Last Updated: March 2, 2023 by Quote.cc Team
There are many reasons why you should fall in love with running. First, running is free. You can run anywhere, and it’s one of those exercises that don’t need any special equipment or a gym to get started. Second, Running is one of the best ways to boost both your physical and mental health, It helps just about all aspects of your health, provides an outlet for stress relief and improves your mood and overall happiness. Besides being good for your health, running is also a great physical activity that provides a bridge to make some new friends and build strong relationships.
As much joy as running brings us. So what are you waiting for? Here are some inspirational, best, and motivational running quotes, running sayings, and running proverbs to Motivate you to stay active.
150 Motivational Running Quotes to Keep You Inspired
Top 10 Running Quotes
“Jogging is very beneficial. It’s good for your legs and your feet. It’s also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed.” – Charles Schulz
“When I go to the Boston Marathon now, I have wet shoulders—women fall into my arms crying. They’re weeping for joy because running has changed their lives. They feel they can do anything.” – Kathrine Switzer
“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
“Life equals running and when we stop running maybe that’s how we’ll know life is finally finished.” – Patrick Ness
“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
“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.” – Jesse Owens
“Running became the one event in my daily life that I looked forward to. Books and movies paled in comparison to the refuge of my feet slapping paiently in the fresh morning air” – Kate Kinsey
“If one could run without getting tired I don’t think one would often want to do anything else” – C.S Lewis
“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they’ll go to any length to live longer. But don’t think that’s the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life – and for me, for writing as whole. I believe many runners would agree.” – Haruki Murakami
“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
What Is Running?
“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
“Running is in my blood – the adrenaline flows before the races, the love/hat of butterflies in your stomach” – Marcus o’Sullivan
“Running is nothing more than a series of arguments between the part of your brain that wants to stop and the part that wants to keep going.”
“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
“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
“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
“Running is my private time, my therapy, my religion.” – Gail W. Kislevitz
“Running is about finding your inner peace, and so is a life well lived.” – Dean Karnazes
“Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.” – Oprah Winfrey
“Running is real and relatively simple. But it ain’t easy” – Mark Will-Weber
“Running is the classical road to self-consciousness, self-awareness, and self-reliance.” – Noel Carroll
“Everyone who has run knows that its most important value is in removing tension and allowing a release from whatever other cares the day may bring.” – Jimmy Carter
“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
“The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.” – George Sheehan
“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
Short Running Quotes
“There is an itch in runners.” – Arnold Hano
“As we run, we become.” – Amby Burfoot
“The marathon can humble you.” – Bill Rodgers
“If you can’t win, make the fellow ahead of you break the record.”
“Long distance running is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical.” – Rich Davis
“Someone who is busier than you is running right now.” – Nike
“After all, if you run far enough, no one can catch you.” – V.E. Schwab
“Don’t dream of winning, train for it!” – Mo Farah
“A runner must run with dreams in his heart.” – Emil Zatopek
“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Never underestimate the heart of a champion.” – Doc Rivers
“Part of a runner’s training consists of pushing back the limits of his mind.” – Kenny Moore
“Good things come slow, especially in distance running.” – Bill Dellinger
“Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.” – Julie Isphording
“The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass.” – Martin Mull
“Runners just do it – they run for the finish line even if someone else has reached it first.”
“A runner is real when she takes the first step.”
“It’s time to keep enjoying the best day in running history” – Amby Burfoot
“It’s not so much that I began to run, but that I continued” – Hal Higdon
“Run like hell and get the agony over with.” – Clarence DeMar
“The pain of running relieves the pain of living.” – Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Try jogging when following your heart, it’s healthie.” – Benny Bellamacina
“Today I will run for pure, absolute, joy”
“I’m not as fast or flexible as I once was, but running keeps me young” – Nicole DeBoom
“I’ll be happy if running and I can grow old together.” – Haruki Murakami
“I don’t jog. If I die I want to be sick.” – Abe Lemmons
“Act like a horse. Be dumb. Just run.” – Jumbo Elliot
“If you want to live, you must walk. If you want to live long, you must run” – Jinabhai Navik
“Life is complicated. Running is simple. Is it any wonder that people like to run?” – Kevin Nelson
Funny Running Quotes
“The trouble with jogging is that, by the time you realize you’re not in shape for it, it’s too far to walk back.” – Franklin P. Jones
“Runners don’t do drugs, they make their own … naturally.” – E. Neil Culbertson
“You would run much slower if you were dragging something behind you, like a knapsack or a sheriff.” – Lemony Snicket
“The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank.” – George Sheehan
“Some seek the comfort of their therapist’s office, other head to the corner pub and dive into a pint, but I chose running as my therapy.” – Dean Karnazes
“Run in the morning … before your brain figures out what your body is doing!”
“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
“But you can’t muscle through a five-hour run that way; you have to relax into it like easing your body into a hot bath, until it no longer resists the shock and begins to enjoy it.” – Christopher McDougall
“It’s unnatural for people to run around the city streets unless they are thieves or victims. It makes people nervous to see someone running. I know that when I see someone running on my street, my instincts tell me to let the dog go after him.” – Mike Royko
“To a runner, a side stich is like a car alarm. It signifies something is wrong, but you ignore it until it goes away.
“I’ve learned that it’s what you do with the miles, rather than how many you’ve run” – Rod DeHaven
“Finland has produced so many brilliant distance runners because back home it costs $2.50 a gallon for gas.” – Esa Tikkannen
“If you want to find the real competition, just look in the mirror. After awhile you’ll see your rivals scrambling for second place.” – Criss Jami
“I always thought of running as just dancing forward.” – Tom Hiddleston
Inspirational Running Quotes
“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
“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
“But I also realize that winning doesn’t always mean getting first place; it means getting the best out of yourself.” – Meb Keflezighi
“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
“The runner must be a fanatic for hard work and enthusiastic enough to enjoy it” – Franz Stampfl
“When you cross the finish line, no matter how slow or fast, it will change your life forever.” – Dick Beardsley
“I run because if I didn’t, I’d be sluggish and glum and spend too much time on the couch. I run to breathe the fresh air. I run to explore. I run to escape the ordinary. I run…to savor the trip along the way. Life becomes a little more vibrant, a little more intense. I like that.” – Dean Karnazes
“Blink and you miss a sprint. The 10,000 meters is lap after lap of waiting. Theatrically, the mile is just the right length – beginning, middle, end: a story unfolding.” – Sebastian Coe
“It was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could run. The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in the destination. We have a better chance of seeing where we are when we stop trying to get somewhere else. We can enjoy every moment of movement, as long as where we are is as good as where we’d like to be. That’s not to say that you need to be satisfied forever with where you are today. But you need to honor what you’ve accomplished, rather than thinking of what’s left to be done.” – John Bingham
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
“The true but rare runner’s high is a zone that we enter when everything seems to click prefectly, when time stands still, and when we can run almost without effort” – Amby Burfoot
“We wouldn’t be alive without love, we wouldn’t have survived without running. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that getting better at one could make you better at the other.” – Christopher McDougall
“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 competitivenes.” – Donald Bradman
“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
“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.” – Alan Sillitoe
“Set aside a time solely for running. Running is more fun if you don’t have to rush through it.” – Jim Fixx
“Running allows me to set my mind free. Nothing seems impossible. Nothing unattainable.” — Kara Goucher
“I want to run. To do what I always do, have always done, for the last five years of my life. Escape, flee into the shadows. But this time, I stand my ground. I’m tired of running.” – Marie Lu
“Just move your legs. Because of you don’t thing you were born to run, you’re not only denying history; you’re denying who you are” – Dr. Dennis Bramble
“The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.” – Erma Bombeck
“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
“There is nothing so momentary as a sporting achievement, and nothing so lasting as the memory of it.” – Greg Dening
“My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven now, and we don’t know where the heck she is.” – Ellen DeGeneres
“If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion.” – Robert Pirsig
“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.” – Haruki Murakami
“Ask nothing from your running, in other words, and you’ll get more than you ever imagined.” – Christopher McDougall
“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
“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
“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
Motivational Running Quotes
“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
“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
“Yes, I am round. Yes, I am slow. Yes, I run as though my legs are tied together at the knees. But I am running. And that is all that matters.” – John Bingham
“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
“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
“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” – Dean Karnazes
“People think I’m crazy to put myself through such torture, though I would argue otherwise. Somewhere along the line, we seem to have confused comfort with happiness. Dostoyevsky had it right: ‘Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.’ Never are my senses more engaged than when the pain sets in. There is a magic in misery. Just ask any runner.” – Dean Karnazes
“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
“Once you’re beat mentally, you might as well not even go to the starting line.” – Todd Williams
“Never underestimate the power that one good workout can have on your mind. Keeping the dream alive is half the battle.” – Kara Goucher
“Believe that you can run farther or faster. Believe that you’re young enough, old enough, strong enough, and so on to accomplish everything you want to do. Don’t let worn-out beliefs stop you from moving beyond yourself.” – John Bingham
“I’m afraid the reson so many new runners quit is because they never get past the point of feeling like they have to run” – John Bingham
“I’m often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I’m running? I don’t have a clue.” – Haruki Murakami
“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” – Priscilla Welch
“Tears streamed down my face as I crossed the finish line. I was a new person, a runner” – Thomas King
“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
“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
“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
“Crossing the starting line may be an act of courage, but crossing the finish line is an act of faith. Faith is what keeps us going when nothing else will. Faith is the emotion that will give you victory over your past, the demons in your soul, and all of those voices that tell you what you can and cannot do and can and cannot be.” – John Bingham
Forrest Gump Running Quotes
“Run, Forrest! Run!” – Jenny Curran
“For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I’d gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I’d gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.” – Forrest
“Listen, you promise me something, OK? Just if you’re ever in trouble, don’t be brave. You just run, OK? Just run away.” – Jenny Curran
“Now you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was goin’ somewhere, I was runnin’!” – Forrest
“That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I’d run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I’d just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I’d just run across the great state of Alabama. And that’s what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I’d gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I’d gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.” – Forrest
Trail Running Quotes
“My feet have several thousand meetings scheduled with the dirt on a trail not far from here. Who am I to keep them waiting? Time to run.” – Jeb Dickerson
“I run because long after my footprints fade away, maybe I will have inspired a few to reject the easy path, hit the trails, put one foot in front of the other, and come to the same conclusion I did: I run because it always takes me where I want to go.” – Dean Karnazes
“The freedom of Cross Country is so primitive. It’s woman vs. nature.” – Lynn Jennings
Running Quotes For Kids
“When I was little and running on the race track at school, I always stopped and waited for all the other kids so we could run together even though I knew (and everybody else knew) that I could run much faster than all of them.” – C. JoyBell C.
“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
“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 Sheehan
“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
“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
Running Quotes From The Bible
“You don’t run against a bloody stop watch, do you hear? A runner runs against himself, against the best that’s in him. Not against a dead thing of wheels and pulleys. That’s the way to be great, running against yourself. Against all the rotten mess in the world. Against God, if you’re good enough.” – Bill Persons
“There is about world-class athletes carving out exemptions from physical laws a transcendent beauty that makes manifest God in man.” – David Foster Wallace
“If God invented marathons to keep people from doing anything more stupid, the triathlon must have taken Him completely by surprise.” – P.Z. Pearce
“I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I’m damned if I’m going to use up mine running up and down a street.” – Neil Armstrong
Running In The Rain Quotes
“A guy who has run twenty Boston Marathons was once asked, ‘Don’t you feel like skipping a day when it’s raining?’ The old road warrior replied, ‘If you start skipping runs because the weather’s too lousy, pretty soon you start missing runs because the weather’s too nice!’” – John Hanc
“I believe in running through the rain and crashing into the person you love and having your lips bleed on each other.” — Billy Bob Thornton
“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
“If you haven’t been exercising, your body will undoubtedly protest this change in its comfortable downhill direction. You won’t like it at first. You may even hate it. But be proactive. Do it anyway. Even if it’s raining on the morning you’re scheduled to jog, do it anyway. ‘Oh good! It’s raining! I get to develop my willpower as well as my body!” — Stephen Covey
Running Race Quotes
“Fast running isn’t forced. You have to relax and let the run come out of you”. – Desiree Linden
“We are different, in essence from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.” – Emil Zatopek
“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
“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” – Kathrine Switzer
“There’s more to marathon day than running long. Learning how your body reacts to the early alarm, light breakfast and warm-up is key. Minimize surprises come race day. Run long the same time of day as the race.” – Gina Greenlee
“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
“How to run an ultramarathon? Puff out your chest, put one foot in front of the other, and don’t stop till you cross the finish line.” – Dean Karnazes
“Get going … walk if you have to, but finish the damned race.” – Ron Hill
“Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.” – Steve Prefontaine
“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
“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
“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
“The reason we race isn’t so much to beat each other,… but to be with each other.” – Christopher McDougall
“I’m always nervous. If I wasn’t nervous it would be weird. I get the same feeling at all the big races. It’s part of a routine, and I accept it.” – Allyson Felix
“No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life’s most rewarding experiences. My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: each race a drama, each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another, and each race telling me more about myself and others.” – George Sheehan