Running: Third Time's a Charm

I officially start training for the OBX Marathon tomorrow morning. While I've run a couple of half-marathons, and am fairly comfortable at 10 miles, I've not run a marathon before. This is the third time I've paid the entry fee, however. The first time I was injured during training, and the second time I fell off the training wagon and realized a month before the race that it was too late to hop back on.

I'm hoping that the third time will be a charm.

Here's a list of running quotes that I've pulled together. I imagine I'll be referring to these more than once over the next few months.

"Self-conquest is the greatest of victories."
~Unknown

"Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win."
~Tom Fleming

"(Scientific testing) can't determine how the mind will tolerate pain in a race. Sometimes, I say, 'Today I can die.'"
~Gelindo Bordin

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win."
~Sir Roger Bannister

"There will come a point in the race, when you alone will need to decide. You will need to make a choice. Do you really want it? You will need to decide."
~Rolf Arands

"Pain is weakness leaving the body."
~Unknown

"There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people."
~Bill Bowerman

"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

"Anyone can run 20 miles. It's the next six that count."
~Barry Magee

"Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts."
~Steve Prefontaine

"If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough."
~Steve Jones

"Few of us know what we are capable of doing... we have never pushed ourselves hard enough to find out."
~Alfred A. Montapert

"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."
~George Sheehan

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys."
~Emil Zatopek

"Men, today we die a little."
~Emil Zatopek, at the starting line

"My life is a gift to me from my Creator. What I do with my life is my gift back to the Creator."
~Billy Mills