Ultramarathon Man Quotes

“I run because if I didn’t, I’d be sluggish and glum and spend too much time on the couch. I run to breathe the fresh air. I run to explore. I run to escape the ordinary. I run…to savor the trip along the way. Life becomes a little more vibrant, a little more intense. I like that.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not demanding more from yourself - expanding and learning as you go - you're choosing a numb existence. You're denying yourself an extraordinary trip.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Some seek the comfort of their therapist's office, other head to the corner pub and dive into a pint, but I chose running as my therapy.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“People think I'm crazy to put myself through such torture, though I would argue otherwise. Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness. Dostoyevsky had it right: 'Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.' Never are my senses more engaged than when the pain sets in. There is a magic in misery. Just ask any runner.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“I run because long after my footprints fade away, maybe I will have inspired a few to reject the easy path, hit the trails, put one foot in front of the other, and come to the same conclusion I did: I run because it always takes me where I want to go.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“If you can't run, then walk. And if you can't walk, then crawl. Do what you have to do. Just keep moving forward and never, ever give up.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Most people never get there. They're afraid or unwilling to demand enough of themselves and take the easy road, the path of least resistance. But struggling and suffering, as I now saw it, were the essence of a life worth living. If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not constantly demanding more from yourself--expanding and learning as you go--your choosing a numb existence. Your denying yourself an extraordinary trip.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“As long as my heart's still in it, I'll keep going. If the passion's there, why stop?...
There'll likely be a point of diminishing returns, a point where my strength will begin to wane. Until then, I'll just keep plodding onward, putting one foot in front of the other to the best of my ability. Smiling the entire time.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Sometimes you've got to go through hell to get to heaven.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Most dreams die a slow death. They're conceived in a moment of passion, with the prospect of endless possibility, but often languish and are not pursued with the same heartfelt intensity as when first born. Slowly, subtly, a dream becomes elusive and ephemeral. People who've lost their own dreams become pessimists and cynics. They feel like the time and devotion spent on chasing their dreams were wasted. The emotional scars last forever.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“How to run an ultramarathon ? Puff out your chest, put one foot in front of the other, and don't stop till you cross the finish line.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Pain is the body's way of ridding itself of weakness.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“The human body has limitations; the human spirit is boundless.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“I wasn't born with any innate talent. I've never been naturally gifted at anything. I always had to work at it. The only way I knew how to succeed was to try harder than anyone else. Dogged persistence is what got me through life. But here was something I was half-decent at. Being able to run great distances was the one thing I could offer the world. Others might be faster, but I could go longer. My strongest quality is that I never give up.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Sure I'm cut but not for the sake of vanity...”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Some seek the comfort of their therapist’s office, others head for the corner pub and dive into a pint, but I choose running as my therapy. It was the best source of renewal there was. I couldn’t recall a single time that I felt worse after a run than before. What drug could compete? As Lily Tomlin said, “Exercise is for people who can’t handle drugs and alcohol.” I’d also come to recognize that the simplicity of running was quite liberating. Modern man has virtually everything one could desire, but too often we’re still not fulfilled. “Things” don’t bring happiness. Some of my finest moments came while running down the open road, little more than a pair of shoes and shorts to my name. A runner doesn’t need much. Thoreau once said that a man’s riches are based on what he can do without. Perhaps in needing less, you’re actually getting more.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“But struggling and suffering, as I now saw it, were the essence of a life worth living. If you’re not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you’re not constantly demanding more from yourself—expanding and learning as you go—you’re choosing a numb existence. You’re denying yourself an extraordinary trip.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. —T. S. Eliot”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Thoreau once said that a man’s riches are based on what he can do without. Perhaps in needing less, you’re actually getting more.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“I had listened to my heart, and this is where it had led me”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“If it comes easy, if it doesn’t require extraordinary effort, you’re not pushing hard enough: It’s supposed to hurt like hell.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“I didn’t go up there to die, I went up there to live.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. —T. S. Eliot The”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“For the better part of my adult life I’d been making deadlines and chasing the next deal. It had been so long since I had stopped to reflect, I wasn’t sure what was important any longer. Things were moving so fast that there was no time to look below the surface. Everyone around me seemed to be operating on the same level, and it just fed on itself. We were all caught up in a whirlwind of important meetings and expensive lunches, do-or-die negotiations, lucrative deals conducted in fancy hotels with warmed towel racks and monogrammed robes.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Any goal worth achieving involves an element of risk.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“With a sudden sense of deflation, I realized that I didn’t care. My check might be big, but it seemed that the toll the job was taking on me was even bigger. Every day I’d field dozens of urgent voicemail messages and dozens more e-mails. Managing all of that incoming noise was nearly impossible. At some point the clamor had begun to manage me. Now I just reacted to the events of the day, not setting my own course in any substantive way, not feeling any real sense of accomplishment. At first the money mattered, because I’d never had any. But now that I’d managed to accumulate a modest”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Revised and Updated: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“these”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Running has taught me that the pursuit of a passion matters more than the passion itself. Immerse yourself in something deeply and with heartfelt intensity—continually improve, never give up—this is fulfillment, this is success.”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: “WOW!! What a ride!”
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner