“the day racing is more important to me than making love to my wife I want someone to slap me upside my silly head.”
as promised when this was posted, I said I was going to save it for the next time the motivational quotes thread came up.
I’m gonna bump this thread instead of start a new one.
“The longer the race, the shorter the champ.”
Manciata
“Most men take the straight and narrow. A few take the road less traveled. I chose to cut through the woods.”
Unknown
“Run like hell and get the agony over with.”
Clarence DeMar
“I’m never going to run this again.”
Grete Waitz after winning her first of nine New York City marathons
In the morning a gazelle wakes up and knows it must run faster than the lion if it wants to survive. The same morning the lion knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle if it is not to starve. One thing is for sure; when the sun comes up, you’d better be moving.
(don’t remember, quoted this from memory)
A winner gets up one more time than he gets knocked down.
What I kept thinking when fighting cancer.
“Pain is temporary, pride is forever”
“Pain is temporary, quitting is forever”
“Pain is simply weakness leaving your body”
.
A year back someone sent me an article by Adam Hodges Myerson on why do we race and how to prepare for pain; the last paragraph is one of my favourites…
Happy holidays!
M
“I enjoy training as much as I do racing. I enjoy being systematic and scientific in the approach I take to my preparation, I like the meditative aspect of my daily training rides, and I like the feeling of being fit. But it’s the game we play on the bike, the races we do on the weekend, that helps us play out the dynamics of the world at large on a small, personal scale with no real repercussions. It lets us get closer to pain, and closer to death, normally without experiencing any lasting consequences. I am aware of the glaring exceptions to this rule (Nicole Reinhart, Fabio Casertelli), but they themselves are the reminders that we are, in fact, alive, and need to make the most of the authentic life we **have. Without the games, without the suffering, it would be simple to forget. That’s the reward we get from racing and from suffering, far above and beyond any trophies or prize money we might or might not win. It’s a reminder that we are alive in this increasingly dead and uninspired world. And that’s what keeps us coming back every weekend.” **
In the new Lance Armstrong book he teaches his son “What does daddy do?”
“Daddy makes 'em suffer in the mountains”.