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The natural urge when running a distance is to push harder and finish sooner - to race against time. Every second behind a deadline is a little defeat.

When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.

I try to avoid the temptation with time as a total indicator for what my possibilities are for the marathon. It's the not the best indicator, but it's more how you feel, how you cover the distance and how you are able to do the training afterward.

Marathons are hard because of the physical pain, the pounding on the muscles, joints, tendons.

I've found that my athletes run their best races after about 10 weeks of intense training.

There is always the excitement of running races.

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.

A true athlete is someone who doesn't just stop training when they stop competing. It's a way of life, and they keep in shape just to keep up that standard.

Marathons are good training goals.