I just wonder how this all went so horribly wrong. It's really sad when you read this interview.
Running reminds us of the struggle against pain, the struggle against being lazy, the struggle against succumbing to the easy path.
So we run in competitions, and they learn to run to win. But slowly we start evolving [towards] the real value of it, [which] is just the ability to be able to run, and to enjoy the actual running. Not how fast you did it, not if you beat somebody, but just that you did it, the sheer joy of it.
Running is more than just beating somebody else, or covering the distance in a certain amount of time. There's actually a pleasure in doing that. But it's more of a self-fulfilling pleasure, not [because] you beat somebody.
But this was from 18 years ago, so maybe his views have changed a lot since then.