Words to lift us all

So this is my second FLM, did my first one last year after 4 failed attempts from '04 - '07 owing to recurring injury.

Finishing last year was up there with the birth of my son and getting married, one of the best moments of my life.

From around mile 22 all I had going through my head was "get up and crawl if you have to, but just finish the damned race!".

I couldn't remember who originally said it, but it got me through. There's also the old classic "when you stand at the start line..."

Anyone got any really great lines / quotes / passages to see me through when it really starts to hurt?
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Comments

  • best of luck mm!!!

    possibly no help at all but my faves are

    "pain is temporary" (usually said 500 times in a row in the last minutes of a hard run)

    "those who wouldnt take no for an answer and could fight back from the setbacks would eventually get the answer they sought." (paula radcliffe talking about kelly holmes being a fighter)

    and a personal fave 

    "move your lazy fat arse wilko." 

  • Odeon1085Odeon1085 ✭✭✭

    One for you!

    This one normally gets bandied about on a lot of freds in the last week before flm.

  • TmapTmap ✭✭✭

    She stayed with me until she moved to Notting Hill
    She said it was the place she needs to be
    Where the cocaine is Fairtrade and frequently displayed
    Is the Buena Vista Social Club CD

    I thought she’d be back in three weeks and we’d go wandering the Peaks
    Sojourn in my Uncle Joe’s ashram
    For when you’re in Matlock Bath you don’t need Sylvia Plath
    Not while they’ve got Mrs. Gibson’s Jam

    Alas I’m brooding alone by the runnel
    While she’s in Capri with her swain
    And the light at the end of the tunnel
    Is the light of an oncoming train

  • Odeon1085 - Always worth watching Any Given Sunday the night before a race.

    Inches!!!!

    Gavin Strachan said on BBC blog that this clip is shown by a lot of football managers to motivate.

  • love it, thanks for the ideas guys!

    LOVING the Al Pacino action, what a legend, great if he could pop over for the day to ride a golf caddy cart around next to me while I run.

    And thanks for the wishes of luck Wilko, gonna need a bit of that on Sunday for sure!

    Tmap, is that to distract me from the pain in my muscles, by diverting it to my head? ; )

    Thanks all, and best of luck to all who are running.
  • Martin HMartin H ✭✭✭

    Two sayings used by my old football coach.......

    "The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in battle."

    Will help if you have done lots of training.  Won't help if you've skimped in training.

    And "Pain is temporary....failure is permanent" 

    Good luck everyone.

  • The bit in Laurence of Arabia where he extinguishes a match between his fingers and another officer says, "Ooh! It damn well 'urts!'...
    <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000564/" target="_popup2254">T.E. Lawrence</a>: Certainly it hurts.
    Officer: What's the trick then?
    <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000564/" target="_popup2254">T.E. Lawrence</a>: The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.

     I also think the song "High Hopes" helps especially verse 2 about the ram and the dam... Not one for the elite athletes but the rhythm's perfect for around 9.5-10 minute miles

    http://www.last.fm/music/Doris+Day/_/High+Hopes

    Good luck all - I'll be the one humming this on Sunday with blue helium balloons attached!

  • As a variation on the above - "Pain is temporary, Pride is Forever" - was draped on a banner hung over the entry to the underpass at about mile 23. Got me through on my first attempt nien years ago when I got severe cramp at mile 16 in spite of doing several 20+ mile runs.

    My other thought was "if I don't push through and finish this year, I'm goign to have to go through all thta trainign next year too"

    That was when I planned to just do it once!!

    It was worth it when I crossed the line image

  • "Run, Fat Boy, Run" "Run, Fat Boy, Run" "Run, Fat Boy, Run" "Run, Fat Boy, Run" "Run, Fat Boy, Run"

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTrfuX1Pb-k

  • As for Laurence of Arabia. If the weather forecast is true I think the alternative version may be closer to the truth...image

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iavPLq3CidI

  • Mick Curry of Mick N Phil said on friday,

    "We don't quit. We drop before we quit".

  • two words lift me

    HEAVE

    HO

  • I like that Mick Curry line... not the first time he's inspired me...

    The two I've used as a mantra in the past, when the legs go stiff, the willpower saps and the heart weakens... the support is thin on the ground and the mind starts getting that first flicker of negativity - I try and replace those thoughts with these:

    "When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." Thomas Jefferson

    and/or

    "When you are going through hell - keep going" Winston Churchill

  • A quote a found on here at some point when I was that close to quitting in Feb went along the lines of

    A marathon runner needs to realise that the competition is not the other runners but the little voice inside your head telling you you want to quit.

    Best of luck image

  • Oh go on then, twist my arm. Couldn't resist it, haven't seen it yet so far this year:

     "When you stand on the Start Line, you join the club. When you stand at the Starting Line you earn your membership. Millions dream of being where you are. You are no longer a dreamer. You are a doer.

    Thousands more started a training programme but never finished. They started with the same enthusiasm as (or more than) you. They started with more or less the same physical gifts or disadvantages as you did. They had no more and no less reason to be successful than you.

    But somewhere along the way, they lost that enthusiasm. Somewhere on the road or on the track or treadmill, they decided that the rewards just weren't worth the effort. They decided that they could live without finding their limits, without challenging their expectations of themselves and without taking a hard look at their image of themselves.

    You didn't. If you’re standing at the Start Line, you've not only accepted the challenge, but you've also beaten back the demons. You've conquered your imagination and self-imposed limitations. You've gone further, got stronger and become tougher than you ever imagined."

    Maybe not one for Mile 22, but I still love it.
  • If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew,

    to serve your turn long after they are gone,

    and so hold on when there is nothing in you,

    except the will which says to them: 'hold on!'

    IF, by Rudyard Kipling. The whole poem is awesome!

  • Pllumby your version on the Laurence of Arabia quote is so-ooo much better - now I'm going to be giggling as well as grimacing on Sunday.  Thanks!!  Good luck!!
  • Wise words: 

    Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional

  • I took part in the Edinburgh marathon in 07.  It was my first one and had the usual worries of have I done enough training etc.....we were waiting to set off and there was a guy in front of me with a slogan on his t-shirt that read: Pain can last a day, pain can last a week, pain can last a month but quitting lasts forever!  I have never forgotten it and it always helps me get round....image

  • Because I used to find running in the gym so tedious I found it too easy to stop after maybe 10 minutes; it wasn't because I was tired but because I was bored and often haven't the will-power to carry on doing something.  So now I'm running outdoors and am building up from my first half marathon to the full one in September, if it starts to feel tough I tell myself it's laziness not tiredness that's making me want to stop.  "Laziness not tiredness" has seen mu up a few hills over the past months.
  • "Harden the f*ck up"
  • I'm a bit late to this thread (I've been on holiday recovering from the FLM..!) but the quote that inspired me when I was training was in the Marathon Magazine.

    There are days when you wonder if you can run a marathon...but a lifetime knowing you have.

    Worked for me...4hrs 57mins for my first marathon at age 54.

  • Jock ItchJock Itch ✭✭✭
    'Anything less is to sacrifice the gift'  Steve Prefontaine image
  • Some words from an article I like about being asked by someone in a bar how to lose weight . . . .

    "You want to lose that beer belly? I have a nutty idea. Put down the beer. I'll tell you what. Christmas morning I'm getting up real early. I want to watch my daughter open her presents and spend the whole day with her, so this is the only time I have to train.  You be at my house at six in the morning, okay? I'll be glad to help you get started on a program. It'll be cold, so dress warm.

    "If you don't show up you've learned a very important lesson about yourself, haven't you?  What do you say? Christmas morning, 6am, my house. The ball's in your court."

  • This mantra got me through mile 16 to 19 of some very hilly "undulations" of Brathay Marathon

     "Fatigue is just a state of mind" only it sounded more like:

    "fa-TIGUE...is...JUST...a...STATE...of....MIND!!! " along with the rhythm of my plodding feets.

  • "You can do it, put your back into it" from the song seems to work for me.
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