One of my running heroes is Juma Ikangaa.  He came in second 3 years in a row at Boston in 1988, 1989 and 1990.  In 1988 he lost by 1 second in a final sprint at the finish against Ibrahim Hussein.  Also in 1988 he came in second in two other marathons for a total of three 2nd place finishes in one year.  His finish times were all in the 2:08 range.  I continue to admire that he did not get discouraged and kept pushing himself.  He went on to win New York in 1989 in 2:08:01 setting a record that lasted 12 years. 

How tough do you have to be to run three sub 2:09s in one year?  A 2:08 to 2:09 marathon translates to 4:53 to 4:55 pace which is about 73 to 74 seconds per quarter.  Since a marathon is ~105 quarters you can say he did three workouts of 105 quarters at 73 with no rest.  That would be 315 quarters in one year at 73.  When I ran at my best 12 years ago I could do 12 quarters at 73 with 200 meter rest and that workout would kill me.  It would take me 26 weeks of those workouts to equal what Ikangaa did in 3 workouts.  He did all that and still only got second place!

The take away from all this is that there will always be someone faster than you and there will always be someone slower.