On making really special friends through running:
"Feel right here"
- Tom Cali describing his recent groin injury
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On interval training:
"Anyone can run the last one hard"
- Attributed to Scott Roycroft by Tony de Boef
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Another take on interval training:
"You think more clearly after running intervals. (16x400 today)."
- Ken Davis
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Or maybe the opposite is true:
"A coach from my high school days had the opinion, based on runner behavior at the finish of races,
that every mile of a race knocks 10 points off your IQ. Maybe it's only 5 for a quality workout."
- Bill Bahnfleth
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On deciding whether to move track workouts indoors for the winter:
"When you're in, you're in; when you're out, you're out"
- Greg Fredericks
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On race psychology:
"When you lead, you lead; when you follow, you follow."
- Greg Fredericks
[Editor's Note: The above two quotations led to discussion on the NVRC listserve of the "Fredericks Algorithm". After some
refinement by the listserve members, the algorithm can be stated:
Denote by ~X the set theoretic negation (complement) of a statement X, the Fredericks Algorithm is:
Input: X
Output: "When you X you X; when you ~X you ~X"
The algorithm is tautological from the logical standpoint, but from the rhetorical, or "coaching" standpoint, it is "reinforcing".]
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On post-race psychology:
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Never Again!"
- Marvin Hall, soon after crossing the finish line of his first Ironman
"I could knock a half hour off my next Ironman if I would ....."
- Marvin Hall, 12 hours after crossing the finish line of his first Ironman
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On where we run...
"Finally, a good use for golf courses."
"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."
(a little obscure but good...it is from one of the 'Back To The Future' movies)
- both contributed by Mike Dooris
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Some Cross-Country team slogans:
"If you can read this, then I'm not in last place"
- from Dave Eggler, who recommends this for the back of a team shirt.
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"Run Hard or Run Home"
- from Laura Snyder's high school team shirt
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"SC-XCountry: Track Runners Going to Hill"
- submitted by Jim Kisenwether
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"I Love Hills!"
- Eric Tien reports that a cross country coach used this as a 'team yell'
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From the 'running is life' school of philosophy:
"Every day above ground is a good day. Every day I can run is a very good day."
- Michael S. Bowen
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Some hard-core running quotes:
"Mental will is a muscle that needs excercise, like the muscles of the body. "
- Lynn Jennings
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"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare."
- Juma Ikangaa
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"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts."
- Steve Prefontaine
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"I believe in the runner’s high, and I believe that those who are passionate about running are the ones who experience it to the fullest degree possible. To me, the runner’s high is a sensational reaction to a great run! It’s an exhilarating feeling of satisfaction and achievement. It’s like being on top of the world, and truthfully… there’s nothing else quite like it!"
- Sasha Azevedo
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"Run like hell and get the agony over with."
- Clarence DeMar
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"To keep from decaying, to be a winner, the athlete must accept pain - not only accept it,
but look for it, live with it, learn not to fear it."
- Dr. George Sheehan.
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Running fatalism:
"Running is a lot like life. Only 10 percent of it is exciting. 90 percent of it is slog and drudge."
- Dave Bedford, English distance runner who occasionally put in 200 miles a week in training.
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On the Nittany Valley Half-Marathon:
"It's a very tough course, especially after about mile 7. The last mile is designed to make you see God."
- Marty Mazur
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"I was looking for God during the last mile, but I didn't see him. I guess he finished ahead of me too."
- Albert Mabus, last male finisher at the 2001 NVHM
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In response to, "Think it's gonna rain today?":
"I'm not that kind of meteorologist."
- Dr. Ken Davis
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On playing an elaborate practical joke:
"I was having second thoughts last night. But you know, sometimes a bad idea is just too bad to resist."
- Mike Dooris
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A perspective on life in a college town, submitted by Rick Fie:
"D'ye think th' colledges has much to do with th' progress iv of the wurruld?" asked Mr Hennessy.
"D'ye think," said Mr Dooley, "tis th' mill that makes th' water run?"
- from Colleges and Degrees, by Finley Peter Dunne
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On teaching a real estate class:
"It's just real estate; it's not like it's brain surgery."
- Tom Cali, Realtor
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On taking it easy, submitted by Mike Dooris:
Steve & Carol Gentry -- young and recently retired (I hate that)-- spotted strolling across campus, were asked,
"Why was Steve looking at his watch? Do you guys really need to be anywhere in particular?"
Steve's apparently serious answer: "No, I'm checking to see what month it is."
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On the paving over of State College, PA, submitted by Ken Davis:
"If I were there I'd be chaining myself to a tree stump right about now."
- Current out-of-towner Dave Boger, discussing plans
to pave the railroad bed leading out to Toftrees.
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From the Bard: