Coach Vigil believed you had to become a strong person before you could become a strong runner.

“Try the meditation of the trail, just walk along looking at the trail at your feet and don’t look about and

‘When you run on the earth and run with the earth, you can run forever.’ ”

making an act requiring fierceness and confidence,”

Relax enough, and your body becomes so familiar with the cradle-rocking rhythm that you almost forget you’re moving. And once you break through to that soft, half-levitating flow, that’s when the moonlight and champagne show up: “You have to be in tune with your body, and know when you can push it and when to back off,” Ann would explain. You have

Shiva the Destroyer would snuff us out by doing … nothing.

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and turns into a racket.”

White butt? Must have been a while since Fisher swiveled around for a look at his own behind. And what was he here for, anyway: a race, or a race war?

“Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction.”