George A. Sheehan
George A. Sheehan
George A. Sheehanwas a physician, senior athlete and author best known for his writings about the sport of running. His book, "Running & Being: The Total Experience," became a New York Times best seller. He was a track star in college, and later became a cardiologist like his father. He served as a doctor in the United States Navy in the South Pacific during World War II on the destroyer USS Daly. He married Mary Jane Fleming and they raised...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth5 November 1918
CountryUnited States of America
The most important thing I learned [from running] is that there is only one runner in this race, and that is me.
The distance runner is mysteriously reconciling the separations of body and mind, of pain and pleasure, of the conscious and the unconscious. He is repairing the rent, and healing the wound in his divided self. He has found a way to make the ordinary extraordinary; the commonplace unique; the everyday eternal.
Once you have decided that winning isn't everything, you become a winner.
The true runner is a very fortunate person. He has found something in him that is just perfect.
The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank.
To keep from decaying, to be a winner, the athlete must accept pain - not only accept it, but look for it, live with it, learn not to fear it.
I have met my hero, and he is me.
The desire to run comes from deep within us - from the unconscious, the instinctive, the intuitive.
The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.
For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to the rain, and look to the day when it is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight.
Of all the races, there is no better stage for heroism than a marathon.
Some think guts is sprinting at the end of a race. But guts is what got you there to begin with. Guts start back in the hills with 6 miles to go and you're thinking of how you can get out of this race without anyone noticing. Guts begin when you still have forty minutes of torture left and you're already hurting more than you ever remember.
Life is a positive-sum game. Everyone from the gold medallist to the last finisher can rejoice in a personal victory.
Every runner is an experiment of one.