Occasionally I find something in an article or advertisement that really motivates me. When I’m training hard and question why I’m doing this, I look back at these words and remember why.
This first one I can think of was from a magazine ad for Adidas (I think). I hung it up on my refrigerator when I was training for my first marathon some 15 years ago. I wish I had kept the ad but it went something like this:
I used to think that guys who ran in the rain were nuts.
When I started doing that
I decided that guys who ran at dawn were nuts.
When I started doing that
I decided that guys who ran marathons were nuts.
So here I am getting up at 5am to train for a marathon and it’s snowing.
Another was from a Running Times article:
Boston Marathon qualifiers don’t sign sneaker deals. Coaches don’t push them through their workouts, and fans don’t line up for their autographs. They will never break a world record, or mug for the cameras, or take a victory lap.
Boston Marathon qualifiers aren’t great runners.
But they are very, very good.
The Olympic Trials and Boston are the only two races in the country that require a qualifying time. The top few runners aim for the Trials. Everyone else shoots for Boston. The runners who make it achieve a status somewhere between the Olympian and the weekend warrior. Somewhere between Superman and the everyman.
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Hi Mark, a few years ago, the design on the London marathon finishers T shirt said something like
"26.2 miles blood, sweat, tears, heartache,pain, suffering and you have to ask WHY?"
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