In my country, I am just a common man... a nobody.
— Emil Zatopek
I will run with perfect style when they start judging races for their beauty, like figure-skating. For now, I just want to run as fast as possible.
I didn't know much. It wasn't possible to buy a book about Nurmi, but I found out that in order to be faster over 10,000m, he ran 5,000m many times in training. And to be better at 5,000m, he ran 1,500m many times. And to be better at 1,500m, he ran four times 400m in training.
You can't climb up to the second floor without a ladder. When you set your aim too high and don't fulfill it, then your enthusiasm turns to bitterness. Try for a goal that's reasonable, and then gradually raise it.
What has passed is already finished with. What I find more interesting is what is still to come.
There is a great advantage in training under unfavorable conditions. It is better to train under bad conditions, for the difference is then a tremendous relief in a race.
Men, today we die a little.
If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's besides the point. It's simply that I just have to.
A runner must run with dreams in his heart, not money in his pocket.
Sometimes I feel that old desire. Then my body tells me it is 50 years old. I take the easy way instead.
I'm not interested in how long I can hold out, but in how fast I can reach the finishing line.
I had started as an average athlete - a normal boy. It took me three years to win a race. I was glad that I endured those three years - that I did not give up.
Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast.
We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.
The athlete of today is not an athlete alone. He's the center of a team - doctors, scientists, coaches, agents and so on.
It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys.
Great is the victory, but the friendship of all is greater.
If I run 100 meters 30 times, that is 3 kilometers and no longer a sprint.
You must be fast enough - you must have endurance. So you run fast for speed and repeat it many times for endurance.
The childhood games ended for me when I was 14 and I finished school. I had to find a job, not an easy thing in those days.
When I was young, I was too slow. I thought I must learn to run fast by practicing to run fast, so I ran 100 meters fast 20 times. Then I came back, slow, slow, slow.
To boast of a performance which I cannot beat is merely stupid vanity. And if I can beat it that means there is nothing special about it. What has passed is already finished with. What I find more interesting is what is still to come.
My running was very simple; it was out of myself.
If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.
An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.
