Trample the weak. Hurdle the dead.
— Attila the Hun
Remarkable Cross Country Running quotations
When I came back, after all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. Now what's the difference?

Make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up.


Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.
Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
A runner must run with dreams in his heart.

The only tactics I admire are do-or-die
Only think of two things - the report of the pistol and the tape.
When you hear one, run like hell until you break the other.
I cannot have survival as my only goal.
That would be too boring. My goal is to come back in my best running form. It is good for me to have that goal; it will help me.

Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach.
Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant.
Run hard, be strong, think big!

I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we're all cowards.
Out on the roads there is fitness and self-discovery and the persons we were destined to be.
You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.

If you want to tell something to an athlete, say it quickly and give no alternatives. This is a game of winning and losing. It is senseless to explain and explain.
The nine inches right here; set it straight and you can beat anybody in the world.
Run like hell and get the agony over with.

The freedom of cross country is so primitive. It's woman vs. nature.
Dream barriers look very high until someone climbs them. They are not barriers anymore.
A runners creed: I will win; if I cannot win, I shall be second; if I cannot be second, I shall be third; if I cannot place at all, I shall still do my best.

I love running cross-country...You come up a hill and see two deer going, 'What the hell is he doing?' On a track I feel like a hamster.
Running is one the best solutions to a clear mind.
Tomorrow is another day, and there will be another battle!

The important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top.
Running taught me valuable lessons. In cross-country competition, training counted more than intrinsic ability, and I could compensate for a lack of natural aptitude with diligence and discipline. I applied this in everything I did.
I run because it's my passion, and not just a sport.

Cross Country: No half times, no time outs, no substitutions. It must be the only true sport.
Every athlete has doubts. Elite runners in particular are insecure people. You need someone to affirm that what you are doing is right.
When you put yourself on the line in a race and expose yourself to the unknown, you learn things about yourself that are very exciting.

The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.
The start of a World Cross Country event is like riding a horse in the middle of a buffalo stampede. It's a thrill if you keep up, but one slip and you're nothing but hoof prints.
My greatest ideas stem from running.
Those who say that I will lose and am finished will have to run over my body to beat me.
Marathon running is a terrible experience: monotonous, heavy, and exhausting.