It can be hard to find the motivation to keep going on race day. Whether you’ve reached the limits of your mental toughness or you simply need a morale boost, these quotes can be exactly what you need. The pressure is on, but don’t let it get to you. These quotes are here to help you stay motivated on race day.
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Stay Active
Here are 15 running quotes that will help you stay active:

- 1. “I’d rather die of passion than to be bored to death”. “When you stop reaching for the stars you stop doing extraordinary things.”- Michael Phelps
- 2. “The more you run the less chance you have of being hit by a truck.”- Unknown
- 3. “I just want to be the best that I can be”. “If you believe it, you can achieve it. If you don’t believe it, you won’t”- Jesse Owens
- 4. “No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everyone on the couch.”- Unknown
- 5. “I don’t think there is any doubt that this is a sport of the future. It’s not a fad. We have a whole generation already in place that runs. Now we just have to wait for the next generation to come along and bring in the big money.” – Bill Bowerman
- 6. “The secret to my success is that I never stop running – even when I am not running!”- Janice Thompson
- 7. “My definition of a successful person is someone who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her.”- David Brinkley
- 8. “A champion isn’t made in the ring, but in the will of the one fighting.”- Muhammad Ali 10.
- 9. “Think back to that race in your life when you broke down. What is it you did? Do it again, and do it better than ever.”- Unknown
- 10. “You can’t win unless you quit trying.”- Unknown
- 11. “If I had my life to live over again, I wouldn’t do it differently because I wouldn’t trade the lessons of this life for anything in the world.”- Michael Grossman
- 12. “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”- Beverly Sills
- 13. “There is no secret to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.”- Colin Powell
- 14. “If you want to be average then just do what everyone else does. If you want to be above average then just do what everyone else doesn’t do!”- Unknown.
Running in Your Life

- 1. “Running is a community of people just like any other community. There are the suckers and the winners, but they all share mutual respect and dedication to the sport.”- Robert Cheeke
- 2. “The family that runs together stays together!”- Unknown
- 3. “You meet new people, you get fuel for your mind and discipline for your body and soul and spirit, and you push yourself to new limits and discover what it is to be human.
- 4. “Running is a way to slow down time, live in the moment, and feel alive.”- Ryan Hall 5.
- 5. “To anyone out there who has ever been put down by a running partner, I do not know what you have done to deserve such humiliation on a day when you were just trying to stay warm and healthy, but I thank you for giving me all the motivation I need!”- Josh Larson
- 6. “Running takes you to the edge of your comfort zone and forces you to discover things about yourself that maybe didn’t exist before.”- Sage Canaday
- 7. “Getting out there everyday, making yourself uncomfortable, being cold, being hot, just getting the crap beat out of you… It’s so good for the soul. It’s so good for who you are as a person.”- Jason Hartmann
- 8. “The best thing about running is it keeps you from doing anything stupid.”- Unknown
- 9. “There’s a certain type of person that just loves to run, and that’s really what makes them a runner – because they just love being out there running.”- Unknown
- 10. “Anyone who says they don’t run because they’re afraid of death is lying to themselves.”- Mike Powell 11.
- 11. “Running can save your life.”- Unknown
- 12. “In the end, there were no good options left, just hard ones and harder ones. In the end, I chose to find a way to keep going forward, one step at a time. In the end, that is all that we can do — choose to move forward; choose to live; choose to love; choose to forgive, and choose to help others do the same.”- Unknown
- 13. “Running is second only to sex in the way it keeps you young.”- Unknown
- 14. “No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everyone on the couch!”- Unknown
- 15. “Never underestimate the power of running to change your life for the better!”- Unknown
Top Famous Quotes about Running

- 1. “Running is an essential part of my life and I couldn’t imagine not doing it.”- Trayvon Alexander, Olympic gold medalist marathoner.
- 2. “If you run you will get there!”- Muhammad Ali
- 3. “The more I get out of bed, the more I get done.”- Winston Churchill.
- 4. “I run to live, live to run.”- Robert De Niro.
- 5. “Anyone can walk a mile. But to run a mile takes guts.”- Ernest Shackleton.
- 6. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”- Eleanor Roosevelt.
- 7. “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”- Winston Churchill.
- 8. “I just want to be the best that I can be.”- Hall of Fame wrestler, professional football player Jim Thorpe.
- 9. “You don’t know what you can do until you try.”- Henry Ford
- 10. “If you want to be a champion, the first thing you have to be is a winner.”- Muhammad Ali.
- 11. “Running is not a task or a race, but an experience”- Dave Barry
- 12. “The ability to get up and go on is a talent.”- Willie Shoemaker
- 13. “Dare to be different, impractical, or anything else that will demonstrate your integrity of purpose and innovative vision against the play-it-safes, the creatures of the mundane, and the slaves of the mundane.”- Cecil Beaton
- 14. “The secret to my success is that I never stop running – even when I am not running!”- Janice Thompson
- 15. “Running will never be a sport you play. It is not about running the best time or distances – it’s something way more important, that cannot be measured or tamed by any science. Running is life, blood, sweat and tears. It is the drama of survival fighting against death.”- Paul Tergat
Funny Quotes for Race Day

- 1. “I put on running shoes with high instep and run around the house, trying to catch the cat.”- Unknown
- 2. “The first thing I ever ran was down the hall to my oldest brother’s room where I pounded on his door, woke him up and yelled “Come out or I’ll have you know your father is not your friend!”- Unknown
- 3. “You learn to run by running. You learn to fight by fighting. You learn to work by working.”- Vince Lombardi
- 4. “It’s hard to stay mad when there’s nothing worth staying mad about…it’s even harder to run when some punk is chasing you.”- Unknown
- 5. “Running sucks, but you suck more if you don’t do it.”- Unknown
- 6. “I run because I’m a coward, and the only time a coward gets ahead is when he runs away.”- Ray Bradbury
- 7. “You can’t cheat at running…you can only cheat at life.”- Unknown
- 8. “Running is the only drug that makes you feel like everything is okay.”- Unknown
- 9. “Sometimes exercise rewards you with a good mood so it’s good medicine, but I still run to use up my anger and frustration on something other than people.”- Unknown
- 10. “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to give in to it.”- Oscar Wilde
- 12. “I have a running machine so I can lose weight while the wife watches TV.”- Unknown
- 13. “A man can be as great as he wants if he’d just let himself be.”- Booker T. Washington
- 14. “It’s not the mountain ahead to climb that wears you out. It’s the grain of sand in your shoe.”- Muhammad Ali.
- 15. “A fellow who’s just starting out, should take plenty of rest. But the fellow who’s been at it for years, he’ll never notice — will run till he wears out.”- Unknown
FAQs
What are Inspiring Words for Runners?
1. “No matter how slow you go, you’re still lapping everyone on the couch.”- Unknown
2. “One step, one breath at a time.”- Unknown
3. “Everyday counts”- Unknown
4. “It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose, whether we win or lose together”- Gandhi
5. “When nothing goes right…go left!”- Unknown
How Do You Cheer up a Runner?
1. “If you are going through hell, keep going.”- Winston Churchill
2. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”- Wayne Gretzky
3. “It’s supposed to be hard, it’s the hard that makes it great.”- Unknown
4. “I’m not a runner because I find running enjoyable. I’m a runner because I enjoy what running makes me become”- Unknown
What to Say to Motivate a Runner?
1. “Without pain, there can be no gain.”- Unknown
2. “Make pain your friend and you can endure anything.”- Unknown
3. “You gotta give it your all and never quit”- Pink
4. “The best way to get better is to compete with yourself and not worry about what the other person is doing”- Unknown
5. “The obstacles we encounter in life makes us stronger, smarter and wiser”- Unknown
What Do They Say Before a Race?
1. “Take the weight off your shoulders, you’ve earned it”- Jock Semple
2. “I run to win”- Carl Lewis
3. “If I had my chance over again I’d do it all the same.”- Edward Jenner
4. “Don’t regret anything you do in life, except for the mistakes”- Caine Gayle
5. “If you want to be a champion, the first thing you have to be is a winner.”- Muhammad Ali