Leave Your Comfort

"You start dying slowly if you do not travel, if you do not read, if you do not listen to the sounds of life... You start dying slowly if you become a slave of your habits, walking everyday on the same paths… You start dying slowly if you avoid to feel passion and their turbulent emotions; those which make your eyes glisten and your heart beat fast. You start dying slowly...if you do not allow yourself, at least once in your lifetime, to run away from sensible advice…" – Pablo Neruda

Life Is the Road

Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy. - Nisargadatta Maharaj

Take flight...

“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you're going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.”

― C. JoyBell C.

be here now

The key instruction is to stay in the present. Don’t get caught up in hopes of what you’ll achieve and how good your situation will be some day in the future. What you do right now is what matters.

- Pema Chodron

What We All Need in Life

Thanks to Pomsey for sending this quote:


"There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad, and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living."

--Jose N. Harris

Why ultrarunning?

"Are you looking for an exact distance, or for a challenge category? 
Trails are trails, with twist, cant, and camber. They go from here to 
there, some following contours and going around obstacles in a rolling , 
sinuous, graceful style, others marching you straight up hills or 
through ankle-biting rock gardens.

The traditional distance categories belie precision--50Ks around the 
country include races from 30.2 miles to 34++ miles; 50-milers have been 
known to be 48-53 miles, and 100Ks or 100-milers can range in mileage 
from a little under to when-will-this-thing-end.

We have the illusion of accuracy from GPS and Garmin devices, but 
really, isn't not knowing part of the fun?"
--Tia Bodington, Ultrarunning, Sept. 2012 issue

Civilly?

"[Civil disobedience] is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government, and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience...Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."

--Howard Zinn

The Truth

We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable.


--Alexander Sozhenitsyn

What Life Means and What Life is For

"The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer
is this, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer
must at once be, ‘It is no use.’ There is not the slightest prospect
of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior
of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn
our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But
otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single
bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not
find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise
food. It’s no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is
something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and
goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself
upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get
from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end
of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money
to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is
for."

--George Mallory, 1922

Because Pomsey is Always So Wise...

"do what is best for you. oh, and be honest. these have served me well in the past."

Great running quote

"Running is something you just do. You don’t need a goal. You don’t need a race. You don’t need the hype of a so-called fitness craze. All you need is a cheap pair of shoes and some time. The rest will follow.”

Ted Corbitt

Pre!

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more."
 

--Steve Prefontaine

In light of my painful, suffering performance at Javelina, I can attest that I have a lot of guts, as I pushed myself beyond my limits. I could barely walk. But you know what? It was worth it in the end.

Rumi Quote

"Don't turn away. Keep looking at the bandaged place. That's where the light enters you."

~ Rumi

Why We Run Ultras

"... Perhaps the genius of ultrarunning is its supreme lack of utility. It makes no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances on foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the approval of peers. But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense. The ultra runners know this instinctively. And they know something else that is lost on the sedentary. They understand, perhaps better than anyone, that the doors to the spirit will swing open with physical effort. In running such long and taxing distances they answer a call from the deepest realms of their being -- a call that asks who they are ..."

- David Blaikie

100 Milers as a Sedative? Love It!

“I thought if you could run one hundred miles, you’d be in this Zen state. You’d be the fucking Buddha, bringing peace and a smile to the world. It didn’t work in my case – I’m the same old punk-ass as before, but there’s always that hope that it will turn you into the person you want to be, a better, more peaceful person."

~Jenn Shelton from the book Born to Run

Great Ultra Quote

"When my longest run was 13 miles, a marathon seemed nearly impossible.

When my longest run was 26 miles, 50 miles seemed nearly impossible.

When my longest run was 50 miles, 100 miles seemed nearly impossible.

When my longest run was 100 miles, 50 miles seemed like a nice, long
training run."

~Karl King

George Eliot Quote

It's never too late
to be what you
might have been.



Special thanks to Pomsey for filling my mailbox with this great quote and love on a day when all seems to be a giant stressball.

White Hyacinths

If I had but two loaves of bread, I would sell one of them and buy white hyacinths to feed my soul.

--Elbert Hubbard

Quote from Sex and the City

“Maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they just need to run free til they find someone just as wild to run with them.”

Meow!

Think from Poets

If the light is the soul then the soul is all around me.

--Nicole Perayfitte

Accept lost forever.

--Jack Kerouac

I must either create my own system or be trapped in another.

--Bhanu Kapil Ryder

The young never think of themselves as temporary.

--Bobbie Louise Hawkins

What is falling in love but drunken acceptance?

--Bobbie Louise Hawkins

I should like to die at your feet and live in your arms.

--Voltaire

Get it when you're alive; you can't find it when you're dead.

--Joanne Kyger

What on earth would kill for love -- who wouldn't?

--Ted Berrigan

I and I'm ab out to be born again thinking of you.

--Ted Berrigan

While my writings may not be exclusively political, they can never be completely private.

--Elene Sikelianos

We could never get enough money and power together to erect a government that cares about its people.

--Jack Kerouac 

In the winter, we have sleeves, but in the summer, we have arms.

--Maureen Owen

Be as thoughtfully fearlessly as you can.

--Rikki Ducornet

If it's not interesting, go somewhere that is.

--Rikki Ducornet

Until a poem is read aloud, it is holding its breath on the page.

--Edwin Torres

Are you ready to fall? Yeah! Then come on in!

--Edwin Torres

Love breaks down the hate to make people listen.

--Mac Wellman 

Speech is

my hammer

bang my

world into

shape

let it fall.

--Mos Def

Keep up the breath that could kill you.

--Jena Osman

Don't be afraid to see something you don't want to see.

--Mei Mei Brussenbruge

Innocence is the standard.

If you are not innocent, you are guilty