Inspiring Track and Field Quotes to Fuel Your Passion

"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race. It's to test the limits of the human heart."

- Bill Bowerman

"We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."

- Jesse Owens

"The only thing that stands between you and your dream is the will to try and the belief that it is actually possible."

- Joel Brown

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

- Colin Powell

"Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win."

- Tom Fleming

"I am a big believer in visualization. I run through my races mentally so that I feel even more prepared."

- Allyson Felix

"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

"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

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

- John Bingham

"Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter: long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best."

- Michael Johnson

"The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100%."

- Usain Bolt

"The only real limitation is the one you set for yourself."

- Ashton Eaton

"The only true limitation is the one you set for yourself."

- Usain Bolt

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in determination."

- Usain Bolt

"The nine inches right here; set it straight and you can beat anybody in the world."

- Sebastian Coe

"The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that’s where it’s at."

- Jesse Owens

"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

"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 Hansen

"Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right."

- Henry Ford

"What you believe, you can achieve."

- Mary Decker

"You have to believe in yourself when no one else does."

- Serena Williams

"You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back."

- Steve Prefontaine

"Be confident in the work you did to prepare for the race. Take a look back at your training logs to remind yourself that you've done everything possible to prepare. The race is the fun part where you get to see the hard work pay off. Enjoy it."

- Desiree Linden

"I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it."

- Steve Prefontaine

"The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere."

- Barack Obama

"Fear is gradually replaced by excitement and a simple desire to see what you can do on the day."

- Lauren Fleshman

"The only one who can beat me is me."

- Michael Johnson

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

- Julie Isphording

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

- Mo Farah

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

- John Bingham

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

- Dean Karnazes

"The important thing was that I got the win. It's good for confidence and the season."

- Usain Bolt

"Failure I can live with. Not trying is what I can’t handle."

- Sanya Richards-Ross

"The only thing that matters is the finish line."

- Mary Cain

"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

"If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win."

- Carl Lewis

"You must see yourself run the race over and over, time and time again. You must put yourself in critical positions and see how you would react in those positions before the race so when and if they do happen, the feedback is automatic."

- Rodney Milburn

"The body does what the mind believes."

- Michael Johnson

"You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy."

- Arthur Ashe

"Kill them with success and bury them with a smile."

- Usain Bolt

"The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running."

- Wilma Rudolph

"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 the routine, and I accept it. It means I'm there and I'm ready."

- Allyson Felix

"I don’t think limits."

- Usain Bolt

"When you finally realize your gifts and talents, joy and satisfaction come as you walk in your purpose."

- Sanya Richards-Ross

"The more you dream, the farther you get."

- Michael Phelps

"The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning."

- Pele

"You got to try and reach for the stars Or Take the Professional Approach to achieve the unreachable."

- Cathy Freeman

"You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out."

- Steve Jobs

"The ultimate winners are willing to take ultimate risks."

- Brooks Johnson

"I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up."

- Jesse Owens

"If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a board and knock me down, because that means I didn’t run hard enough."

- Steve Jones

"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

"I also realize that winning doesn't always mean getting first place; it means getting the best out of yourself."

- Meb Keflezighi

"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.'"

- Carl Lewis

"Let's just say it and be done with it. Racing hurts. But here's another truth: having put in the effort to prepare for a race and then not giving it your all hurts even more. The first kind of hurt goes away in hours or a day. The second kind of hurt can last a lifetime."

- Larry Shapiro

"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."

- Patti Sue Plumer

"No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life's most rewarding experiences."

- George Sheehan

"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."

- Deena Kastor

"What distinguishes those of us at the starting line from those of us on the couch is that we learn through running to take what the days gives us, what our body will allow us, and what our will can tolerate."

- John Bingham

"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

"I'm done with my run, I'm done with it."

- Rob Haneisen

"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

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

- Jack Lovelock

"Why race? The need to be tested, perhaps; the need to take risks; and the chance to be number one."

- George Sheehan

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

- C.S. Lewis

"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

"Once you're beat mentally, you might as well not even go to the starting line."

- Todd Williams

"You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning."

- Billy Wilder

"I love controlling a race, chewing up an opponent. Let's get down and dirty. Let's fight it out. It's raw, animalistic, with no one to rely on but yourself. There's no better feeling than that."

- Adam Goucher

"You have to take a leap of faith to realize a dream, and this is something that a lot of people aren't willing to do."

- Ron Bramlett

"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

"It's just as important to remember that each footstrike carries you forward, not backward. And every time you put on your running shoes you are different in come way than you were the day before. This is all good news."

- John Bingham

"I think I get addicted to the feelings associated with the end of a long run. I love feeling empty, clean, worn out, and sweat-purged. I love that good ache of the muscles that have done me proud."

- Kristin Armstrong

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

- Joe Henderson

"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

"Life can lure us into this fantasy. A fantasy of fear. We look around and begin to fear we aren’t good enough for the right here and right now, so we create illusions in our minds of what we still need to be — when all we need to be is present in this moment, at this time."

- Sanya Richards-Ross

"One skill that separates good from almost-good runners is an ability to concentrate for an entire race, whether it is a mile or a marathon."

- Kara Goucher

"For me, races are the celebration of my training."

- Dan Browne

"It's amazing how the same pace in practice can feel so much harder than on race day. Stay confident. Trust the process."

- Sara Hall

"To be number one, you have to train like you’re number two."

- Maurice Greene

"Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best."

- Michael Johnson

"The key thing in the hurdles is that it’s a development event. You might not do a damn thing one year, and then things just click. You really can’t discount athletes who may not stand out immediately. It may take two or three years for an athlete to develop."

- Kevin Young

"When you put yourself on the line in a race and expose yourself to the unknown, you learn things about yourself that are very exciting."

- Doris Brown Heritage

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

- Desiree Linden

"Good health, peace of mind, being outdoors, camaraderie: those are all wonderful things that come to you when running. But for me, the real pull of running—the proverbial icing on the cake—has always been racing."

- Bill Rodgers

"Act like a horse. Be dumb. Just run."

- Jumbo Elliot

"Your goal is simple: Finish. Experience your first race, don’t race it."

- Bob Glover

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

- Dean Karnazes

"The gun goes off and everything changes… the world changes… and nothing else really matters."

- Patti Sue Plummer

"Everyone in life is looking for a certain rush. Racing is where I get mine."

- John Trautmann

"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

"Racing is the fun part; it's the reward of all the hard work."

- Kara Goucher

"Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing it."

- Jesse Owens

"The pain of running relieves the pain of living."

- Jacqueline Simon Gunn

"Every race is a question, and I never know until the last yards what the answer will be. That's the lure of racing."

- Joe Henderson

"All pressure is self-inflicted. It's what you make of it or how you let it rub off on you."

- Sebastian Coe

"Different people have different reasons for racing, but one is simply the incentive to get out and run, increase mileage, and feel good."

- Hal Higdon

"Running is in my blood—the adrenaline flows before the races, the love/hate of butterflies in your stomach."

- Marcus O'Sullivan

"Scientists have proven that it’s impossible to long-jump 30 feet, but I don’t listen to that kind of talk. Thoughts like that have a way of sinking into your feet."

- Carl Lewis

"There is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people."

- Bill Bowerman

"You didn't beat me. You merely finished in front of me."

- Hal Higdon

"Racing is an escape from society. From symbols of status, and self-perception. A chance to just be. For everyone to just be, with each other."

- Erin Beresini

"Friendships are born on the field of athletic strife and the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust."

- Jesse Owens

"I don’t train. I just run my 3-15 miles a day."

- Jack Foster

"The first thing a hurdler learns is how to fall."

- Tonie Campbell

"The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday."

"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."