Who is it that said something like, "No one will care if you quit, but you'll remember it for ever."

I probably butchered that badly.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Jack London (1876 - 1916)

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort.
Herm Albright (1876 - 1944)

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of
strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
Vince Lombardi (1913—-1970)

And, my favorite....."Eddie would go."

Mental training is sometimes an overlooked area of IM training. I take it pretty seriously, and had a variety of visualizations and mental strategies in place that I planned to use during the IM.

Of course, I thought of my family and why I was doing it, and all of that great stuff. But face it, it's a long time out there on the course, and at least for my own sake, I needed more than that to fall back on.

My favorite was the tour across my home state. I divided the marathon into four 6-mile segments (I threw out the 1st and last miles because I knew those would be easy to get through with the crowds and all). For each 1/4 of the marathon, I focused on a different part of my homestate, starting at the eastern border and going towards the west: High Desert, Mountains, Valley, Coast. At any point in that section of the marathon when things got hard, I just thought about all the places I'd been and memories I had from that portion of my state "tour".

The rest is in this post on my blog.

There are a couple of quotes that I repeat over and over in my head. I have no clue who said them or where I found them, but I have them written down and I will repeat them many times throughout.

Some people consider the marathon the ultimate endurance event. We consider it a cool down.
The physical pain you feel can't compare to the emotional pain you feel when you quit.
Man, defeat is worse than dying, because you have to live with defeat.
Swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles and brag the rest of your life.

Finally my favorite:
I have to pass that person in front of me, they look like a pansy.

I haven't done an ironman, but i have done a half. I just prentended there were fly hunnies in bikini's cheering me on the whole time...

I'm a big beleiver in mental training for an Ironman. I made this list when I did my first Ironman. It's made up of things I've heard or read that I like or fit my racing style plus racing cues for myself. As the day gets closer I'll post it and read it just about everyday. It's a living document as it changes a little for every Ironman.
Cheers!

I love the quotes many of you have offered. The post with the ex-wife ridicule as motivation to keep going was interesting. I can identify with that. It seems that from childhood on all I heard about was what I "couldn't" do. And so I set ou to prove them wrong. Without the naysayers I would have never pushed myself to what I "could" do and "could" be, Rom 8:28

ya, my Dad told me with a flip of his wrist, "YOU'RE not gonna do a TRIATHLON!" Well, I showed HIM! Now he just thinks I'm a nut who's gone off the deep end.

To help motivate all you IM'ers out there, I will therefore state:
"I don't believe any of you can do it because you are not strong enough."
now go and prove me wrong.

Hahahahaha! I was drinking tea when I read this thread and I laughed so hard I spit it out. PoC, you might owe me a new keyboard.

In the swim I kept singing to myself: Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..." (From Finding Nemo :)
On the bike it was getting tougher, especially on the last half. I kept telling myself that I could keep doing this, I looked around me, and enjoyed the scenery, after the century mark, I just kept getting amazed that I kept beating my own distance record for every mile I kept going.
On the run, it became really difficult. The first 1/3 I thought about how good I was doing, the next 1/3 how much I had left, and how much I was hurting. I made up my own rules for when to run and when I could allow myself to walk (they didn't work very well, though). I also wanted to quit, but I knew that as soon as I would have given my timing chip away, I would regret, as well as I would regret the next couple of years (I've tried that before with an open water swim - and I didn't want that to happen again), so I kept going. Quitting was my biggest fear, and the dissapointment to myself

Priceless!!!

i've never done one, but i know a crazy ultramarathoner who has done 3 150milers and a countless number of 100s,50s,and marathons. He said not to EVER think of the word QUIT. I know that's not a saying to keep you going...but at least it'll prevent you from QUITTINg (no pun intended)

That should help all right: A little financial motivator. Not to mention also that maybe you took time from your family, your career, plus incurred the travel expenses too. And what do you say when you get back and asked, "well, how did you do?"
Do you want to have to say, "I wimped out?"

"Look how far i've gone"...I would repeat this over and over and realize how much I had already accomplished that day during the race. Of course this does not work best when you just start the swim :)
I imagined what it would sound like to hear them say my name and "You are an Ironman" as i crossed the finish line...I did this over and over during my training and when the actual moment came- WOW! amazing.

Ha ha, the announcer actually missed me!
No matter, they dubbed it in in the after-race video that they try to sell you, LOL.