An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.
If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.
Great is the victory, but the friendship of all is greater.
It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys.
A runner must run with dreams in his heart, not money in his pocket.
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.
Men, today we die a little.
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.
Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast.
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.
My running was very simple; it was out of myself.
In my country, I am just a common man... a nobody.
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.
What has passed is already finished with. What I find more interesting is what is still to come.
I'm not interested in how long I can hold out, but in how fast I can reach the finishing line.
The athlete of today is not an athlete alone. He's the center of a team - doctors, scientists, coaches, agents and so on.
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 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.
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.
