Quotes About Perseverance

That desperate tug-of-war between the desire to persevere and the overwhelming temptation to quit. And he loved it.

It was a very hard race from the word go with a combination of great runners and a tough course," he wrote. "I had my problems winning. I felt several times like giving into the pain and letting Gary [sic] win but I just couldn't. I just kept driving myself harder and harder, longer and longer.

Achieve complete mastery of his mind by pushing back the limits of his capacity to suffer until those limits disappeared.

This pain and suffering. This was my trophy ceremony.

Exercising mental fitness was a daily battle for him, but a battle he chose.

How interesting it is that the attitude that ultrarealists choose to adopt in situations where their attitude is the only thing they can control is one of finding meaning in their suffering.

If you want to get a sense of what a very high level of perceived effort feels like in isolation from fatigue, find a steep hill and run up it as fast as you can. (You should probably warm up first.) That feeling of trying as hard as you can that hits you immediately, before fatigue sets in, is the feeling of a very high level of perceived effort.

I call these lifelines: little mantras that come to me spontaneously in the crisis moments of races -- attempts by The Person I Want to Be to gain my weaker side's acceptance of the pain I am inflicting on myself.

Because the only way to become really good at coping with the discomforts and stresses of endurance sports is to experience them.

If I was ever going to win Ironman, I was going to have to beat the man who rinsed his cottage cheese

Afterward, AR50 race director Julie Fingar pulled me aside and explained to me that the whole reason ultrarunners become ultrarunners is that they're too slow to qualify for Boston.

Who is ultimately stronger? The answer is undetermined.

Because you never know exactly what you'll find inside that black box until you open it, there is a temptation to hope—perhaps not quite consciously—that your next race won't be one of those grinding affairs. This hope is a poor coping skill. Bracing yourself—always expecting your next race to be your hardest yet—is a much more mature and effective way to prepare mentally for competition.

to turn pro." "It bothers me that so many runners feel they somehow don't deserve to take the sport all the way and find out how good they can be," I said. "I wish more folks with average talent would just go for it.

At the risk of sounding like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite who can't let go of the past

Endurance sports are largely about discomfort and stress; hence they are largely about coping.

You don't become a runner by winning a morning workout. The only true way is to marshal the ferocity of your ambition over the course of many day, weeks, months, and (if you could finally come to accept it) years. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials.

To become the best athlete you can be, you need to become really good at coping with the characteristic forms of discomfort and stress that the endurance sports experience dishes out, beginning with perceived effort and extending to the many challenges that are secondary to it, such as fear of failure.

The ultimate compliment for me in my peak training years was being passed on my easy runs by a runner who had a marathon time more than an hour slower than mine. I'd say to myself, "He's wearing himself out today. I'm building myself up.

My mother always said I was special." "Well, she got that right, I suppose. She just didn't know how." "She also mentioned 'especially stubborn' from time to time.

Si vas a hacer trampa, hazla con todas tus fuerzas

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is 'never try.' Homer Simpson

Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet! They're about to announce the lottery numbers.