Motivational Running Quotes

Life (and running) is not all about time but about our experiences along the way.

It's a treat being a runner, out in the world by yourself with not a soul to make you bad-tempered or tell you what to do.

We may train or peak for a certain race, but running is a lifetime sport.

What is the purpose of any one workout? Enjoyment? Improvement? Coach said so? Whatever, the hour you run often is the best hour of the day.

Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest.

Don't feel guilty about driving somewhere nice to run. If people can drive to a park to eat hot dogs, you can drive there to run.

You are capable of so much more than we usually dare to imagine

During the winter, you head out into the darkness for a run. When spring comes, and the first crocus pokes up its head...you know it was worthwhile.

Spend at least some of your training time, and other parts of your day, concentrating on what you are doing in training and visualizing your success.

You've got to stick at a thing, a particular thing, until you succeed. I feel that's the only way to succeed - by concentrating on something in particular. Once you know what you've got to do you will succeed, you will succeed.

Running is special. We've all done it: well, poorly, focused, in fear, being pursued, toward a goal. It's just elemental. Running is like fire.

If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion.

Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose.

Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.

Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one's liberty.

A lot of people don't realize that about 98 percent of the running I put in is anything but glamorous: 2 percent joyful participation, 98 percent dedication! It's a tough formula. Getting out in the forest in the biting cold and the flattening heat, and putting in kilometer after kilometer.

The answer to the big questions in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you've got.

Don't bother just to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself.

If you want to win a race you have to go a little berserk.

Marathoning is a metaphor for life, so there are a lot of parallels you can draw. I tell people to follow your dream, follow your heart, follow your passion, run your own race and believe in yourself. I think anybody who wants to succeed has to have passion. My love for this sport, you can't instill it in someone else.

Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used.

I always tell beginning runners: Train your brain first. It's much more important than your heart or legs.

Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.

Mind is everything. Muscle - pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.

Running is a road to self-awareness and reliance-you can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet.

Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'.

To know you are one with what you are doing, to know that you are a complete athlete, begins with believing you are a runner.

Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win... channel your energy. Focus.

Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body.

There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.

Your body will argue that there is no justifiable reason to continue. Your only recourse is to call on your spirit, which fortunately functions independently of logic.

You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners.

I always loved running... it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.

I always loved running.... It was something you could do by yourself and under your own power.

Make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up.

Now I am not running to please sponsors or to be the No.1 U.S. runner. Now I look at each step I get to take as a gift. I run because I love to run. I want to be able to run until I am 90 years old.

For me, as for so many runners, there really are no finish lines. Runs end; running doesn't.

To describe the agony of a marathon to someone who's never run it is like trying to explain color to someone who was born blind.

A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're capable of understanding.

Just put one foot in front of the other.

If you're going through hell, keep going.

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

It's important to know that at the end of the day it's not the medals you remember. What you remember is the process -- what you learn about yourself by challenging yourself, the experiences you share with other people, the honesty the training demands -- those are things nobody can take away from you whether you finish twelfth or you're an Olympic Champion.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.