Favorite Running Quotes

  This post is especially for my mom who is training for her first half marathon.

At our last Cross Country meet, I gave the kids these quotes and told them to pick one to help them through their 3rd mile when things got hard.  Most of them picked the funny ones.  I love all of them; Sometimes we runners have to laugh at how crazy we are; sometimes we need inspiration; sometimes we just need to know that someone else out there truly understands what we are going through.  There's a little bit of all of that here.  For all the runners out there, I hope you find some of these to be what you needed to hear as you continue training for whatever goals you've set for yourself.

  

“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in the safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?”

-Jeremiah 12:5

“Men, today we die a little.”

-Emil Zatopek

“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

“My feet have several thousand meetings scheduled with the dirt on a trail not far from here.  Who am I to keep them waiting?” 

-Jeb Dickerson

“Cross Country is like poker: you have to be holding 5 good cards all the time.”

-Rollie Geiger

“In that he didn't die at the finish line, he could have run faster."
- Tim Noakes

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

-Yoda

“Our sport is your sport’s punishment.”

"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

“This body, this body holding me, reminds me of my own mortality. Embrace this moment. Remember: We are eternal;
all this pain is an illusion.”

-Tool

"The mind learns the body can go at least a bit farther even though it feels increasingly uncomfortable."

-Pritiki

“Run like you’re naked.”

-Melissa Ratcliff

"You're better than you think you are and you can do more than you think you can!"
- Ken Chlouber

"Scientific testing can't determine how the mind will tolerate pain in a race. Sometimes, I say, "Today I can die.'"
 - Gelindo Bordin

“Run like Mexican water through a first time tourist.”

-Al Bundy

“For something to hurt that bad, and feel so good, it's just inexplicable.”

-Adam Goucher

“Inevitably, there's some official bellowing: "Come on! Run through the chute! Keep it movin'...Keep it movin'!" But you're bent over, gasping, admiring with salt-stung eyes, the good, honest, mud of battle, the trickle of blood from a spike wound, splattered on your still-quivering legs and too-old (but still lucky) racing shoes…. What could be more beautiful?”

-Mark Will-Weber

"Run like hell and get the agony over with."

-Clarence DeMar

“Cross Country: we like it longer, harder, and in the woods.”

“A Coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you can be.”

-Tom Landry

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. But I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep; and miles to go before I sleep.”

-Robert Frost

“The only good race pace is a suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.”

-Prefontaine

“To keep from decaying, to win, you must accept pain…and not only accept it, but look forward to it, live with it, learn not to fear it.”

-Dr. George Sheehan

“Some people don’t have the guts for distance racing; the polite term for them is sprinters.”

“Runners are the ultimate celebration people. Running is just so intense; you’re really experiencing life to the fullest.”

-Bill Rodgers

“There will come a point in the race, when you alone will need to decide. You will need to make a choice. Do you really want it? You will need to decide.”

-Rolf Arands

“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 Plummer