American - Athlete | December 22, 1948 -
There's always somebody doing something more extreme than you are. It used to be that if you ran the marathon, that was the end of it.
Don Kardong
EndDoingYouMarathonMoreAlways
When I started running, a gadget was a wristwatch with a secondhand on it.
StartedRunningSecondhandGadget
The Kenyans beat up on the American runners in every road race every weekend of the year, but we're way ahead of them in the number and quality of our Elvis impersonators. We get our X-Men and gorillas.
QualityRoadAmericanWeekendYear
When I was in middle school, and teachers lectured about World War II, the conflict seemed impossibly distant and irrelevant. And it had only happened 15 years earlier.
SchoolWarConflictWorldTeachers
Prior to the 1976 Olympics, I was a 5,000m runner.
RunnerOlympicsPrior
My introduction to dissociation had been at Kenneth Cooper's clinic in January of 1975. Cooper had assembled a gaggle of top American distance runners and a half dozen top researchers, the intent being to figure out what the difference was - physiologically, biomechanically, psychologically - between elite and subelite runners.
JanuaryAmericanDistanceTopOut
New nemeses keep racing fresh, but I also find challenge in going longer, with only the distance as foe. I run my first 50-mile race, journey across the Grand Canyon and back, circumnavigate Mount St. Helens.
JourneyChallengeRacingBackFind
Clearly, there are things a runner does, intentionally or not, that disrupt team cohesion. And there are also things a runner doesn't do that can cause problems: not trying, showing up late, skipping team-building activities, and ignoring the coach's instructions.
TeamProblemsShowing UpTryingLate
An overzealous parent is just one example of the kind of Problem Mom or Dad who pops up at track meets, threatening to put a damper on the day.
DayMomParentProblemKindUp
Coaches know that a parent publicly scolding his kid after a race will not help the athlete perform better.
ParentBetterHelpKnowAthleteKid
When I went to the starting line of the 1976 Olympic marathon in Montreal, it was with the unsettling conviction that some of my competitors were cheaters.
MarathonStartingLineConviction
Train at the same pace day after day, week after week, year after year, and that's the kind of running the body adapts to. But break out of that comfort zone with a little speedwork now and then, and the body will learn to deal with the new demands.
DayComfort ZoneLearnYearBody
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Don Kardong quotes