1. Never quit - Always finish practice, a trial or a meet no matter how you feel. Develop "staying power" not a "quitting habit."
2. After a race or a hard run, never fall to the ground. (Sit if you have to). This action indicates either that you have not trained properly or that you are trying to bring attention to yourself. Jogging and walking around after running brings on the quickest recovery.
3. Always do your best. Never settle for less (100% at all times makes champions).Take pride in your ruining. Try to stay up with the better runners a little longer each time you run.
4. Master pace and constantly think in terms of increasing the rhythm and rate of running.
5. If you run hard and get beat, keep you head high and congratulate the winner. If you gave 100% you have nothing to be upset about. You are a winner.
6. Take care of your feet. Report any injuries right away.
7. The more work you do, the more you will be able to do.
8. The mental equipment for cross country is made up of ambition, courage, good pace judgment and more ambition and courage. Remember, your opponents are tired too, out fight them to the finish. You have to learn to defy fatigue. Absolute training and competitive experience in practice and in meets will develop this quality.
9. Sprinters are born, distance runners are developed through running distance.
10. Do not set pace on a windy day. It is best to follow someone of equal or better ability, letting them take the force of the wind.
11. Disguise feelings of tiredness as long as possible. This is mental. You can do this by keeping a positive picture in your mind and keeping an aggressive attitude in your running. Remember, your opponents are distressed too. If they think they are in more pain than you are, they may give up. Ask coach Windom about this, he has a lot of stories of little mental games he plays while he is racing.
12. Go by opponents quickly to discourage them and get them in mental fatigue.
13. A strong finishing kick means little unless you are close enough to the front to make it effective. Many times runners who are too far back put on a big kick only to fall short at the finish. You have got to stay close so your kick will reap rewards.
14. Everyone can be a good cross country runner. To be great you must learn to discipline yourself mentally and physically.
15. Complaining, moaning, groaning, dissatisfaction, and grumbling are characteristics of losers. A negative mental attitude is one of the worst personal characteristics an athlete can have.
16. There's a price on everything, including success.

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