Running is a sport that challenges both your body and mind. It can be tough to push yourself, especially when you’re feeling tired or unmotivated. But one of the best ways to get through a tough run is to remember some inspirational words.
I have gathered a collection of motivational and inspirational running quotes to help you find inspiration and motivation for your next run.
Inspirational and motivational quotes about running
“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.”
“Running is the greatest metaphor for life because you get out of it what you put into it.”
“It’s okay to struggle. It’s not okay to give up.”
“When anyone tells me I can’t do anything, I’m just not listening anymore.“
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.”
“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.”
“I don’t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days.”
“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.”
“Ask yourself: ‘Can I give more?’. The answer is usually: ‘Yes’.”
“Ask yourself: ‘Can I give more?’. The “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.”
“Challenge yourself and take a risk sometimes. You are stronger than you imagine.”
“There are times when you run a marathon and you wonder, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But you take a drink of water, and around the next bend, you get your wind back, remember the finish line, and keep going.”
“Of all the sports I’ve tried, some have come and gone but running has always been there for me. It’s the simplest of things to do: shove your trainers on and just go.”
“In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, ‘I have finished.’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that.”
“I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to self-satisfaction.”
“When you run the road belongs to you.”
“Never limit where running can take you. I mean that geographically, spiritually, and of course, physically.”
“We are designed to run and we increase our chance of daily happiness when we do so.”
“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.”
“There’s a great empowerment that I get from running, not only from the endorphins . . . Being a runner, to me, has made being depressed impossible. If ever I’m going through something emotional and just go outside for a run, you can rest assured that I’ll come back with clarity and empowerment.”
“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.”
“All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, my own nostalgic silence. And this is a pretty wonderful thing. No matter what anybody else says.”
“That’s the thing about running: your greatest runs are rarely measured by racing success. They are moments in time when running allows you to see how wonderful your life is.”
“Good things come slow – especially in distance running.”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”
“Don’t dream of winning, train for it!”
“Relish the bad training runs. Without them, it’s difficult to recognize, much less appreciate, the good ones.”
“A lot of people run a race to see who’s the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.”
“A lot of people run a race to see who’s the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.”
“The beauty of running is its simplicity; the beauty of runners is that we all have a similar drive to improve. We are either trying to run a personal best or toeing the line for the first time, which will snowball into a future of trying to run personal bests. We road racers are a tight community of mileage-happy, limit-pushing athletes.”
“I also realize that winning doesn’t always mean getting first place; it means getting the best out of yourself.“
“Running is the basis of all the training that I do…it’s like an escape.”
“There is magic in misery. Just ask any runner.”
“A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they’re capable of understanding.”
“To be a good runner, you must first be a good athlete.”
“If you want to run, then run a mile. If you want to experience another life, run a marathon.”
“Once you’re beat mentally, you might as well not even go to the starting line.”
“Racing is the fun part; it’s the reward of all the hard work.”
“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.”
“If we had a drug that did what exercise did, it would be the biggest revolution ever and would be promoted all over the world. And all you have to do is go out for a run.“
“Running allows me to set my mind free. Nothing seems impossible, nothing unattainable.”
“Running is therapy anyone can afford.”
“Running is my meditation, mind flush, cosmic telephone, mood elevator and spiritual communion.”
“Running is about finding your inner peace, and so is a life well lived.”
“We all know that if you run, you are pretty much choosing a life of success because of it.”
“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.”
“If you don’t have answers to your problems after a four-hour run, you ain’t getting them.”
“One run can change your day, many runs can change your life.”
“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.”
“Every marathon I ran, I knew I had a faster one in me.”
“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.”
“The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.”
“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.”
“Run hard when it’s hard to run”
“There’s not a better feeling than when you have found that moment of balance and harmony when both running and life come together. Then you know why you run and that you couldn’t live without it.”
“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.”
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Steve Carmichael is a running coach, sports performance coach, nutrition coach and has been a recreational runner for over 18 years. Steve holds multiple certifications as a certified running coach through the RRCA and USA Track and Field as well as he is a NASM certified personal trainer, and PN1-L1 certified nutrition coach.
Steve has been coaching since 2010 and has helped thousands of runners online and in the Central Ohio area maximize performance and run injury-free.
Steve is the founder of RunBuzz and Run For Performance.com. If you are interested in working with Steve though his online running and strength coaching services, feel free to reach out.
