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
To make your life a work of art, you must have the material to work with. The race, any race, is just such an experience.
Why race? The need to be tested, perhaps; the need to take risks; and the chance to be number one.
If you want to win anything - a race, yourself, your life - you have to go a little berserk.
The most important thing I learned [from running] is that there is only one runner in this race, and that is me.
Of all the races, there is no better stage for heroism than a marathon.
No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life's most rewarding experiences. My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: each race a drama, each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another, and each race telling me more about myself and others.
Anything that changes your values changes your behavior.
The music of a marathon is a powerful strain, one of those tunes of glory. It asks us to forsake pleasures, to discipline the body, to find courage, to renew faith and to become one's own person, utterly and completely.
People begin running for any number of motives, but we stick to it for one basic reason-to find out who we really are.
There is no substitute for learning to live in our bodies.
The key then is to find your own mountain, otherwise you will be competing with people who are not even in your event, and running up against the 'shoulds' and 'oughts' of that world, and the inevitable frustration and depression and feelings of failure. A person can be complete or incomplete, but one thing is sure, he cannot be someone else.
If you want to find the answers to the Big Questions about your soul, you'd best begin with the Little Answers about your body.
Exercise: you don't have time not to
Sport is an essential element of education.