“I am so afraid. Give me the strength to die well”
William Wallace
as imagined by Randall Wallace, screenwriter of “Braveheart”
(chapter 20 of DVD)

“They fought like warrior poets…and won their freedom.”
Robert the Bruce
as imagined by Randall Wallace, screenwriter of “Braveheart”
(final line of the movie)

“It’s not what you are underneath. It’s what you do that defines you.”
Rachel Dawes to Bruce Wayne (Thanks to Scott Winter for correcting me)
as imagined by Christopher Nolan and David Goyer, screenwriters of “Batman Begins”

“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.”
Juma Ikangaa
Tanzanian marathon runner

Citius. Altius. Fortius.
(Swifter. Higher. Stronger.)
The Olympic Motto

“Where there is no emotion, there is no motion.”
George Shehan
author of running books

“Life is not the number of breaths you take but the moments that take your breaths away.”
Various places including Alex Hitchens in the movie “Hitch”
as imagined by Kevin Bisch, screenwriter


“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”

“The brick walls are there for a reason: to prove to us how badly we want something.”
Randy Pausch
former professor at Carnegie Mellon University and author of Last Lecture

Every champion was once a challenger.
From an online ad for The Breeder’s Cup
Backer Spielvogel Bates, agency

“When the Bible says that God sticks with us, the emphasis is on this dependable personal relationship, that he is always there for us…that he ‘sticks with us’ is the reason Christians can look back over a long life crisscrossed with cruelties, unannounced tragedies, unexpected setbacks, sufferings, disappointments, depressions—look back across all that and see it as a road of blessing, and make a song out of what we see. ..God sticks to his relationship. He establishes a personal relationship with us and stays with it. The central reality for Christians is the personal, unalterable, persevering commitment God makes to us. Perseverance is not the result of our determination, it is the result of God’s faithfulness. We survive in the way of faith not because we have extraordinary stamina but because God is righteous, because God sticks with us. Christian discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God’s righteousness and less and less attention to our own.”
Eugene Peterson
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
Steve Prefontaine
Rock Star runner and Olympian