I also realize that winning doesn't always mean getting first place; it means getting the best out of yourself.

Meb Keflezighi 2014 Boston Marathon winner

One mistake can cost a race; one stray thought from the goal can cause a dream to die. Yet somehow, the end is always reached, the destination is always found, only to become a challenge again the next day. Never are you the best; never are you the worst. We are all floating somewhere in the middle, fighting to take the number one slot at any given time.

Erin Walker Washington State University

A rower is only as strong as their second or third piece. The first piece is when the rower shows their potential. Any piece that follows shows if the rower is able and willing to reach that potential.

Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion.

Simon Sinek

Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, my head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade and yet the menace of the years finds, and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley "Invictus"