100 Inspirational Quotes Every Marathon Runner Needs to Hear

"Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile. So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it. ” I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.” So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,”—and we’re still running—“if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, ‘“Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”"

- Bruce Lee (as recounted)

"You're running on guts. On fumes. Your muscles twitch. You throw up. You're delirious. But you keep running because there's no way out of this hell you're in because there's no way you're not crossing the finish line. It's a misery that non-runners don't understand."

- Martine Costello

"The marathon's about being in contention over the last 10K. That's when it's about what you have in your core. You have run all the strength, all the superficial fitness out of yourself, and it really comes down to what's left inside you. To be able to draw deep and pull something out of yourself is one of the most tremendous things about the marathon."

- Rob de Castella

"You can never be sure. That's what makes the marathon both fearsome and fascinating. The deeper you go into the unknown, the more uncertain you become. But then you finish. And you wonder later, 'How did I do that?' This question compels you to keep making the journey from the usual to the magical."

- Joe Henderson

"It hurts, but that’s all it does. The most difficult part of the training is training your mind. You build calluses on your feet to endure the road. You build calluses on your mind to endure the pain. There’s only one way to do that. You have to get out there and run."

- David Goggins

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you start to think, Man this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The hurt part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand any more is up to the runner himself. This pretty much sums up the most important aspect of marathon running."

- Haruki Murakami

"Of all the races, there is no better stage for heroism than a marathon."

- George Sheehan

"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."

- Joan Benoit Samuelson

"The reason people want to run the marathon is because the challenge, physically, is you. The distance – how you get there – is all up to you and how hard you work. That's why people want to do it."

- Meb Keflezighi

"The music of a marathon is a powerful strain, one of those tunes of glory. It asks us to forsake pleasures, to discipline the body, to find courage, to renew faith, and to become one's own person, utterly and completely."

- George Sheehan

"You can never be sure. That’s what makes the marathon both fearsome and fascinating. The deeper you go into the unknown, the more uncertain you become. But then you finish. And you wonder later, ‘How did I do that?’ This question compels you to keep making the journey from the usual to the magical."

- Joe Henderson

"Running is just you, the work you put in, and the clock. You can’t cheat yourself. If you don’t put in the miles, you can’t go to the starting line thinking you’re going to pull a miracle out of nowhere. You get out exactly what you put in."

- Des Linden

"Motivation remains key to the marathon: the motivation to begin; the motivation to continue; the motivation never to quit."

- Hal Higdon

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

- John Bingham

"Every time we go out and race we defy what our body says we should do. Our body screams at us to stop, yet we keep going. We endure and conquer every pain, every doubt that we have. If we apply that same mentality to life, we can overcome any obstacle."

- Kellyn Taylor

"The marathon is like a bullfight. There are two ways to kill a bull, for instance. There is the easy way, for one. But all the great matadors end up either dead or mauled because, for them, killing the bull is not nearly as important as how they kill the bull. They always approach the bull at the greatest risk to themselves, and I admire that. In the marathon, likewise, there are two ways to win. There's the easy way if all you care about is winning. You hang back and risk nothing. Then, kick and try to nip the leaders at the end. Or you can push, challenge the others, make it an exciting race, risking everything. Maybe you lose, but as for me, I'd rather run a gutsy race, pushing all the way and lose, than run a conservative, easy race only for a win."

- Alberto Salazar

"Your legs will ache. Your mind will get fuzzy and you’ll just want the thing to be over. But, you must fight. You must keep going just like you did in training runs. Just get to the next mile marker and then the next and so on."

- Greg McMillan

"The marathon is an opportunity for redemption. Opportunity, because the outcome is uncertain. Opportunity, because it is up to you, and only you, to make it happen."

- Dean Karnazes

"You can either choose to let that pain dictate the last five miles of the race, or you can decide to lean into it and appreciate that you are lucky enough to push your body this hard. You need to re-wire your brain to believe that this is how you’re supposed to feel, and keep running your hardest in spite of it."

- Veronica Graziano

"Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."

- Dean Karnazes

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

- Oprah Winfrey

"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

"Fast running isn’t forced. You have to relax and let the run come out of you."

- Desiree Linden

"You can’t be upset at the results you didn’t get for the work you didn’t do."

- Jess Sims

"In the midst of an ordinary training day, I try to remind myself that I am preparing for the extraordinary."

- Shalane Flanagan

"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

"Don’t compare your chapter one with someone else’s chapter six."

- Ally Love

"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far."

- John Bingham

"A runner must run with dreams in his heart."

- Emil Zatopek

"Run into your unknown."

- Becs Gentry

"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."

- Kara Goucher

"You didn’t get this far to only go this far."

- Ben Alldis

"Good things come slow—especially in distance running."

- Bill Dellinger

"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

"Your mind is your strongest muscle."

- Tunde Oyeneyin

"Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running."

- Julie Isphording

"Don’t dream of winning, train for it!"

- Mo Farah

"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."

- Fred Lebow

"Take control of your workout and make the decision to succeed."

- Matt Wilpers

"Whether a mile or a marathon, you get there the same way… one step at a time. Such is life."

- Baylor Barbee

"The benefits and opportunities of running are available to anyone. You don’t have to be born a natural athlete, and you don’t have to be uniquely gifted. A life-shaping experience is there for the taking, waiting right outside your door."

- Donald Buraglio and Michael Dove

"Fight fatigue with focus."

- Andy Speer

"We are designed to run, and we increase our chance of daily happiness when we do so."

- Jeff Galloway

"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 Sheehan

"My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: 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

"In the marathon there are many ways to define success and derive satisfaction and enjoyment. We all face the same challenge together and overcome the limitations that exist within each of us."

- Yuki Kawauchi

"I try to think about positive things – how great my form is, how my arms are swinging, my breathing, how loud people are cheering. My sports psychologist taught me there are a million things telling you you can’t keep going, but if you find the things that say you can, you’re golden."

- Kara Goucher

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

- Juma Ikangaa

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

- John Bingham

"It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up."

- Babe Ruth

"You don’t stop running because you get old. You get old because you stop running."

- Christopher McDougall

"If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you."

- Fred Devito

"I don’t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days."

- Ronald Rook

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

- George Sheehan

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

- Oprah Winfrey

"The real purpose of running isn’t to win a race; it’s to test the limits of the human heart."

- Bill Bowerman

"You don’t have to be fast. But you’d better be fearless."

- Christopher McDougall

"There is magic in misery. Just ask any runner."

- Dean Karnazes

"Never limit where running can take you. I mean that geographically, spiritually, and of course, physically."

- Bart Yasso

"There is a moment in every race. A moment where you can either quit, fold, or say to yourself, 'I can do this.'"

- Gatorade ad

"The more you frame the marathon as a stressful experience, the more negative messages you'll receive. But it's just as easy to frame it as a positively challenging journey."

- Jeff Galloway

"The marathon never ceases to be a race of joy, a race of wonder."

- Hal Higdon

"The person who starts the race is not the same person who finishes the race."

- Marathon spectator sign

"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

"The marathon. How an average runner becomes more than average."

- New Balance

"I love the fact that not many people can say, 'Oh, I went out and ran 20 miles today.' I love how much dedication it takes and how much you learn a lot about yourself, as well as your physical and mental limits. There's just something about it."

- Shalane Flanagan

"Toeing the starting line of a marathon, regardless of the language you speak, the God you worship, or the color of your skin, we all stand as equal. Perhaps the world would be a better place if more people ran."

- Dean Karnazes

"I dare you to train for a marathon and not have it change your life."

- Susan Sidoriak

"Everything you ever wanted to know about yourself, you can learn in 26.2 miles."

- Lori Culnane

"like your physical fitness. Every time you make that tough decision to go run, you’re building mental toughness. In the marathon, this is mandatory."

- Greg Meyer

"Marathons are extraordinarily difficult, but if you’ve got the training under your belt, and if you can run smart, the races take care of themselves. When you have the enthusiasm and the passion, you end up figuring how to excel."

- Deena Kastor

"To finish will leave you feeling like a champion and positively change your life."

- Jeff Galloway

"Only after a marathon can I say I have given everything. Because of the enormity of the attempt, the cleansing of the pain, I can sit, even stiff and blistered, and know a kind of peace."

- Kenny Moore

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."

- Frank Shorter

"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

"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 Barrios

"Train smart. Train hard. Have fun!"

- Matt Wilpers

"If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you."

- Fred Devito

"We all have bad days and bad workouts, when running gets ugly, when split times seem slow, when you wonder why you started. It will pass."

- Hal Higdon

"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

"I’ve learned that it’s what you do with the miles, rather than how many you’ve run"

- Rod DeHaven

"The pain you feel today will show itself as strength tomorrow."

- Tunde Oyeneyin

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

- Lynn Jennings

"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."

- John Bingham

"If your legs are tired, run with your heart!"

- Tobias Heinze

"It is difficult to train for a marathon, but it is even more difficult to not be able to train for a marathon."

- Aaron Douglas Trimble

"Marathoning is like cutting yourself unexpectedly. You dip into the pain so gradually that the damage is done before you are aware of it. Unfortunately, when the awareness comes, it is excruciating."

- John Farrington

"Aiming for the marathon is a task of sorts which can include terrific highs and lows."

- Bill Rodgers

"No marathon gets easier later. The halfway point only marks the end of the beginning."

- Joe Henderson

"I also feel it usually takes four or five races to hit your best marathon for your body to be accustomed to the training AND the race itself."

- Bill Rodgers

"Learn to run when feeling the pain: then push harder."

- William Sigei

"If you feel bad at 10 miles, you're in trouble. If you feel bad at 20 miles, you're normal. If you don't feel bad at 26 miles, you're abnormal."

- Rob de Castella

"I don’t think about the miles that are coming down the road, I don’t think about the mile I’m on right now, I don’t think about the miles I’ve already covered. I think about what I’m doing right now, just being lost in the moment."

- Ryan Hall

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

- Haile Gebrselassie

"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. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be."

- Haruki Murakami

"I dare you to train for a marathon, and not have it change your life."

- Susan Sidoriak

"Like the marathon, life can sometimes be difficult, challenging and present obstacles, however if you believe in your dreams and never ever give up, things will turn out for the best."

- Meb Keflezighi

"The more you frame the marathon as a stressful experience, the more negative messages you’ll receive. But it’s just as easy to frame it as a positively challenging journey."

- Jeff Galloway

"You’re running on guts. On fumes. Your muscles twitch. You throw up. You’re delirious. But you keep running because there’s no way out of this hell you’re in because there’s no way you’re not crossing the finish line. It’s a misery that non-runners don’t understand."

- Martine Costello

"The music of a marathon is a powerful strain, one of those tunes of glory. It asks us to forsake pleasures, to discipline the body, to find courage, to renew faith, and to become one’s own person, utterly and completely."

- George Sheehan

"The real purpose of running isn’t to win a race, it’s to test the limits of the human heart."

- Bill Bowerman

"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 Sheehan

"Only the disciplined ones in life are free."

- Eliud Kipchoge

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

- Steve Prefontaine

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

- Confucius

"Everything you ever wanted to know about yourself you can learn in 26.2 miles."

- Lori Culnane

"Running teaches us that we are capable of so much more than we ever imagined."

- Kara Goucher

"Some run to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts."

- Steve Prefontaine

"There is no finish line. There is only the next run."

- Nike slogan

"I trained 4 years to run only 9 seconds. There are people who do not see results in two months, give up and quit."

- Usain Bolt

"It gets easier. Every day, it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day. That's the hard part."

- The running baboon from Bojack Horseman

"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

- Edmund Hillary

"Nothing hurts more but is so rewarding at the same time."

- Sandy Zanchi

"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

"Shut up legs"

- Jens Voight

"You can run 5K races until your dresser drawers overflow with T-shirts, but it is not quite the same as going to the starting line of a marathon."

- Hal Higdon

"You can’t think of your next marathon until you’ve forgotten your last one."

- Frank Shorter

"Marathoning. The triumph of desire over reason."

- New Balance

"So many people crossing the finish line of a marathon look as happy as when I won. They have tears in their eyes. The sport is full of winners."

- Gary Muhrcke

"Everything you wanted to know about yourself you can learn in 26.2 miles."

- Lori Culnane

"When I’m finishing a marathon and feeling like I really went to the wall — put it all out there and raced to the best of my ability — whatever place that may be, I can feel pretty satisfied with that."

- Molly Seidel

"I would love for everybody in this country to run one marathon a year."

- Gary Muhrcke

"I feel about marathons the way my parents taught me to feel about the ocean: it is a mighty thing and very beautiful, but don’t underestimate its capacity to hurt you."

- Joan Benoit Samuelson

"While you, and only you, can move your legs from start to finish, no one runs a marathon alone."

- Alexandra Heminsley

"Some seek the comfort of their therapist’s office, others head for the corner pub, but I chose running as my therapy."

- Dean Karnazes

"Running a marathon is not a question of whether it will be painful, but when it will be painful. It does help to have a sense of humor, but I’m also respectful of the race."

- Will Ferrell

"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

"Running is a gift."

- Amby Burfoot

"You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed."

- LeBron James

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."

- M. Kathleen Casey

"26.2 miles is a helluva long way for everything to go right and a helluva long way for just one thing to go wrong. Legs feed the wolf. Pain is weakness leaving your body. Run the mile you're on. Some days my best is a PR, others it's just putting one foot in front of the other"

"Just stick with it. What seems hard now will one day be your warm-up."

"I don’t have to go for a run, I get to go for a run"

"Run the mile you are on"

"Pain is weakness leaving your body."

"Finishing a marathon is a state of mind that says anything is possible."

"I often hear someone say I’m not a real runner. We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I’ve never met a fake runner."

"The first mile is a lie"

"Hills don’t go away. They wait."

"The first mile is a warm up. Mile two is a prick."

"The marathon is not about the finish line, but about the courage to keep going."

"There will be times when you will feel like giving up, but keep going. You are always closer than you think."

"The marathon is a reminder that the hardest part of anything is often getting started."

"You are stronger than you think, and you can go farther than you imagine."

"The person who starts the race is not the person who finishes the race."

"You can’t run a marathon without a little pain. But that pain is nothing compared to the pride you’ll feel when you finish."

"The quicker you run, the quicker you’re done."

"It’s the effort, not the results, that make a marathon runner a champion."

"When you run, you are not just running for yourself, you are running for everyone who has ever believed in you."

"Every step brings you closer to the finish line, and every mile is a story waiting to be told."

"Marathons are not about running. They’re about the resolve to keep putting one foot in front of the other, no matter what."

"Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your legs, and the last part with your heart."

"Every marathon is a journey of self-discovery."

"Long distance training can be a positive and constructive form of selfishness. After all, once you’re at the starting line, you’re there by yourself. No one can run a single step for you. No one can jump in and help you. No one but you can make the decisions about what to do to keep going. It’s all up to you."

"A marathon is a journey, not a destination. It’s about pushing yourself beyond your limits."

"The pain of today is the victory of tomorrow."

"Run fast, run slow, run far, run close—just run."

"Running teaches us to keep moving forward, one step at a time, especially in the most painful moments."

"Running is the answer. The question is irrelevant."

"No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch."

- Unknown

"Running is not about being better than someone else. It's about being better than you used to be."

"The only bad run is the one that didn't happen."

"The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow."

"Don’t ask me why I run. Ask yourself why you don’t."

"The voice in your head that says you can’t do this is a liar."

"Running reminds you that even in your weakest moments, you are strong."

"I run because somehow completely exhausting myself is the most relaxing part of my day."

"A marathon is hundreds of miles. The finish is the last 26.2."

"You don't have to be so tough that it doesn't hurt - you just have to be tough enough not to quit."

"Life is like a marathon. It’s full of ups and down that take your breath away."

"A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you have done it, you feel that you can do anything."

"Marathons are like having kids. Sometimes you’re not sure why you signed up for it…then in a moment, it all becomes apparent."

"I may not have a runner's body but ive got a runner's heart."