"This is a marathon; this isn't a sprint.  I've run four marathons.  One of the things I've learned in training and preparing for a marathon is that you don't worry about the people who are in front of you in the early miles, because oftentimes the people who are out in front early on are the ones who don't make it to the finish line.  They run out of gas...  The same thing is true if you watch a NASCAR race.  The cars who are the first few slots on the first lap are not typically the ones who see the checkered flag.  So what I've got to do is to do what I've always done when I run marathons, and that's run my own race at my own pace and keep my focus on the finish line, not the start."