The preacher says that to get wisdom in the better than gold. Few men believe this today. As a result, many strive after wind and reap the whirlwind but the wise man gains wisdom and understanding. He profits from it far more than the man who gains the whole world and yet forfeits his own soul.
So, this book is not about running, really, or sports or the many and even sometimes hokey clichés that develop in all of these areas. This book is about life. For those of you who have done much living at all, you will realize that life is like a sporting event. A lot of ink has been spilled making the comparisons and many have benefited. I, myself, have benefited.
Growing up, most of what I learned that was worth learning, I learned on a sporting field. It was there that I learned about pain, perseverance, failure, success, and sorrow. It was there that I had some of my most exhilarating success and some of my most disappointing failures. The old thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. We say this, sometimes jokingly, but we mean it and it is more than just an old sports story that we tell. For many of us, the lessons learned on those fields or courts, are the very lessons that helped to carry us through times of immense tragedy. Or to help give us ballast and a reality check in a time of an extraordinary mountain top experience. We know that defeat is not necessarily failure. We know that that kind of disappointment feels better tomorrow. We know that the highest exhilaration must wake up tomorrow and go to work, or feed the dog, or empty the trash.
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