The answer to the big questions in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you've got.
George A. SheehanRead
The more I run, the more I want to run, and the more I live a life conditioned and influenced and fashioned by my running. And the more I run, the more certain I am that I am heading for my real goal: to become the person I am.
Interpretation
Running fuels a desire for growth and self-discovery.
In this quote, George A. Sheehan expresses how running is not just a physical activity but a transformative journey. The more he engages in running, the deeper his understanding of himself becomes, illustrating that the act of running is intertwined with his personal development and the pursuit of his true identity.
In practice
In a speech about perseverance, I would quote this to emphasize the importance of passion in pursuing one's goals.
The answer to the big questions in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you've got.
Running makes you an athlete in all areas of life...trained in the basics, prepared for whatever comes, ready to fill each hour and deal with the decisive moment.
The distance runner is mysteriously reconciling the separations of body and mind, of pain and pleasure, of the conscious and the unconscious. He is repairing the rent, and healing the wound in his divided self. He has found a way to make the ordinary extraordinary; the commonplace unique; the everyday eternal.
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 and others.
The key then is to find your own mountain, otherwise you will be competing with people who are not even in your event, and running up against the 'shoulds' and 'oughts' of that world, and the inevitable frustration and depression and feelings of failure. A person can be complete or incomplete, but one thing is sure, he cannot be someone else.
Never, however, do I take shortcuts. There is not path of least resistance in my training. What I do equates to hard manual labor, disciplined grunt work. Once you permit yourself to compromise, you fail yourself. You might be able to fool some people, but you can never fool yourself. Your toughest critic is the one you face every morning in the mirror.
Abilities wither under criticism; they blossom under encouragement.
If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I'd never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit.
You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling, so don't. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.
Your voice can change the world.
I can't never stop nobody, can't knock nobody hustle.
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