"Run hard, be strong, think big!"

-Percy Cerutty

"The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy. It is the will to succeed." -Jacqueline Gareau

"The human body can do so much. Then the heart and spirit must take over." -Sohn Kee -chung, Korean, who won the 1936 Olympic Marathon in record time but was forced to run for Japan.

"Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished." - Jack Lovelock

"Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about." -PattySue Plumer, U.S. Olympian

"I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart." - Mike Fanelli, club coach

"I haven't seen too many American distance men on the international scene willing to take risks. The Kenyans risk. Steve Prefontaine risked, I risked- I went through the first half of the Tokyo race just a second off my best 5000 time. " -Billy Mills

"Cross-country is like poker. You have to be holding five good cards all the time." -Rollie Geiger, North Carolina State coach.

"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." -Ed Eyestone

"The five S's of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit." - Ken Doherty