In those long, lonely miles you put in during the off-season, and in those knife-in-the-gut track repetitions and hill repeats that buckle your knees - at that moment in almost every race when you ask yourself how much you're willing to hurt to catch one more runner - you can draw strength and inspiration from your running mates.

Don Kardong

Categorized in : You Moment Yourself Strength

Avoid any diet that discourages the use of hot fudge.

Don Kardong

hot weight-loss running

Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos.

Don Kardong

inspiration food sports

If you run 100 miles a week, you can eat anything you want - Why? Because (a) you'll burn all the calories you consume, (b) you deserve it, and (c) you'll be injured soon and back on a restricted diet anyway.

Don Kardong

track-and-field running inspirational

Runners like to train 100 miles per week because it's a round number. But I think 88 is a lot rounder.

Don Kardong

running numbers thinking

Eventually, competition and adventure wane, and I enter my ibuprofen phase. Tweaky hamstrings and achy knees restrict mileage, but I continue running for health, sanity, and the ritual of a Sunday trail run with like-minded buddies. We discuss the nagging injuries that bedevil us, and remember the good old days when we were kings.

Don Kardong

kings running adventure

No doubt a brain and some shoes are essential for marathon success, although if it comes down to a choice, pick the shoes. More people finish marathons with no brains than with no shoes.

Don Kardong

shoes running inspirational

Coaches know that a parent publicly scolding his kid after a race will not help the athlete perform better.

Don Kardong

race athlete kids

We (ultra runners) alternate between depression and stupidity.

Don Kardong

ultras runners stupidity

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.

Don Kardong

body running years

Grizzly bears eat people without the benefit of music.

Don Kardong

grizzly-bears benefits people

A good teammate is someone willing to get outside of personal thoughts and emotions, a friend who tries to understand, appreciate, and encourage other members of the team.

Don Kardong

appreciate team trying

Prior to the 1976 Olympics, I was a 5,000m runner.

Don Kardong

olympics runners

The key to running a good marathon is to not listen to anyone's advice the last week before the race. That's when people tend to do stupid things that disrupt all the input and training of the previous months.

Don Kardong

keys stupid running

So here's my advice to city planners. Make your city runnable. Runners are the first wave of troops bringing human activity back to the urban core of any city. Where we go, others will follow. The connection between runnability and livability is so clear (at least to me), that it's surprising that new developments consistently leave pathways out of the plans.

Don Kardong

pathways cities advice

In those long, lonely miles you put in during the off-season, and in those knife-in-the-gut repetitions and hill repeats that buckly your knees - at that moment in almost every race when you ask yourself how much you're willing to hurt to catch one more runner - you can draw strength and inspiration from your running mates.

Don Kardong

lonely hurt running

I know runners who have suffered a tick bite and ended up with Lyme disease. Ill take an angry moose any day.

Don Kardong

tick moose disease

You entered a marathon with hills? You idiot.

Don Kardong

marathon idiot running

There's no such thing as a bad carbohydrate.

Don Kardong

distance-runner carbohydrates running

Sure, the first light snowfall may be a chance to dance giddily, leaving squeaky footprints through the neighborhood, marking the runner's right to the domain. But later drubbings of snow merely complicate running. Snow turns to ice, to slush, to ice again. Tire ruts twist ankles. New snow hides the hazards.

Don Kardong

chance dance light snow

Running at night used to frighten me. Part of it was simply safety, the question of whether level ground would truly appear under each tentative footstep, and whether the temporary but complete blindness suffered while running toward headlights was, in fact, concealing death.

Don Kardong

me safety night death