I saw that quote above and that led to these which seemed perfect to go along with the last day of April…and Hump Day!

“My running is fun. Not ha-ha fun, but a quieter kind of contented fun. Not fun every minute of every day, but fun in the overall effect. My running is easy and comfortable, and it feels good. Seldom is there a morning when I don’t feel 100 percent better in the last mile of a run than I had in the first mile.

Never is there a day when I don’t look forward to my run. Sometimes I don’t want to go very far or fast, but I always want to go.

Never is my running boring, because never are two runs exactly the same. They may be the same distance, at the same pace, over the same course at the same time of day. But they’re subtly different. You learn to appreciate the subtleties.”

-Joe Henderson, Long Run Solution

“One day she was running in a five-mile race and about halfway through, began to question the wisdom of getting involved in this way. Her legs were hurting, her side was hurting, and she was paying attention to that pain and to her internal doubting and complaining with each step.

Suddenly, an unexpected sight caught her eye. There on the sidelines in a wheelchair sat an old woman waving little flags, tooting a horn, and encouraging the runners on with a big smile on her face and saying things like, ‘Atta way to go! Keep going! You’ll make it! You’re looking good!’ Even before Sherry was out of earshot, something was altered in a way she never forgot. Instead of running along thinking, ‘This hurts, that hurts, I’ll never make it,’ she found herself running along with her head held high and a smile on her lips as she repeated with each step, ‘running is a privilege, running is a pleasure.’ And sometimes she would vary that by telling herself, ‘You are strong, you are healthy, you are alive.’ And the finish line appeared a lot sooner than she had expected it would.”

“One by one, I’ll face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view, scanning the scenery as far ahead as I can. I am, after all, a long distance runner.

My time, the rank I attain, my outward appearance – all of these are secondary. For a runner like me, what’s really important is reaching the goal I set myself, under my own power. I give it everything I have, endure what needs enduring, and am able, in my own way, to be satisfied. From out of the failures and joys I always try to come away having grasped a concrete lesson. (It’s got to be concrete, no matter how small it is.) And I hope that, over time, as one race follows another, in the end I’ll reach a place I’m content with. Or maybe just catch a glimpse of it.”

-Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Thanks again to Gibson’s Daily Running Quotes for providing this inspiration and motivation.

Until next time…