belief in a fourth function of outsideness β that in every generation there are a few souls, call them lucky or cursed, who are simply born not belonging, who come into the world semi-detached, if you like, without strong affiliation to family or location or nation or race; that there may even be millions, billions of such souls, as many non-belongers as belongers, perhaps; that, in sum, the phenomenon may be as βnaturalβ a manifestation of human nature as its opposite, but one that has been mostly frustrated, throughout human history, by lack of opportunity.
And not only by that: for those who value stability, who fear transience, uncertainly, change, have erected a powerful system of stigmas and taboos against rootlessness, that disruptive, anti-social force, so that we mostly conform, we pretend to be motivated by loyalties and solidarities we do not really feel, we hide our secret identities beneath the false skins of those identities which bear the belongersβ seal of approval.
But the truth leaks out in our dreams; alone in our beds (because we are all alone at night, even if we do not sleep by ourselves), we soar, we fly, we flee. And in the waking dreams our societies permit, in our myths, our arts, our songs, we celebrate the non-belongers, the different ones, the outlaws, the freaks.
What we forbid ourselves we pay good money to watch, in a playhouse or a movie theater, or to read about between the secret covers of a book. Our libraries, our palaces of entertainment tell the truth. The tramp, the assassin, the rebel, the thief, the mutant, the outcast, the delinquent, the devil, the sinner, the traveler, the gangster, the runner, the mask: if we did not recognize in them our least-fulfilled needs, we would not invent them over and over again, in every place, in every language, in every time.
β
β
Salman Rushdie (The Ground Beneath Her Feet)
β
If you listen to critics for too long, you will become deaf to success.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Every run is a work of art, a drawing on each day's canvas. Some runs are shouts and some runs are whispers. Some runs are eulogies and others celebrations. When you're angry, a run can be a sharp slap in the face. When happy, a run is your song. And when your running progresses enough to become the chrysalis through which your life is viewed, motivation is almost beside the point. Rather, it's running that motivates you for everything else the day holds.
β
β
Dagny Scott Barrios (Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running: The Best Advice to Get Started, Stay Motivated, Lose Weight, Run Injury-Free, Be Safe, and Train for Any Distance)
β
You are strong because of what you overcame, brave because of what you defeated, fierce because of what you mastered, and powerful because of what you conquered.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
To be a runner is to learn continual life lessons.
β
β
Martin Dugard (To Be a Runner: How Racing Up Mountains, Running with the Bulls, or Just Taking on a 5-K Makes You a Better Person and the World a Better Place)
β
Critics are loud, but success is louder.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
We're all Bloody inspired
β
β
James Dashner (The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1))
β
I did not become a runner to lose weight, I did it to escape my computer
β
β
Matthew Inman (The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances (Volume 5) (The Oatmeal))
β
Turn your failures into lessons, your obstacles into opportunities, your tragedies into triumphs, and in no time you will turn your dreams into reality.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
A dove struggling in a storm grows stronger than an eagle soaring in sunshine.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Learn from the ocean; not fearing turbulence, it uses the wind against it to rise instead.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
They hugged, tight and warm and full of the promise heβd made upon waking up.
β
β
James Dashner (The Kill Order (The Maze Runner, #4))
β
No one escapes this life without scars . . . not even God.
β
β
Michelle Griep (Brentwood's Ward (The Bow Street Runners, #1))
β
He's right it does not matter anymore because the people we were before the maze they don't even exist anymore what does matter is who we are now and what we do right now
β
β
James Dashner (The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1))
β
Excellence in obscurity is better than mediocrity in the spotlight.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
I saw many people who begun their marathon races lately, but they eventually came up as top winners. I believe that your "lateness" does not account for your "lastness". It's not too late for you to make a start... Begin it now! No further delays!
β
β
Israelmore Ayivor (The Great Hand Book of Quotes)
β
Picking up the pieces of a shattered dream is better than having no pieces to pick up at all.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Do what no one else can do and you will become what no one else can become.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
If the light within you is greater than the darkness around you, you are a star.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Patience and kindness donβt show up on demand; theyβre disciplines that require constant practice, and there is no better boot camp for learning those skills than hitching your survival to your ability to discernβand respectβthe needs of another creature
β
β
Christopher McDougall (Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America)
β
Thresholds donβt exist in terms of our bodies. Our speed and strength depend on our body, but the real thresholds, those that make us give up or continue the struggle, those that enable us to fulfill our dreams, depend not on our bodies but on our minds and the hunger we feel to turn dreams into reality.
β
β
Kilian Jornet (Run or Die: The Inspirational Memoir of the World's Greatest Ultra-Runner)
β
Learn like an amateur. Train like a champion. Fight like a warrior. Triumph like a conqueror.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Losing teaches you how to win; winning teaches you how not to lose.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
It is easier to move mountains using God's hands.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Stars are born out of dark moments.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
A bird in a nest is secure, but that is not why God gave it wings.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Shine your light so bright, and no one will need a telescope to see you.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Great, we're all bloody inspired.
β
β
Newt The Maze Runner by James Dashner
β
Pain teaches you more than pleasure. Failure teaches you more than success. Poverty teaches you more than prosperity. Adversity teaches you more than comfort.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Is it not true that the clever rogue is like the runner who runs well for the first half of the course, but flags before reaching the goal: he is quick off the mark, but ends in disgrace and slinks away crestfallen and uncrowned. The crown is the prize of the really good runner who perseveres to the end.
β
β
Plato
β
The runner knows something the rest of us are busy forgetting: to get stronger, you have to go on until you are uncomfortable, and then go on a while longer. It is in that place where discomfort happens but activity is still possible that growth and development happen.
β
β
Jason Dias (Values of Pain: How a culture of convenience shapes our spirituality)
β
For you, a thousand times over." Then I turned and ran. It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything alright. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting.
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β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
You donβt start with today and aim toward your goal. You start with the goal, and aim back toward today. Do it like that, and youβll always find a way.
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β
Christopher McDougall (Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America)
β
Yeah, we're all bloody inspired.
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β
James Dashner (The Death Cure (The Maze Runner, #3))
β
Stay together. Don't die."
"Well, we're all bloody inspired.
β
β
James Dashner (The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1))
β
Water your dreams with fear, and they will wilt; with doubt, and they will wither; with hope, and they will grow; with faith, and they will flourish.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
If records refuse to be broken, shatter them.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
For you, a thousand times over
(Bareh tu hazar dafa)
β
β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
Battling wolves today strengthens you for battling lions tomorrow.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
On the path to greatness, life teaches you to walk with stones in your shoes.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
But most of all I was inspired by the stirring examples of all the other runners. In some pictures they would seem like tiny dots in a mosaic, but each had a separate narrative starting a few months or a lifetime earlier and finishing that day in the New York City Marathon, the race with 37,000 stories.
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β
Mark Sutcliffe
β
If you can stay positive in bad situations, you are strong; if you can stay optimistic in hopeless situations, you are mighty; if you can stay hopeful in impossible situations, you are great.
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β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
At age 43, when I decided to run again, I realized that the images used to describe runners didn't fit me. I wasn't a rabbit. I wasn't a gazelle or a cheetah or any of the other animals that run fast and free. But I wasn't a turtle or a snail either. I wasn't content anymore to move slowly through my life and hide in my shell when I was scared.
I was a round little man with a heavy heart but a hopeful spirit. I didn't really run, or even jog. I waddled. I was a Penguin. This was the image that fit. Emperor-proud, I stand tallto face the elements of my life. Yes, I am round. Yes, I am slow. Yes, I run as thought my legs are tied together at the knees. But I am running. And that is all that matters.
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β
John Bingham (The Courage To Start: A Guide To Running for Your Life)
β
My runs always remind me of what life is: always putting one foot in front of the other, even when Iβm exhausted. Itβs about running up the hill, however daunting, and congratulating myself for not stopping. Life, like running, is about getting up and pushing on ahead, even if Iβve tripped on a pothole. Itβs about keeping the rhythm and setting a pace. Itβs about minding my injuries and allowing myself time to heal, but not letting injuries get the best of me. Running is like life; it is a glorious, albeit sometimes painful, act of always moving forward.
β
β
Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul: Runners: 101 Inspirational Stories of Energy, Endurance, and Endorphins)
β
To be a runner is to learn continual life lessons. To be a coach is not just to teach these lessons but also to feel them in the core of your marrow. The very act of surpassing personal limits in training and racing will bend the mind and body toward a higher purpose for the rest of my runners' lives. Settling for mediocrity-settling instead of pushing-those who learn to be the best version of themselves know the secret to a full life.
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β
Martin Dugard
β
Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy need only one hour of animal-assisted therapy a week to see their depression and anxiety reduced by half.
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β
Christopher McDougall (Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America)
β
You can't always go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.
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β
James Dashner (The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1))
β
Yesterday says, βForget me, but learn from me.β Today says, βEmbrace me, yet utilize me.β
Tomorrow says, βAnticipate me, then prepare for me.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
You are better than your past, greater than your present, and brighter than your future.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
If you live in the desert, view the sun not as your enemy, but as your friend. If you live in the wilderness, view nature not as your adversary, but as your companion.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
The garden of your dreams is watered by the sweat of excellence.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
If the sky never grew dark, we would not be able to clearly see the stars.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
In order for a seed to rise, it must be buried in dirt; likewise, in order for the great to rise they must be buried in adversity.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Your mind is a reservoir of potential; your heart an ocean of strength; your soul a well of talents; and your body a vessel of power.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
The rules were simple: No rules.
Fly your kite. Cut the opponent's. Good luck.
β
β
Khalid Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
Exercise your genius so often that you live in a perpetual state of runners high.
β
β
Curtis Tyrone Jones (Sleeping With Enormity: The Art Of Seducing Your Dreams & Living With Passion)
β
A bird that sings too much will only lose its voice, but a bird that does not sing at all will lose its symphonies.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
The weak dread the storm, the foolish invite the storm, the wise avoid the storm,
the strong battle the storm, and the great overcome the storm.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
A star earns the right to shine the day it is born.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
The high cost of greatness is better than the low cost of mediocrity.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Breaking through the glass ceiling is only possible if you are stronger than glass.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
A bird that fears falling off of a tree branch is ignorant of its gifts.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
A muddied diamond is better than an unsullied pebble.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
You are a seed; that is why God plants you in adversity when He wants you to grow.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
A bird does not give up flying today because it couldn't find any worms yesterday.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Truth is a gem to be admired.
β
β
Michelle Griep (Brentwood's Ward (The Bow Street Runners, #1))
β
There must be some place along the route, a halfway house in time, where the runners may pause and ask themselves why they run, what is the prize and is it the prize they really want?
β
β
Whitney Otto (A Collection of Beauties at the Height of Their Popularity)
β
If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you. βGnostic Gospel of St. Thomas
β
β
Christopher McDougall (Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America)
β
If birds sing without worrying about who is listening to them, and monkeys dance without worrying about who is watching them, and hyenas laugh without worrying about who is mocking them, then you too must do what you do best without worrying about who is ridiculing you.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Movement is big medicine; itβs the signal to every cell in our bodies that no matter what kind of damage weβve suffered, weβre ready to rebuild and move away from death and back toward life. Rest too long after an injury and your system powers down, preparing you for a peaceful exit. Fight your way back to your feet, however, and you trigger that magical ON switch that speeds healing hormones to everything you need to get stronger: your bones, brain, organs, ligaments, immune system, even the digestive bacteria in your belly, all get a molecular upgrade from exercise. For
β
β
Christopher McDougall (Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America)
β
Making these choices [to attend school instead of skipping], as it turned out, wasn't about willpower. I always admired people who βwilledβ themselves to do something, because I have never felt I was one of them. If sheer will were enough by itself, it would have been enough a long time ago, back on University Avenue, I figured. It wasn't, not for me anyway. Instead, I needed something to motivate me. I needed a few things that I could think about in my moments of weakness that would cause me to throw off the blanket and walk through the front door. More than will, I needed something to inspire me.
One thing that helped was a picture I kept in mind, this image that I used over and over whenever I was faced with these daily choices. I pictured a runner running on a racetrack. The image was set in the summertime and the racetrack was a reddish orange, divided in white racing stripes to flag the runnersβ columns. Only, the runner in my mental image did not run alongside others; she ran solo, with no one watching her. And she did not run a free and clear track, she ran one that required her to jump numerous hurdles, which made her break into a heavy sweat under the sun. I used this image every time I thought of things that frustrated me: the heavy books, my crazy sleep schedule, the question of where I would sleep and what I would eat. To overcome these issues I pictured my runner bolting down the track, jumping hurdles toward the finish line.
Hunger, hurdle. Finding sleep, hurdle, schoolwork, hurdle. If I closed my eyes I could see the runnerβs back, the movement of her sinewy muscles, glistening with sweat, bounding over the hurdles, one by one. On mornings when I did not want to get out of bed, I saw another hurdle to leap over. This way, obstacles became a natural part of the course, an indication that I was right where I needed to be, running the track, which was entirely different from letting obstacles make me believe I was off it. On a racing track, why wouldn't there be hurdles? With this picture in mindβusing the hurdles to leap forward toward my diplomaβI shrugged the blanket off, went through the door, and got myself to school.
β
β
Liz Murray (Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard)
β
What's important to recognize is that in the U.S. today, tens of millions of kids start life on a uneven playing field. Imagine having to try to run a race if you started ten yards behind everyone else, hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, or maybe even dinner the night before, had slept in your third homeless shelter that month and didn't have shoes that fit right. Catching up would be really, really hard. With almost 32 million American kids living in low-income families, that means four out of ten runners are starting far back.
β
β
Chelsea Clinton (It's Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going!)
β
knew that happiness, health, and security come from devoting yourself to two thingsβyour family and your friendsβand anything that doesnβt bring you closer to both is pulling you in the wrong direction.
β
β
Christopher McDougall (Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America)
β
Nessa had never really felt truly beautiful before, but tonight she not only understood that she was beautiful, she understood that everyone was. That for all the competition and fear and knowing that the next runner was coming up behind you, she had been missing out on how beautiful life could be. She should have been watching and appreciating others instead of waiting inside herself for the right time to shine. The time was now.
β
β
C.D. Bell (Weregirl (Weregirl Trilogy))
β
Movement is big medicine; itβs the signal to every cell in our bodies that no matter what kind of damage weβve suffered, weβre ready to rebuild and move away from death and back toward life. Rest too long after an injury and your system powers down, preparing you for a peaceful exit. Fight your way back to your feet, however, and you trigger that magical ON switch that speeds healing hormones to everything you need to get stronger: your bones, brain, organs, ligaments, immune system, even the digestive bacteria in your belly, all get a molecular upgrade from exercise.
β
β
Christopher McDougall (Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America)
β
The Existentially Preoccupied Long Distance Runner
Sometimes I like to run so hard and for so long
with each mile I can feel the pain of my own awareness,
my own heightened consciousness of what ails me,
the ills of the world,
the limitations of our existence,
the losses we must endure,
the superficial interactions.
Sometimes I like to run so hard and for so long
that I can feel all of these feelings seep out of the pours of my own skin,
the sweat cleansing my very being,
my awareness of beauty heightened,
the experience of joy possible,
each mile, each minute, ridding me of these feelings,
washing away the illusions,
showing me the truth.
Sometimes I like to run so hard and for so longβ¦
until finally I feel freeβ¦
until finally I AM freeβ¦
β
β
Jacqueline Simon Gunn
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Marathon In 490 B.C., a Greek messenger named Pheidippides ran twenty-six miles, from Marathon to Athens, to bring the senate news of a battle. He died from exhaustion, but his memory lives on thanks to the βmarathon,β a twenty-six-mile footrace named in his honor. I thought it would be neat to bring Pheidippides to a modern-day marathon and talk to him about his awesome legacy. Β ME: So, Pheidippides: What was it like to run the first βmarathonβ? PHEIDIPPIDES: It was the worst experience of my life. ME: How did it come about? PHEIDIPPIDES: My general gave the order. I begged him, βPlease, donβt make me do this.β But he hardened his heart and told me, βYou must.β And so I ran the distance, and it caused my death. ME: How did you feel when you finally reached your destination? PHEIDIPPIDES: I was already on the brink of death when I entered the senate hall. I could actually feel my life slipping away. So I recited my simple message, and then, with my final breath, I prayed to the gods that no human being, be he Greek or Persian, would ever again have to experience so horrible an ordeal. ME: Hey, here come the runners! Wooooh! PHEIDIPPIDES: Who are these people? Where are they going? ME: From one end of New York to the other. Itβs a twenty-six-mile distance. Sound familiar? PHEIDIPPIDES: What message do they carryβ¦and to whom? ME: Oh, theyβre not messengers. PHEIDIPPIDES: But thenβ¦who has forced them to do this? ME: No one. Itβs like, you know, a way of testing yourself. PHEIDIPPIDES: But surely, a general or king has said to them, βYou must do this. Do this or you will be killed.β ME: No, they just signed up. Hey, look at that old guy with the beard! Pretty inspiring, huh? Still shuffling around after all these years. PHEIDIPPIDES: We must rescue that man. We must save his life. ME: Oh, he knows what heβs doing. He probably runs this thing every year. PHEIDIPPIDES: Is heβ¦under a curse? ME: No.
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Simon Rich (Free-Range Chickens)