“When the guy kissed her, Cassidy felt a stab of pain that was close to physical, and therefore within the penumbra of hurts he told himself he could bear.” LovePainAcceptanceHeartbreak Book:Once a Runner Source: Once a Runner
“...Or we can blaze! Become legends in our own time, strike fear in the heart of mediocre talent everywhere! We can scald dogs, put records out of reach! Make the stands gasp as we blow into an unearthly kick from three hundred yards out! We can become God's own messengers delivering the dreaded scrolls! We can race dark Satan himself till he wheezes fiery cinders down the back straightaway....They'll speak our names in hushed tones, 'those guys are animals' they'll say! We can lay it on the line, bust a gut, show them a clean pair of heels. We can sprint the turn on a spring breeze and feel the winter leave our feet! We can, by God, let our demons loose and just wail on!” MotivationalRunning Book:Once a Runner Source: Once a Runner
“All the books helped him in some way or another. Quenton Cassidy was not enthusiastically going about the heady business of breaking world records or capturing some coveted prize; such ideas would have been laughable to him in the bland grind of his daily lifestyle. He was merely trying to slip into a lifestyle that he could live with, strenuous but not unendurable by any means, out of which if the corpuscles and the capillaries and the electrolytes were properly aligned in their own mysterious configurations, he might do even better what he had already done quite well. He was trying to switch gears; at least that is how he thought of it. And though it was a somewhat frightful thing to contemplate for very long, he was really pulling out all the stops. After this he would have no excuses, ever again.” Lifestyle Change Book:Once a Runner Source: Once a Runner
“Training was a rite of purification; from it came speed, strength. Racing was a rite of death; from it came knowledge. Such rites demand, if they are to be meaningful at all, a certain amount of time spent precisely on the Red Line, where you can lean over the manicured putting green at the edge of the precipice and see exactly nothing.” IfsCertainLinesAmountDemandTrainingRedGreenEdgesSpeedMeaningfulRacingRiteTime SpentPurificationPrecipiceRed Lines Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“If the furnace is hot enough, anything will burn, even Big Macs.” IfsEnoughBigsHotMacsFurnacesBig Mac Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“In mind's special processes, a ten-mile run takes far longer than the 60 minutes reported by a grandfather clock. Such time, in fact, hardly exists at all in the real world; it is all out on the trail somewhere, and you only go back to it when you are out there.” WorldMindRealFactsRunningProcessMinutesSpecialTenMilesClockReal WorldGrandfatherTrails Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“Running to him was real; the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as a diamond; it made him weary behond comprehension. But it also made him free.” WayMadeRealHardRunningJoyDiamondWearyWoeComprehension Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“He wanted to impart some of the truths Bruce Denton had taught him, that you dont' 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 days, weeks, months, and (if you could finally come to accept it) years. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials. How could he make them understand?” IfsWayYearsRunningWantedCoursesWinningAcceptingMorningWeekTaughtMonthsAmbitionMilesTrialsRunnersWorkoutImpartFerocity Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“Cassidy's heart tried to leap out through his taught skin and hop into his wet hands. But outwardly it was all very calm, very serene, just as always, and it seemed to last a tiny forever, just like that, a snapshot of them all on the curved parabola of a starting line, eight giant hearts attached to eight pairs of bellows-like lungs mounted on eight pairs of supercharged stilts. They were poised on the edge of some howling vortex they had run 10,000 miles to get to. Now they had to run one more” HeartHandsRunningLastsLinesForeverTaughtSkinsStartingCalmEdgesEightTinyMilesGiantsHopsPairsLeapWetLungsSereneSnapshotsVortexStiltsParabola Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“Hey listen, I already have a complete list of silver linings. It's the goddamn cloud that's killin me.” RunningCloudsListsHeySilver Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“He ran his hand up and down his left achilles tendon. Very tender; better pay attention to it and back off if it gets any worse. Maybe ice it. The old Injury Evasion Fandango. Did it ever end?” IfsEndsHandsRunningLeftPayAttentionIcePay AttentionRanInjuryUp And DownAchillesEvasionHands Up Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“There was no let-up. The tempo was always moderate but steady. If a new guy decided to pick up the pace, that's where it stayed, whether he finished with the group or not. You showed off at your peril.” IfsRunningGuyGroupsPicksDecidedFinishedPaceSteadyModeratesPerilTempo Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“Though Jack Nubbins was extremely talented, Quenten Cassidy had viewed the Specter; when he reached down through the familiar layers of gloom and fatigue he generally found more there than a nameless and transient desire to acquire plastic trophies. He and Nubbins were not even in the same ball park.” RunningDesireFoundBallsFamiliarParksAcquireLayersPlasticFatigueGloomTrophiesTransientNameless Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“No one promised you there would be universal justice.” Would BeJusticeUniversal Author:John L. Parker Jr.
“A runner is a miser, spending the pennies of his energy with great stinginess, constantly wanting to know how much he has spent and how much longer he will be expected to pay. He wants to be broke at precisely the moment he no longer needs his coin.” KnowsWantNeedsMomentsEnergyPayKnow HowSpendingExpectedBrokeRunnersCoinsPenniesMisersStinginess Author:John L. Parker Jr.