Ultra Marathon Quotes

I'm convinced that a lot of people run ultramarathons for the same reason they take mood-altering drugs. I don't mean to minimize the gifts of friendship, achievement, and closeness to nature that I've received in my running carer. But the longer and farther I ran, the more I realized that what I was often chasing was a state of mind - a place where worries that seemed monumental melted away, where the beauty and timelessness of the universe, of the present moment, came into sharp focus.

The question became less and less theoretical in Vermont, where I started to come up against my own limits. I've heard it said that ultra marathons are 90 percent mental. And the other 10 percent? That's mental too. I was in the thick of that other 10 percent.

That’s one of the many great pleasures of an ultra-marathon. You can hurt more than you ever thought possible, then continue until you discover that hurting isn’t that big a deal.

If it's a nod from society you're looking for, run a marathon. But if it's a life-changing experience of personal strength and perseverance that you want, finish an ultra.

[Bill] Gates said he connected with [Eddy] Izzard even though it would appear they have nothing in common — but that might be the point the author is trying to communicate. "I've recently discovered that I have a lot in common with a funny, dyslexic, transgender actor, comedian, escape artist, unicyclist, ultra-marathoner, and pilot from Great Britain. Except all of the above," Gates wrote. "We're all cut from the same cloth. In his words, 'We are all totally different, but we are all exactly the same

If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon. If you want to talk to God, run an ultra.

Everything that came before had to happen for us to be the person we are now. And the greatest moments of clarity come when we look back and we realise that it was all necessary and all beautiful.

I once lived a life almost ruled by anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and paralyzing fear. I spent years looking for the thing that would release me, and when I finally found it, it wasn't medication or therapy. It was running.

Albert Mummery, that eminent alpinist, described being in the mountains in this way: ‘Above, in the clear air and searching sunlight, we are afoot with the quiet gods, and men can know each other and themselves for what they are.

We either don’t run, or if we do then running has become an ‘exercise’, something that either we are told to do, or we tell ourselves to do. Something that is measured in terms of value and benefit, rather than being an expression of feeling.

Running has often been the tool that I use as a way to explore, to learn, to live. It takes me to a place of balance – physical, mental, emotional. Running or not is irrelevant. It is the finding something that lets us delve deeper into our own story that matters.

Hunter S. Thompson said: ‘Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow!” What a Ride!

The turmoil of emotion that permeates my every day – the doubts, the fears, the hopes, the apprehensions, the joy – is held in suspension. There is a quiet within my movement. I think. But my thoughts are not my master. For the moment I am simply running. Identity and purpose are irrelevant. To be running is enough. Because if I am running then I am alive. And to be alive is everything.

As Carl Sagan said: ‘We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.’2 Racing and the training it demands force me to ask myself questions. To find the time, the discipline and the motivation to train I have to decide what among the myriad of obligations of daily life is most important to me. It cultivates self-awareness, I start to become more mindful.

We all have one. It is that run. Its physical location may change as we move house, region, country, continent. But it is the run that is always with us. It is the run that we can trust ourselves to. It is the run that is waiting to enfold us back again after injury, absence or discouragement. It is where we go in the cool of the early morning, in the heat of the day, in the fading light of a setting sun. It is a place we go to in all seasons, observing and feeling the changes, until the rhythm of the earth becomes our own, a comforting reminder of the impermanence of all things. It is where we go to seek solace, to seek challenge. It is where we go when we need to push, to hold back. It is where we go when we need to find a fragile peace.

At this point in your Total Money Makeover, you are debt-free except for the house, and you have three to six months of expenses ($10,000+/–) saved for emergencies. At this point in your Total Money Makeover, you are putting 15 percent of your income into retirement savings and you are investing for your kid’s college education with firm goals in sight on both. You are now one of the top 5 to 10 percent of Americans because you have some wealth, have a plan, and are under control. At this point in your Total Money Makeover, you are in grave danger! You are in danger of settling for “Good Enough.” You are at the eighteen-mile mark of a marathon, and now that it is time to reach for the really big gold ring, the final two Baby Steps could seem out of your reach. Let me assure you that many have been at this point. Some have stopped and regretted it; others have stayed gazelle-intense long enough to finish the race. The latter have looked and seen just one major hurdle left, after which they can walk with pride among the ultra-fit who call themselves financial marathoners. They can count themselves among the elite who have finished The Total Money Makeover.

The 6 months leading to an ultra marathon are crucial in how you will do; Vision and mission planning are as important in whatever.

Life in its entirety is contained in this moment, now. But sometimes we need to go to extremes to recognise that here and now is always with us. The biggest obstacle, of course, is the striving. As long as we look for it we don’t see. To feel the flow of life we have to be totally present in the now – it can only happen to us, we cannot force it.

I start to turn inwards, withdrawing my senses, blocking out all the external stimuli, blind to everything but the narrow stretch of road immediately ahead within my gaze. I focus on moving forwards, riding on the rhythm of my breath. The world and all of time has been distilled down into this one moment. Now. Nothing else exists. Nothing else matters. All that there ever was, and all that there ever will be, is embraced by this one moment and my struggle to keep moving through it. The focus is absolute. It dissociates me from the rest of my journey. I am locked deep within my effort, right there in my moment of struggle.

The Buddhist doctrine of impermanence teaches that one of the truths about life is that nothing lasts. Everything will pass. Everything indeed has to. It is in the nature of things. We cannot fight against the tide of life. In running, and in life, we have to reach deep within ourselves to find an equanimity that allows us to flow through the good and the not so good.

body and its response to pain. For example, "The pain is the reality, but your mind can inspire you past it," and "when other people get tired, they stop. I don't. I take over my body with my mind, I tell it that it's not tired and it listens.

At that moment, I honestly didn’t believe that I was physically or mentally able to run a marathon. But the only way out was through.

ripping thru the atmosphere

I called a team meeting (of one) and we decided I would run with the head torch around my neck and have my drop bag (jacket and painkillers) taken to the foot of the mountain. I couldn’t help but thinking that I was steadily becoming a knowledgeable ultra-marathon runner…

Addicts know the voices in their heads can’t be trusted, and that is precisely why there are so many of us out there in the ultra marathon community, moving forward one step at a time. And that’s what Nico and I did—one step followed by another until we got to Hope Pass.

Trans America Footrace. Competitors race from Los Angeles to New York over 64 consecutive days, covering a phenomenal distance of 3,000 miles.

Ultra-marathon legend and vegan Scott Jurek claims that his body has become so adept at absorbing his nutrient-rich foods that he needs to eat less and operates at a higher efficiency. I can honestly say that I know what he’s talking about.

Racing can give me a focus. It can give a direction to and motivation for my daily run. There is, of course, a time for everything. And racing will only ever be a part of my running. But sometimes I need what it is a race can give me – something to absorb my effort, my attention – moments where I am forced to step outside what is comfortable, time after time after time. I’m forced to focus on what I am feeling, on what I am enduring in the here and now, whether that is keeping warm in the cold, keeping cool in the heat, eating, drinking and looking after myself. Despite my physical effort, sometimes during a race I experience the moment where I am resting in stillness; I’ve stopped doing and I’m focused instead on being. And that is when I feel free. But of course the race itself is the smallest part of the story. It is the journey that is important; the everyday, the day in, day out. Start and finish lines are just steps on that journey. The prize is not a position, or a time; instead the getting to know myself, the work and the training must be its own reward.

If I can harness my concentration and focus when I run then my challenge is to learn how to direct it to good effect in my daily life. Therein being the value in my daily run – apart from bringing me to physical health and a point of balance – it presents me with an opportunity to learn, to grow, to change in my every day.

You do not need to seek freedom in a different land, for it exists with your own body, heart, mind and soul. B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life

Have you ever been curious to know how someone can run such a long way? Have you ever wondered what must go through their mind and emotions, what they must think about and feel for all those hours? Whether you race or not, whether you run or not, you are

I cannot worry about what I don’t know. It seems a pointless waste of energy,

Stillness is what creates love. Movement is what creates life. To be still and still moving – this is everything. Do Hyun Choe

In a world where one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, I’d argue that the first man wasn’t thinking creatively enough about his trash.

But I never did much running again until I signed up to do an ultra-marathon when I was on Blue Peter in 2008. 78 miles in 24 hours. At the time I wasn’t really running at all. I had never done a marathon, but I think that was good, because I didn’t realise how hard it would be to do three.

In an ultra marathon, at some point along the way you cross a line where pain becomes your companion. Suffering becomes part of the journey. Sometimes the suffering is minor, and other times it is nearly unbearable...but it always comes.