Running Quote for the Week from a 1980 Colaboration of Running Heavyweights

"There is no slot in which to deposit your excuses and alibis at the finish line"

Marty Liquori and John L. Parker in their book "Marty Liquori's Guide for the Elite Runner"


Published by Playboy Press in 1980, Marty Liquori the American record holder in the 5,000 meters collaborated with the author of the running cult classic novel "Once a Runner" to produce a gem of a book that's long out of print.  Marty Liquori's training plan and running advice is fairly straightforward and hardly revolutionary, but what really makes this book great is the all little insights, stories, and motivation Liquori shares with his readers, opening a window into the mind of a runner from the 1970's golden era of American distance running.

This quote is particularly memorable as it underlies a brutal simplicity of distance running, where all the hard work, joy, pain, and passion over months of training is distilled into a finishing place and a number on a stop watch.