Quotes by Don Kardong

About Don Kardong:

Donald ("Don") Franklin Kardong is a noted runner and author from the United States. He represented his native country in the men's marathon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Sure, the first light snowfall may be a chance to dance giddily, leaving squeaky footprints through the neighborhood, marking the runner's right to the domain. But later drubbings of snow merely complicate running. Snow turns to ice, to slush, to ice...

Don Kardong

An overzealous parent is just one example of the kind of Problem Mom or Dad who pops up at track meets, threatening to put a damper on the day.

Don Kardong

Running at night used to frighten me. Part of it was simply safety, the question of whether level ground would truly appear under each tentative footstep, and whether the temporary but complete blindness suffered while running toward headlights was, ...

Don Kardong

For most teenage runners, the right foods means a varied diet, decreasing the amount of fat found in the typical American diet and replacing those calories with carbohydrates. Avoid saturated fats, such as those found in fried foods, and eat plenty o...

Don Kardong

Eventually, competition and adventure wane, and I enter my ibuprofen phase. Tweaky hamstrings and achy knees restrict mileage, but I continue running for health, sanity, and the ritual of a Sunday trail run with like-minded buddies. We discuss the na...

Don Kardong

A good teammate is someone willing to get outside of personal thoughts and emotions, a friend who tries to understand, appreciate, and encourage other members of the team.

Don Kardong

Support the athlete, encourage the team, help the coach. That's what good track parents do.

Don Kardong

There's always somebody doing something more extreme than you are. It used to be that if you ran the marathon, that was the end of it.

Don Kardong

When I started running, a gadget was a wristwatch with a secondhand on it.

Don Kardong

New nemeses keep racing fresh, but I also find challenge in going longer, with only the distance as foe. I run my first 50-mile race, journey across the Grand Canyon and back, circumnavigate Mount St. Helens.

Don Kardong

The Kenyans beat up on the American runners in every road race every weekend of the year, but we're way ahead of them in the number and quality of our Elvis impersonators. We get our X-Men and gorillas.

Don Kardong

Prior to the 1976 Olympics, I was a 5,000m runner.

Don Kardong

Cheer for your teammates, regardless of whether they're fast or slow, veteran or neophyte, varsity or JV. Or rally the spirits of someone who's had a bad performance. Also, encourage stragglers during tough workouts; jog back to 'pick up' a runner wh...

Don Kardong

Clearly, there are things a runner does, intentionally or not, that disrupt team cohesion. And there are also things a runner doesn't do that can cause problems: not trying, showing up late, skipping team-building activities, and ignoring the coach's...

Don Kardong

Coaches know that a parent publicly scolding his kid after a race will not help the athlete perform better.

Don Kardong

When an athlete has relegated the persistent rumors of cheating to the back room of the mind, he hasn't really forgotten them. And when he glances back to where rumors hunker in the darkness, he hopes with a savage heart that somehow, some day, those...

Don Kardong

If an athlete takes a shortcut - literally, for example, by running a street that shortens the marathon route by a quarter mile - he or she doesn't have an insurmountable advantage. But it's an unfair advantage, and in a field of equally matched athl...

Don Kardong

My introduction to dissociation had been at Kenneth Cooper's clinic in January of 1975. Cooper had assembled a gaggle of top American distance runners and a half dozen top researchers, the intent being to figure out what the difference was - physiolo...

Don Kardong

When I went to the starting line of the 1976 Olympic marathon in Montreal, it was with the unsettling conviction that some of my competitors were cheaters.

Don Kardong

Train at the same pace day after day, week after week, year after year, and that's the kind of running the body adapts to. But break out of that comfort zone with a little speedwork now and then, and the body will learn to deal with the new demands.

Don Kardong

Author Bio

  • NameDon Kardong
  • DescriptionAmerican journalist
  • BornDecember 22, 1948
  • ProfessionJournalist; Marathon Runner