In the long run, even a marathon looks like a sprint. This is how I can love with such Roger Bannisteresque intensity.

You’re first place in my heart. And here’s a second-place ribbon from my third grade shuttle run to prove it. I’ve kept it all these years to remind myself that I’m a winner.

I am a distance runner, a marathoner… literally and figuratively.

To be a runner is to learn continual life lessons.

I could talk about Blade Runner forever.

I was running and deliberately lost my way. The world far off and nothing but my breath and the very next step and it’s like hypnosis. The feeling of conquering my own aliveness with no...

I want to sprint into her open arms, but I run as fast as two shoes tied together and thrown over a telephone wire. I’m like Roger Bannister, now that he’s in a wheelchair.

Sleep is fueled by no fuel. If I had enough coffee, I’d never have to sleepwalk my way through a marathon again.

I’m never lonelier than when I’m in a crowded room, talking to nobody, awkward and isolated, trying to decide how to stand so I don’t appear as if I want to start Roger Bannistering a...

Be like a sparrow aspiring to be an ostrich, and I’ll be like a cowboy with no horse looking for a speedy land runner to ride.

After a good run, my legs feel like Jell-O. Somebody get me a spoon and stick a fork in me.

If I were in Steve Prefontaine’s shoes, I’d have done the same thing he did. Except for all that running. I wouldn’t have done that.