Distance Running Quotes:

You shall become the person you are.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

source: Friedrich Nietzsche (2010). “The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs”, p.219, Vintage

topic: Jogging, Great Running, Distance Running, Marathon Motivational, Distance Runner

For me, running is both exercise and a metaphor. Running day after day, piling up the races, bit by bit I raise the bar, and by clearing each level I elevate myself. At least that’s why I’ve put in the effort day after day: to raise my own level. I’m no great runner, by any means. I’m at an ordinary – or perhaps more like mediocre – level. But that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.

- Haruki Murakami

source: FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Jun 03, 2015

topic: Running, Distance, Mean, Long Distance Running, Distance Running

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

- Calvin Coolidge

topic: Motivational, Wisdom, Loss, Unsuccessful, Perserverance

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.

- Carl Lewis

source: Carl Lewis, Jeffrey Marx (1992). “Inside track: my professional life in amateur track and field”, Fireside

topic: Running, Block, Athlete, Marathon Running, Sports Spirit

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.

- Pierre de Coubertin

topic: Fighting, Winning, Aquariums, Olympic Games, Olympic Medals

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

- Jim Ryun

topic: Motivational, Motivation, Habit, Daily Habits, Healthy Habits

It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse.

- Ann Trason

topic: Running, Hurt, It Hurts, Marathon Running, Inspirational Track

The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.

- George A. Sheehan

topic: Running, Obsession, Motivational Cross Country Running, Distance Runner, Distance Running

Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don't think about them, I just do them. The decision has already been made.

- PattiSue Plumer

topic: Fitness, Workout, Thinking, Marathon Runners, Marathon Running

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.

- Tim Noakes

topic: Sports, Body, Arguing, Marathon Motivational, Funny Running

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

- Paul Tergat

source: "Coeurs d'athlètes". Sport/Documentary, 2003.

topic: Running, Giving, Answers, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

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

- Lynn Jennings

topic: Motivational, Running, Exercise, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about.

- PattiSue Plumer

topic: Running, Challenges, Racing, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

Long distance running is 90% mental and the other half is physical.

- Rich Davis

topic: Running, Distance, Long, Long Distance Running, Great Baseball

If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's besides the point. It's simply that I just have to.

- Emil Zatopek

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Sports, Long Distance Running, Distance Runner

Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.

- William Shakespeare

topic: Running, Inspirational Running, Impossible, Distance Running

We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves...The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable.

- Roger Bannister

source: Sir Roger Bannister (2011). “The First Four Minutes”, p.142, The History Press

topic: Motivational, Sports, Running, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

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.

- Jerome Drayton

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Running, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.

- Roger Bannister

source: "The Spirituality Of Running" by Jim Friedrich, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 5, 2016.

topic: Motivational, Success, Fitness, Hurt And Pain, Hurt Pain

The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.

- Bill Squires

topic: Running, Cat, Long, Marathon Runners, Motivational Cross Country Running

There's no such thing as bad weather - only the wrong clothes.

- Billy Connolly

topic: Being Happy, Weather, Clothes, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

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.

- George A. Sheehan

topic: Fitness, Running, Children, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Running

The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed.

- Jacqueline Gareau

source: "Diversification and Discipline Are Key to Investing in Gold" by Frank Holmes, www.businessinsider.com. August 21, 2014.

topic: Fitness, Running, Strong, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.

- Juma Ikangaa

topic: Motivational, Running, Mean, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.

- Christopher McDougall

source: Christopher McDougall (2010). “Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen”, p.13, Profile Books

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Running, Gazelles, Marathon Motivational

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

- Steve Prefontaine

topic: Motivational, Running, Art, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

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.

- Steve Prefontaine

topic: Motivational, Beautiful, Running, Marathon Running, Inspirational Track

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.

- Steve Prefontaine

topic: Motivational, Success, Softball, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Running

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.

- Steve Prefontaine

source: "Pre: Americas Greatest Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine". Book by Tom Jordan, 1977.

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Leadership, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.

- Rudyard Kipling

topic: Running, Witty, Work, Best Poetry, Distance Running

When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.

- Haile Gebrselassie

topic: Running, Distance, Marathon, Marathon Runners, Marathon Running

But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost

source: "Stopping byWoods on a Snowy Evening" l. 13 (1923)

topic: Love, Inspirational, Sleep, Marathon Running, Broken Promises

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

- T. S. Eliot

source: T.S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.1250, Faber & Faber

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Fear None, Courage To Change

There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.

- Bill Bowerman

topic: Motivational, Running, Not Giving Up, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.

- Steve Prefontaine

topic: Running, Pain, Race, Marathon Motivational, Marathon 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.

- Jesse Owens

source: Jesse Owens, Paul G. Neimark (1978). “Jesse, a spiritual autobiography”

topic: Motivational, Fitness, Running, Marathon Runners, Marathon Running

It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.

- George A. Sheehan

topic: Motivational, Running, Ideas, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.

- John Bingham

source: John Bingham (1999). “The Courage To Start: A Guide To Running for Your Life”, p.210, Simon and Schuster

topic: Inspirational, Softball, Sports, Marathon Motivational, Motivational Cross Country Running

Finland has produced so many brilliant distance runners because back home it costs $2.50 a gallon for gas.

- Esa Tikkanen

topic: Running, Distance, Home, Finland, Distance Runner

There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

- John Ruskin

topic: Change, Weather, Different, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Runners

My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble.

- Bill Rodgers

topic: Motivational, Running, Feelings, Marathon Motivational, Marathon Running

Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.

- Oprah Winfrey

topic: Motivational, Running, Fitness, Marathon Runners, Marathon Running

The mile has all the elements of a drama.

- Roger Bannister

topic: Running, Drama, Elements, Distance Runner, Distance Running

Onions make me sad. A lot of people don't realize that.

- Mitch Hedberg

topic: Funny, Depression, Humor, Marathon Motivational, Inspirational Runner

I haven't seen too many American distance men on the international scene willing to take risks. I saw some U.S. women in Barcelona willing to risk, more than men. The Kenyans risk. Steve Prefontaine risked. I risked - I went through the first half of the Tokyo race just a second off my best 5000 time.

- Billy Mills

topic: Running, Distance, Men, Distance Runner, Distance Running

The mile has a classic symmetry....It's a play in four acts.

- John Landy

topic: Running, Play, Four, Distance Runner, Distance Running

Running! If there's any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can't think of what it might be.

- Joyce Carol Oates

topic: Running, Thinking, Imagination, Distance Running

The Athlete defeats fear and conquers himself!

- Franz Stampfl

topic: Athlete, Defeat, Conquer, Distance Runner, Distance Running

Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished.

- Jack Lovelock

topic: Running, Race, Deeds, Distance Running

Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.

- Steve Prefontaine

topic: Distance, Inspirational Track, Distance Running, Running Funny, Running Track