Gold Coast Airport Marathon

01 July 2012, Gold Coast, Qld. 

Been there and done that!

Photos from the 2012 GCAM. This was my first ever marathon, and to mark it I put together some running quotes starting with this:

“Running is a mental sport...and we're all insane!” 

― An insane person

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it ill be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” 
― Christopher McDougall, Born to Run...

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start." 

-John Bingham

“When people ask me why I run, I tell them, there's not really a reason, it's just the adrenalin when you start, and the feeling when you cross that finish line, and know that you are a winner no matter what place you got.” 
― Courtney Parsons

“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” 
― Kathrine Switzer, 26.2: Marathon Stories

"Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started."
- Steve Prefontaine

"I believe that every human being has a finite number of heartbeats, and I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises." 
- Neil Armstrong* (I hope this was tongue-in-cheek)

Well, running is not rocket science and we can't all be astronauts, but I think we got the wrong guy to first run on the moon.
Polichay M. Weakarm (cheek-in-tongue).

"Why are all these people following me?"

The casualty ward or recovery area of the 2012 GCAM.

 "My doctor told me that jogging could add years to my life. I think he was right. I feel ten years older already." --Milton Berle 

“I run because if I didn’t, I’d be sluggish and glum and spend too much time on the couch. I run to breathe the fresh air. I run to explore. I run to escape the ordinary. I run…to savor the trip along the way. Life becomes a little more vibrant, a little more intense. I like that.” 
― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man

  "The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare." 

-Juma Ikangaa, 1989 NYC Marathon winner

"Anybody running beats anybody walking, and anybody walking beats anybody sitting." 
--Tom Bunk
Well said Tom. Good you're not full of bunkum. 

"Like most runners, I always want to do better. I am constantly after myself for eating too much and training too little. I know if I weighed a few pounds less and trained a few hours more, my times would improve. But I find the rewards not quite worth the effort...I am forced, therefore to do the best with what I've got. I must get my speed and distance from the most efficient use of my body."
- George Sheehan

 “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” 
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

“Every run is a work of art, a drawing on each day's canvas. Some runs are shouts and some runs are whispers. Some runs are eulogies and others celebrations. When you're angry, a run can be a sharp slap in the face. When happy, a run is your song. And when your running progresses enough to become the chrysalis through which your life is viewed, motivation is almost beside the point. Rather, it's running that motivates you for everything else the day holds.” 
― Dagny Scott Barrios, Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running

“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they'll go to any length to live longer. But don't think that's the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as whole. I believe many runners would agree” 
― Haruki Murakami

“Running isn't a sport for pretty boys...It's about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet. It’s the frozen spit on your chin and the nausea in your gut. It's about throbbing calves and cramps at midnight that are strong enough to wake the dead. It's about getting out the door and running when the rest of the world is only dreaming about having the passion that you need to live each and every day with. It's about being on a lonely road and running like a champion even when there's not a single soul in sight to cheer you on. Running is all about having the desire to train and persevere until every fiber in your legs, mind, and heart is turned to steel. And when you've finally forged hard enough, you will have become the best runner you can be. And that's all that you can ask for.” 
― Paul Maurer, The Gift - A Runner's Story

"The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself -- the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us -- that's where it's at."
- Jesse Owens

"In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that." 
-Fred Lebow, New York City Marathon co-founder

The Brisbane Parkrun team was there in force. Well done newfarm parkrunners.

Nearing the finish, I must have been getting delirious. I thought I was in Japan. Then I saw the signs...

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
-T. S. Eliot 

"We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves...The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom..." 
-Sir Roger Bannister

“Running! If there's any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can't think of what it might be. In running the mind flees with the body, the mysterious efflorescence of language seems to pulse in the brain, in rhythm with our feet and the swinging of our arms.” 
― Joyce Carol Oates

  “Of course it was painful, and there were times when, emotionally, I just wanted to chuck it all. But pain seems to be a precondition for this kind of sport. If pain weren't involved, who in the world would ever go to the trouble of taking part in sports like the triathlon or the marathon, which demand such an investment of time and energy? It's precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive--or at least a partial sense of it. Your quality of experience is based not on standards such as time or ranking, but on finally awakening to an awareness of the fluidity within action itself.” 

― Haruki Murakami

“If you don't have answers to your problems after a four-hour run, you ain't getting them.” 
― Christopher McDougall

 "I didn't train all that time just to come here and get it over with as fast as I can." 

-John Bingham.

*postscript. 
Sad news today 25 August 2012 that Neil Armstrong has passed on. He was an inspiration and hero to generations of young people all around the world, including a young lad from mainit who can only dream of being an astronaut - m polichay. Vale Neil Armstrong.