You can't climb up to the second floor without a ladder. When you set your aim too high and don't fulfill it, then your enthusiasm turns to bitterness. Try for a goal that's reasonable, and then gradually raise it.
To boast of a performance which I cannot beat is merely stupid vanity. And if I can beat it that means there is nothing special about it. What has passed is already finished with. What I find more interesting is what is still to come.
In my country, I am just a common man... a nobody.
If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.
The childhood games ended for me when I was 14 and I finished school. I had to find a job, not an easy thing in those days.
Sometimes I feel that old desire. Then my body tells me it is 50 years old. I take the easy way instead.
I had started as an average athlete - a normal boy. It took me three years to win a race. I was glad that I endured those three years - that I did not give up.
I'm not interested in how long I can hold out, but in how fast I can reach the finishing line.
There is a great advantage in training under unfavorable conditions. It is better to train under bad conditions, for the difference is then a tremendous relief in a race.
If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's besides the point. It's simply that I just have to.
If I run 100 meters 30 times, that is 3 kilometers and no longer a sprint.