Top Ten Motivational
Quotes for Runners
A new running season is
upon us and we all want to bring in the new year with a positive
attitude about what we like to do best.
A time will come, for every
runner, when the dreaded slump rears its ugly head. It is inevitable.
The trick to keeping it away, or recovering from it, is finding
the proper motivation. It is sometimes helpful to take the advice
of those who have been there before, or just to look at running
in a new light.
For that purpose there is
nothing better than running quotes. Here are the top ten:
1) No one said it was
going to be easy.
"Running is real and relatively simple - but it ain't easy."
-Mark Will-Weber
2) It
is going to take guts.
"Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a
race to see who has the most guts." - Steve Prefontaine
3) You have to be tough.
"Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and
experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast
and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one
inside your head." - Joe Henderson
4) Your biggest opponent is yourself.
"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
5) You have to learn to see the beauty in it.
"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
6) You have to be strong.
"Running is a big question mark that’s there each
and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp
or are you going to be strong today?'" - Peter Maher
7) You have to give it your all.
"Those who say that I will lose and am finished will have
to run over my body to beat me." - Said Aouita
8) You have to want it.
"A runners creed: I will win; if I cannot win, I shall
be second; if I cannot be second, I shall be third; if I cannot
place at all, I shall still do my best." - Ken Doherty
9) You are not alone.
"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there.
Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep
running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes
down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."
- Steve Prefontaine
10) You can do it.
"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
