You run because you want to. Or maybe you run because you have to. But whatever your reason is, you are free to keep going while running. Never give up until you reach your finish line with these 147 inspirational running quotes.
Inspirational Running Quotes
1. If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far. It doesn’t matter if today is your first day or if you’ve been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run. – John Bingham
2. I run because it’s so symbolic of life. You have to drive yourself to overcome the obstacles. You might feel that you can’t. But then you find your inner strength, and realize you’re capable of so much more than you thought. – Arthur Blank
3. I often hear someone say I’m not a real runner. We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I never met a fake runner. – Bart Yasso
4. The reason we race isn’t so much to beat each other,… but to be with each other. – Christopher McDougall
5. Run like hell and get the agony over with. – Clarence DeMar
6. Running has given me the courage to start, the determination to keep trying, and the childlike spirit to have fun along the way. Run often and run long, but never outrun your joy of running. – Julie Isphording
7. Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?’ – Peter Maher
8. Running is my meditation, mind flush, cosmic telephone, mood elevator and spiritual communion. – Lorraine Moller
9. Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it. – Steve Prefontaine
10. The thing about Pre is that he ran as hard as he could every race, and if you were going to beat him, you were going to have to run harder than he did. – Bob Kennedy
11. 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
12. Runners just do it – they run for the finish line even if someone else has reached it first. – Unknown
13. The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life. – George Sheehan
14. Other people may not have high expectations of me, but I have high expectations for myself. – Shannon Miller
15. Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don’t have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up. – Amby Burfoot
16. I disagree. I look at struggle as an opportunity to grow. True struggle happens when you can sense what is not working for you and you’re willing to take the appropriate action to correct the situation. Those who accomplish change are willing to engage the struggle. – Danny Dreyer
17. The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare. – Juma Ikangaa
18. 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
19. The greatest pleasure in life, is doing the things people say we cannot do. – Walter Bagehot
20. If you want to become the best runner you can be, start now. Don’t spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it. – Priscialla Welch
21. Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have nature and that is much better. – Juha Vaatainen
22. Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. – Lance Armstrong
23. Running is about finding your inner peace, and so is a life well lived. – Dean Karnazes
24. Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. – Marilyn vos Savant
25. The human spirit is indomitable. No one can ever say you must not run faster than this or jump higher than that. There will never be a time when the human spirit will not be able to better existing records. – Sir Roger Bannister
26. We are designed to run and we increase our chance of daily happiness when we do so. – Jeff Galloway
27. If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward. – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
28. Recovery from complete and utter exhaustion facilitates individual creativity. – Phillip Gary Smith
29. What I’ve learned from running is that the time to push hard is when you’re hurting like crazy and you want to give up. Success is often just around the corner. – James Dyson
30. Good things come slow, especially in distance running. – Bill Dellinger
31. We runners are all a little nutty, but we’re good people who just want to enjoy our healthy, primitive challenge. Others may not understand running, but we do, and we cherish it. That’s our only message. – John J. Kelley
32. What does not destroy me, makes me strong. – Nietzsche
33. Ask yourself: “Can I give more?” The answer is usually: “Yes”. – Paul Tergat
34. The thoughts that occur to me while I’m running are like clouds in the sky. Clouds of all different sizes. They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky always. The clouds are mere guests in the sky that pass away and vanish, leaving behind the sky. – Haruki Murakami
35. To be great, one does not have to be mad, but definitely it helps. – Percy Cerutty
36. Run hard when it’s hard to run. – Pavvo
37. When you experience the run, you…relive the hunt. Running is about thirty miles of chasing prey that can outrun you in a sprint, and tracking it down and bringing life back to your village. It’s a beautiful thing. – Shawn Found
38. We all know that if you run, you are pretty much choosing a life of success because of it. – Deena Kastor
39. You are truly your own hero in running. It is up to you to have the responsibility and self-discipline to get the job done. – Adam Goucher
40. All it takes is all you got. – Marc Davis
41. But I also realize that winning doesn’t always mean getting first place; it means getting the best out of yourself. – Meb Keflezighi
42. I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali
43. Running! If there’s any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can’t think of what it might be. In running the mind flees with the body, the mysterious efflorescence of language seems to pulse in the brain, in rhythm with our feet and the swinging of our arms. – Joyce Carol Oates
44. There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul. – Kristin Armstrong
45. The long run puts the tiger in the cat. – Bill Squires
46. Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can. – Lowell Thomas
47. I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we’re all cowards. – Alberto Salazar
48. God has given me the ability. The rest is up to me. Believe. Believe. Believe. – Billy Mills
49. I don’t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days. – Ronald Rook
50. 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
51. If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon. – Kathrine Switzer
52. There is nothing so momentary as a sporting achievement, and nothing so lasting as the memory of it. – Greg Dening
53. Getting more exercise isn’t only good for your waistline. It’s a natural anti-depressant, that leaves you in a great mood. – Auliq Ice
54. Try jogging when following your heart, it’s healthier. – Benny Bellamacina
55. Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records. – William Arthur Ward
56. Every run is a work of art, a drawing on each day’s canvas. Some runs are shouts and some runs are whispers. Some runs are eulogies and others celebrations. – Dagny Scott Barrio
57. After joyfully working each morning, I would leave off around midday to challenge myself to a footrace. Speeding along the sunny paths of the Jardin du Luxembourg, ideas would breed like aphids in my head – for creative invention is easy and sublime when air cycles quickly through the lungs and the body is busy at noble tasks. – Roman Payne
58. Your body provides you with constant feedback that can help improve your running performance while minimizing biomechanical stress. Learn to differentiate between the discomfort of effort and the pain of injury. When you practice listening, you increase competence in persevering through the former and responding with respect and compassion to the latter. – Gina Greenlee
59. The pain of running relieves the pain of living. – Jacqueline Simon Gunn
60. The finest of athletes have, along with skill, a few more essential qualities: to conduct their life with dignity, with integrity, with courage and modesty. All these, are totally compatible with pride, ambition, determination and competitiveness. – Donald Bradman
61. Never underestimate the heart of a champion! – Doc Rivers
62. When it’s pouring rain and you’re bowling along through the wet, there’s satisfaction in knowing you’re out there and the others aren’t. – Peter Snell
63. It’s my own space, my own time, when I’m just out there letting my thoughts go. It’s part of my day like eating, and it’s one of my favorite parts. – Louise Kent
64. Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body. – Lynn Jennings
65. In any race, when the first half is all about pacing, the second half will be about passing. – Hayden Shearman
66. There’s not one body type that equates to success. Accept the body you have and be the best you can be with it. – Mary Cullen
67. 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
68. Experience has taught me how important it is to just keep going, focusing on running fast and relaxed. Eventually pain passes and the flow returns. It’s part of racing. – Frank Shorter
69. Don’t dream of winning, train for it! – Mo Farah
70. Running is alone time that lets my brain unspool the tangles that build up over days…I run, pound it out on the pavement, channel that energy into my legs, and when I’m done with my run, I’m done with it. – Rob Haneisen
71. I run because I can. When I get tired, I remember those who can’t run, what they would give to have this simple gift I take for granted, and I run harder for them. I know they would do the same for me. – Unknown
72. Running allows me to set my mind free. Nothing seems impossible. Nothing unattainable. – Kara Goucher
73. Nothing, not even pain, lasts forever. If I can just keep putting one foot in front of the other, I will eventually get to the end. – Kim Cowart
74. What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared, to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials. How could they be expected to understand that? – John L. Parker, Jr.
75. The real purpose of running isn’t to win a race. It’s to test the limits of the human heart. – Bill Bowerman
76. Our running shoes have magic in them. The power to transform a bad day into a good day; frustration into speed; self-doubt into confidence; chocolate cake into muscle. – Mina Samuels
77. Don’t fear moving slowly forward…fear standing still. – Kathleen Harris
78. It does not matter how slowly you do so long as you do not stop. – Confucius
79. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. – Eleanor Roosevelt
80. Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it. – Oprah Winfrey
81. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. – Fred DeVito
82. After all, if you run far enough, no one can catch you. – V.E. Schwab
83. Only those who risk going too far, can possibly find out how far one can go. – T.S. Elliot
84. As every runner knows, running is about more than just putting one foot in front of the other; it is about our lifestyle and who we are. – Joan Benoit Samuelson
85. I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy… I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it. – Art Williams
86. I breathe in strength and breathe out weakness. – Amy Hastings Cragg
87. A year from now you will wish you had started today. – Karen Lamb
88. Whether a mile or a marathon, you get there the same way. . . one step at a time. Such is life. – Baylor Barbee
89. A runner is real when she takes the first step. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
90. Fast running isn’t forced. You have to relax and let the run come out of you. – Desiree Linden
91. I’ve learned that it’s what you do with the miles, rather than how many you’ve run. – Rod DeHaven
92. Running is a thing worth doing not because of the future rewards it bestows, but because of how it feeds our bodies and minds and souls in the present. – Kevin Nelson
93. When you cross the finish line, no matter how slow or fast, it will change your life forever. – Dick Beardsley
94. It’s not so much that I began to run, but that I continued. – Hal Higdon
95. If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance, run, yours is the earth and everything that’s in it, and — which is more — you’ll be a man, my son. – Rudyard Kipling
96. 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. – Doris Brown Heritage
97. Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running. – Sarah Condor
98. A runner must run with dreams in his heart. – Emil Zatopek
99. Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see. – Jimmy Buffett
100. Running isn’t a sport for pretty boys…It’s about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet. Its the frozen spit on your chin and the nausea in your gut. It’s about throbbing calves and cramps at midnight that are strong enough to wake the dead. It’s about getting out the door and running when the rest of the world is only dreaming about having the passion that you need to live each and every day with. – Paul Maurer
101. In my case, I thoroughly enjoy running 100-odd miles a week. If I didn’t I wouldn’t do it. Who can define happiness? To some, happiness is a warm puppy or a glass of cold beer. To me, happiness is running in the hills with my mates around me. – Ron Clarke
102. I always thought of running as just dancing forward. – Tom Hiddleston
103. I’m not as fast or flexible as I once was, but running keeps me young. – Nicole DeBoom
104. Tears streamed down my face as I crossed the finish line. I was a new person, a runner. – Thomas King
105. The runner must be a fanatic for hard work and enthusiastic enough to enjoy it. – Franz Stampfl
106. Set aside a time solely for running. Running is more fun if you don’t have to rush through it. – Jim Fixx
107. Running is the classical road to self-consciousness, self-awareness, and self-reliance. – Noel Carroll
108. Running has taught me to love my brain, my body, and what both can do for me when I use them wisely and appreciate them. – Meggie Smith
109. I was born to be a runner. I simply love to run. It’s almost like the faster I go, the easier it becomes. – Mary Decker Slaney
110. You must expect great things from yourself before you can do them. – Michael Jordan
111. Have a dream, make a plan, go for it. You’ll get there I promise. – Zoe Koplowitz
112. Mind is everything: muscle – pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind. – Paavo Nurmi
113. The marathon is not really about the marathon, it’s about the shared struggle. And it’s not only the marathon, but the training. – Bill Buffum
114. You also need to look back, not just at the people who are running behind you but especially at those who don’t run and never will… those who run but don’t race…those who started training for a race but didn’t carry through those who got to the starting line but didn’t in the finish line…those who once raced better than you but no longer run at all. You’re still here. Take pride in wherever you finish. Look at all the people you’ve outlasted. – Joe Henderson
115. Part of a runner’s training consists of pushing back the limits of his mind. – Kenny Moore
116. 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
117. Now bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible. – Shakespeare
118. Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you. – Satchel Paige
119. No runner ever won a race buy looking over his should and demeaning the competition. – Les Brown
120. Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. – Marcus Aurelius
121. You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off of your face. – Gatorade Ad
122. Number one is just to gain a passion for running. To love the morning, to love the trail, to love the pace on the track. And if some kid gets really good at it, that’s cool too. – Pat Tyson
123. I achieved my targets because I knew what I wanted. I knew why I wanted it; and I knew how much I wanted it.I also stuck to it when things went wrong, and I wasn’t distracted by other things that came along. – Charlie Spedding
124. Running is not, as it so often seems, only about what you did in your last race or about how many miles you ran last week. It is, in a much more important way, about community, about appreciating all the miles run by other runners, too. – Richard O’Brien
125. I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart. – Mike Fanelli
126. Have confidence in your running ability, and then be tough enough to follow through until you reach your running goals. – Felicity Luckey
127. When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time. – Haile Gebrselassie
128. You can keep going and your legs might hurt for a week, or you can quit and your mind will hurt for a lifetime. – Mark Allen
129. Running isn’t about winning or losing, it’s neither about glory or achievement, it’s all about not quitting. – Ben Vachon
130. Worrying gets you nowhere. If you turn up worrying about how you’re going to perform, you’ve already lost. Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself. – Usain Bolt
131. Running well is a matter of having the patience to persevere when we are tired and not expecting instant results. – Robert de Castella
132. Ever tried. Ever failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. – Samuel Beckett
133. Running is a quick trigger for a good mood. The great thing about endorphins, you don’t have to be in great shape to get them. – Mindy Kaling
134. Running is real and relatively simple… but it ain’t easy. – Mark Will-Weber
135. Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement. – Matt Biondi
136. The most important mile you will ever run is your first. – My Top Fitness
137. 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. – Silken Laumann
138. Human beings are made up of flesh and blood, and a miracle fiber called courage. – George Patton
139. Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity. – Michael Johnson
140. A champion is made when you look at the time spent preparing. – Eliud Kipchoge
141. In short, running can change your outlook on life and make a new person out of you. – Marc Bloom
142. Running gives freedom. When you run you can determine your own tempo. You can choose your own course and think whatever you want. Nobody tells you what to do. – Nina Kuscik
143. So much in life seems inflexible and unchangeable, and part of the joy of running and especially racing is the realization that improvement and progress can be achieved. – Nancy Anderson
144. Running should be a lifelong activity. Approach it patiently and intelligently, and it will reward you for a long, long time. – Michael Sargent
145. Life can pull you down, but running always lifts you up. – Jenny Hadfield
146. Running is like celebrating your soul. There’s so much it can teach us in life. – Molly Barker
147. There is more to failing than picking yourself up out of the dust, brushing off the grime and trudging onward. For every defeat, there is a victory inside waiting to be let out if the runner can get past feeling sorry for himself. – Ron Daws
