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ContactRunning with Bruce Lee [QUOTE]
September 28th, 2010 by Mike
From a close friend of Bruce Lee’s…
Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-tow minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a-half minutes per mile].
So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.”
I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.”
He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.”
I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.”
So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out.
I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” — and we’re still running — “if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles.
Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
I’m a huge Bruce Lee fan, and a practitioner of martial arts myself. The story/quote speaks volumes. The Dragon was adept at speaking high philosophy in a common tongue.
What is there to say? I could comment, or stay speechless in the sheer beauty of what should be practiced everywhere.
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Who wrote this? It’s a great story, but only if it’s true, you know? Which “close friend” told this story originally?
Hi Trevor,
Not sure, and it’s been so long that I’ve forgotten where I originally pulled it. If I remember correctly, I think there was a name of one his his producer buddies associated with it.
From “The Art of Expressing the Human Body” By Bruce Lee/John Little
Thanks, random. Always wondered where it was from.
hess badddassssss
This is like an inspiration to us all, this is Motivation to the fullest!
Words to live by.
[...] I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.” So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” Help, Tips, Advice, and Stories | Quitting Adderall [...]
Mike, I just adore your website. Thanks to you I’ve got my life together from a previous 7 year 60MG a day adderall habit. You saved me. My relationship. Children custody. My everything. I just–i just love your help.
True or not.
Its meaning is priceless!
[...] until I learned more about who Bruce Lee was as a man, he was philosophical and determined, I think this was the first story about his character that caught my attention. Then I got around to watching “Enter the Dragon” and I was a fan for [...]