I've been running like this since I was seven.
My motivation to compete was always about improving one year to the next. At 34, I realised I'd never run any quicker, so why hang on? But I love running and still run along woodland trails and beaches every few days.
I wouldn't say there was a moment of realization when I wanted to be a runner; it was always just something I was.
I'm retiring from competitive running, not from running. You cannot stop running, this is my life.
Endurance running was my passion, my ride. So here, I was in the driver's seat, running for two days straight pushing the mental and physical limits striving to be better, to go farther, to give more.
If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.
The desire to run comes from deep within us — from the unconscious, the intuitive, the instinctive. And that desire becomes a passion when the runner learns to race. Then, the race becomes all — the lovemaking of the runner.
I want to, at the end of the day, be able to say, 'I am a runner.'
A shoe dog is somebody that really loves shoes, and that was me. I was a runner... that became important to me, and it's been with me ever since.
