When I was young, I was too slow. I thought I must learn to run fast by practicing to run fast, so I ran 100 meters fast 20 times. Then I came back, slow, slow, slow.

I had started as an average athlete - a normal boy. It took me three years to win a race. I was glad that I endured those three years - that I did not give up.

In my country, I am just a common man... a nobody.

I'm not interested in how long I can hold out, but in how fast I can reach the finishing line.

Sometimes I feel that old desire. Then my body tells me it is 50 years old. I take the easy way instead.

You must be fast enough - you must have endurance. So you run fast for speed and repeat it many times for endurance.

The childhood games ended for me when I was 14 and I finished school. I had to find a job, not an easy thing in those days.

I will run with perfect style when they start judging races for their beauty, like figure-skating. For now, I just want to run as fast as possible.

I didn't know much. It wasn't possible to buy a book about Nurmi, but I found out that in order to be faster over 10,000m, he ran 5,000m many times in training. And to be better at 5,000m, he ran 1,500m many times. And to be better at 1,500m, he ran four times 400m in training.

If I run 100 meters 30 times, that is 3 kilometers and no longer a sprint.