You wouldn’t think a quote would have much power to change your life, but they do. They can be a framework for how to think. I’ve collected these over the years and wanted to share. These quotes have profoundly impacted me, and you might have seen them in some of my posts. After each quote, I share how I interpret it and use it daily.

“Without noticing we’re doing it, we treat the future as intrinsically more valuable than the present. And yet the future never seems to arrive.”

Act NOW, do what you want NOW. There’s no point in waiting, as the “future” never comes.

“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”

Comparison is the thief of joy, right? Don’t compare your life to someone else; you have no idea what they had to do to get there. Racing is never a level playing field. If you win one day, it doesn’t mean you’re better; maybe you just have fewer obligations than your competitor.

It’s not the weight of the load that breaks you down, it’s how you carry it.

It’s your thoughts about the situation that cause the most damage, in racing and in life. Those who remain happy in a race tend to do better. Smile more in racing you’ll have better outcomes.

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”

I do my dance, and if you profit, so be it. I don’t care what others say or think about my actions. I put myself out there. I create videos and write blog posts, because I enjoy having a voice, and who knows, maybe I’ve inspired someone.

“Never look up to anyone; never look down on anyone.” If you look up to someone, you will exaggerate their positive qualities; if you look down on someone, you will exaggerate their negative qualities. But if you simply look—not for something, but just look—you will see things just as they are.”

Accept people for how they are, don’t hold them to some high standard.

“Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.”

You will always have something going wrong in life. Learn to solve problems and move forward. It never gets easy, you get better at dealing with adversity.

“Not everything that can be counted counts. Not everything that counts can be counted”

Social media is the biggest offender of this. Likes, kudos, subscribers… They don’t matter. They are empty gestures, so treat them as such.

“Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.”

Happiness is a nebulous term. I prefer just being content. I add things to my calendar to look forward to, like races, vacations, and meetups with friends. I have a family to love and plenty to do with my job and coaching.

“If you want to know your past, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions.”

What you do today has a huge impact on your future. Stop creating problems for the future version of you. Being lazy or procrastinating now only hurts future YOU.

“Death doesn’t need to be treated as an enemy to be able to delight in life…I encourage people to make peace with death, to see it as a culminating adventure of this adventure of life. It is not an error, it is not a failure. It is taking off a tight shoe that you’ve worn well.”

Once we die, this whole charade and social construct will be over. Is that so bad? I don’t have a death wish, but I am not afraid of death itself, more of the slow dying part.

“If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you will keep getting what you’ve always gotten.”

Nothing changes if you don’t change first, you need to do NEW things every year to increase novelty in life. Novelty is the spice of life.

I am a master of my emotions, if I feel depressed I will sing. If I feel sad I will laugh. If I feel ill I will double my labor. If I feel fear I will plunge ahead. If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice. If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come. If I feel incompetent I will remember past success. Today I am a master of my emotions.

You can CHOOSE to be happy. Isn’t that crazy? Throw on a favorite song from your youth. You will quickly notice how your mood changes. Moods like thoughts can be treated like a passing storm. They are just thoughts, you don’t have to believe them.

“When you get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding… you can be yourself. Relaxed. You’ll no longer be driving with your brakes on.”

To do well in racing you need to let go of your fixation on the outcome. No cherished outcomes!

“Perfect love casts out fear. Where there is love there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy; my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I will not feel sorry for myself; I enjoy your company immensely, but I do not cling.” You can see a person as a sunset, for all to enjoy. Owned by no one.

I don’t demand anything from anyone in my life. Just be you, and I accept you as you are.

“My work isn’t done tonight. My work was done 3 months ago, and I just have to show up.”

On race day, all the work is done. Now it’s time to enjoy the fruit of your labor. Stop worrying, just let go, and enjoy the race.

“Learn to love slow progress. Learn to forgive yourself for the inevitable backsliding. And of course, expect to be uncomfortable along the way.”

Coaching has taught me this in spades. Progress to the things you want in life is painfully slow. Be patient.

When I prayed for his life it was an act of desperation fueled by the hope that the religion of my youth might yet save what was most precious to me. When he died, a victim of random cell mutation within his otherwise perfect body, I was left with the conviction that no god who would allow such a thing to happen was worthy of a moments more of my contemplation. I envy those who can retain their faith through such a loss and even imagine a purpose to it. I cannot. But still I hope for a reunion with the soul of my departed son, so what kind of Agnostic am I?

This is not a quote, but an excerpt from a book that had a profound impact. I can’t imagine his pain and suffering in losing a child. I feel as though there are still massive amounts of loss I’ve yet to experience. I am grateful for the time I have with those while I have it.

Humor is a form of sharing, an interpersonal exercise. To share laughter is a way of affirming that we are all in this lifeboat together. The sea surrounds us; rescue is uncertain; control is illusory. Still we sail on.

Don’t take life so seriously… Nobody gets out alive, so laugh, smile, and have fun while you are here.

Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about…

Just be kind to people that might be mean. They could be suffering in ways you couldn’t possibly imagine.

“As we have seen, whatever you do with your body, mind, or energy leaves a certain imprint. These imprints configure themselves into tendencies. These tendencies have been traditionally described in India by a wonderfully apt word: vasana. Literally, vasana means smell. This “smell” is generated by a vast accumulation of impressions caused by your physical, mental, emotional, and energy actions. Depending upon the type of smell you emit, you attract certain kinds of life situations to yourself.”

You know the “smell” of a person, it’s their mannerisms and what makes that person unique. It’s why I feel like some people repel, or attract you to them. It’s their smell! The people in your life should have a “good” smell.

You are your only obstacle. Every failure teaches a lesson. Watch your children learn by failure, and provide guidance.

You have to fail and lose to grow past your current level. There is no getting around that. If you meet someone great at what they do, odds are they have failed a 1000 different ways.

“The danger of an adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort.”

One amazing adventure can keep me going for months. To me, that’s what running provides. A true sense of adventure away from the ease and comfort.

“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”

Don’t be all talk and no action. Practice what you preach.

If I was them I’d be them.

It’s the idea that any person you meet is made up of the experiences they had. Don’t judge them, you would act exactly as they do if in their shoes.

Are you playing a game worth winning?

Will you look back at your years knowing you made the right choices? Was your time wasted? Love what you do, and do it well!

People won’t remember what you said, how you acted, or, even what you did. They will remember how you made them feel.

Your interactions in life might be the only thing left once you are gone. The memory of you survives in the people you interact with. People will remember what it was like to be around you vs what you did. Treat people kindly. That’s it.

Those are some of my top quotes; I continue to add to my list daily as I come across them. Please share your quotes in the comments below; I love hearing the ones that have affected people the most and WHY.

What went right?

A lightweight kit, one water bottle, and minimal food. I had two packs of shot blocks, two RX bars, and tailwind packs to refill my bottle. The food was perfect. I saw the predicted weather and I knew this was going to be a fast race, only slightly sloppy in some sections, but a non-issue. The Wissahickon doesn’t hold water on the single tracks, just on Forbidden Drive. Had there been hot weather, I would have changed my strategy for hydration, but I ended up using one bottle and skipping some aid stations. This worked very well. I could tell I wasn’t sweating, and I was making sure to keep eating about 300 calories after the first hour.

I caught this dude sleeping at an aid station. Always grab and GO!

My mindset going into this was that I was racing MYSELF, nobody else. I didn’t care how I did in this race. I had originally thought about not bringing my hat camera since the video I got last year was decent. I was GLAD I did. Either I have gotten better at editing video, or just the clips came together well because I feel like I made a better video than the year before.

What went wrong?

I set a Pace Pro strategy on my Garmin watch for 9:20, which was a stretch as I knew I was still not fully recovered from the 100-mile race. This should have been more realistic and maybe a little bit slower. Part of me thought I should just take a shot at it since there wasn’t much to lose. I got a little lazy with putting Tailwind in my refills and just used water after the first bottle. There was one slip-up I made with pace. When I finished the first lap, I was so excited and started pushing too hard of a pace. That was a bad decision as it just intensified the effects on my already tired legs. I should have monitored the pace better and dialed it back some. I shouldn’t have had a 7:37 pace on mile 14. What happens is when you tax the system like that, it puts stress on your legs on the downhills. Huge mistake, that did nothing but wreck my legs and give them a really heavy feeling as the miles proceeded. You have to slow down for downhills; there’s no benefit in blasting down them with the amount of damage it does to your legs. Next time I will exercise more restraint.

Stephen cut down the tree the night before to add an obstacle

What I would do differently?

There wasn’t much that went wrong with this race. I was very dialed in for the first lap but got too excited on the second. I need to be patient, and I have had that same thing happen in 100 milers too. You start feeling good so you push, but that’s exactly the time you should be holding back. If you feel good in a marathon, it WILL pass.

So, I kept running my race. I didn’t care who passed me, or what else happened out there. I was just racing myself. Now, I didn’t beat my previous time, but I know that every day you line up at the starting line, the variables change. Conditions are never 100% the same; you get what the day gives you, you control what you can, and you have fun. My ability to stay happy increases my performance more than anything else. Laughing, smiling, and knowing there are just a handful of these experiences in life keep me pushing hard in most races because they are a rare opportunity at this stage in my life.

Getting a hug from my family at the finish line.

On a side note, it was pretty funny how many people saw last year’s video on YouTube and mentioned something. I was glad that it was helpful to some, and several people said they used my GPX file from the site to train on the course. That is why I am doing all of this—to help others achieve their running dreams and goals.

The last piece of advice I’ll leave you with for training is this: My favorite new quote is, “Easy for those who work hard, hard for those who work easy.” If you found this race difficult, chances are it was either your first time, or you didn’t train on enough hills. It would be best if you replicated the vertical gain per mile in your training runs. For instance, this run has an average of 3,300 feet of elevation gain over 26 miles, which is about 127 feet per mile. So if your training runs don’t average that leading up to the Philadelphia Trail Marathon, you’ll likely have a tough day. It’s the best advice I can offer for those who want to perform well in this race.

Let me know in the comments below how your Philadelphia Trail Marathon went. What would you have done differently if you had the chance? Thanks for reading, and thanks to all those who help make this race possible.