Pain is no friend of mine

"No pain no gain." Or, as Emil Zapotek is reputed to have said: It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys."

Yes, well, Zapotek was a machine. I'm no machine.

Being sidelined by some achilles tendonitis, missing out on some of the best days to run here in Vermont (July and August), does not have me singing the praises of pain.

Pain is not your friend. Pain is not the path to gain.

Pain is the lunatic hitchhiker you pick up at night in the desert, who keeps saying "just one more exit, man, I promise."