Choosing to Run Quotes

“Having passion for work alone might be the ultimate goal of all, because the work is the only thing that is really, truly yours. You’re entitled only to your labor. You’re not entitled to the fruit of your labor. The universe guarantees no results.”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“Getting back in shape is never easy, but, as I kept reminding myself, being in shape is awesome. And for all my aversion to monotony, once I settled back into routine, I thrived on it.”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“are”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“Tolerating what most people would consider intolerable is the flip side of endurance.”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“Badassery thrived in the incremental space between wussing out and being an idiot.”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“Getting back in shape is never easy, but, as I kept reminding myself, being in shape is awesome.”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“Will this help me become a champion? Act as if you are the thing you are trying to become.”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“It annoyed me when I heard "the grind" used in a pejorative way. Sure, it could be tedious, but it was a choice. Go off and do something else if you hate it”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“Running felt like independence. It gave me time that was completely within my control. I was in charge of how much effort I put in and what I took away. I could wrestle with daily problems in my high school world or tune them out and enjoy the scenery. I could run away from things I didn’t want to confront or run straight toward a goal. Choosing to run was the first real decision I ever made. I ran because I wanted to, after years of playing other sports because I was told to. It put distance between who I was and who other people told me I should be.”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“What happened in Boston a year later was extraordinary. All thirty-six thousand runners who were there—from the elites, to the first-timers, to the people who had been trapped on the course and unable to finish—had a dual motivation: We all wanted to do our best and give the middle”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“Josh always says you run the first 20 miles with your head and the last 6.2 with your heart,”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir

“Few things are more enraging to people than to have their identity or their sense of home stripped away. They will die for it, kill for it, sing for it, write poetry for it, and novelize about it. Because without a sense of home and belonging, life becomes barren and rootless. And life as a tumbleweed is no life at all.”
― Des Linden, Choosing to Run: A Memoir