The clock isn't slower; you're just faster.
- Adidas
I felt like I played in a very rough football game with no hitting above the waist.
- Alan Page, former NFL football star
I eat whatever the guy who beat me in the last race ate.
- Alex Ratelle
Training can get on a man's nerves. There is no profit or use in denying it.
- Alf Shrubb, English racer, early 1900's
The idea that you can't lose contact with the leaders has cut more throats than it has saved.
- Arthur Lydiard
Life is short... running makes it seem longer.
- Baron Hansen
Anyone can run 20 miles. It's the next six that count.
- Barry Magee
There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.
- Bill Bowerman
The starting line of the New York City marathon is kind of a giant time bomb behind you about to go off. It is the most spectacular start in sport.
- Bill Rodgers
The marathon can humble you.
- Bill Rodgers
If you want to win a race you have to go a little berserk.
- Bill Rodgers
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
The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.
- Bill Squires, Coach
Coming off the last turn, my thoughts changed from 'One more try, one more try, one more try. . .' to 'I can win! I can win! I can win!
- Billy Mills
I thought about how many preconcieved prejudices would crumble when i trotted right along for 26 miles.
- Bobbi Gibb, first woman to finish the Boston Marathon, 1966
It's the lioness that hunts.
- British Women's running club slogan
Remember, even 13 year old girls are training three times per day.
- Bro. Colm O'Connel
It is true that speed kills. In distance running, it kills anyone who does not have it.
- Brooks Johnson
Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.
- Bruce Barton
Channel your energy. Focus
- Carl Lewis
Second place is not a defeat. It is a stimulation to get better. It makes you even more determined.
- Carlos Lopes, Portugal
Long distance running is particularly good training in perseverance.
- Chairman Mao
Taking charge of your body can help you take charge of your life. And that power can help you go wherever you want to go, every single day.
- Cheryl Bridges Treworgy, member of five U.S. World Cross-Country teams
Run like hell and get the agony over with.
- Clarence DeMar
There's no such thing as a bad carbohydrate.
- Don Kardong
No matter our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new buety waiting to be born.
- Dr. Dale Turner
Run slowly, run daily, drink moderately and don't eat like a pig.
- Dr. Ernest van Aaken
Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant.
- Dr. George Sheehan
The answer to the big questions in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you've got.
- Dr. George Sheehan
Out on the roads there is fitness and self-discovery and the persons we were destined to be.
- Dr. George Sheehan
Everyone is an athlete. The only difference is some of us are training and some are not.
- Dr. George Sheehan
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every expirience in which you stop to look fear in the face.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.
- Emil Zatopek
I was unable to walk for a whole week after that, so much did the race take out of me. But it was the most pleasant exhaustion I have ever known.
- Emil Zatopek after Olympic Marathon win
You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming.
- Frank Shorter
Hills are speedwork in disguise.
- Frank Shorter, 1972 Olympic Marathon Champion
When you first run up First Avenue in New York, if you don't get goose bumps, theres something wrong with you.
- Frank Shorter, on the New York City Marathon
The trouble with jogging is that by the time you realize you're not in shape for it, it's too far to walk back.
- Franklin P. Jones.
If you start to feel good during an ultra, don't worry, you will get over it.
- Gene Thibeault
I'm never going to run this again.
- Grete Waitz
The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals.
- Hal Higdon
The problem with big kickers is they often lose to other big kickers.
- Harry Groves, Penn State coach
The only tactics I admire are do-or-die.
- Herb Elliot
I have never been a killer. I'm not an aggressive personality and if I can remember any emotion I felt during a race it was fear. The greatest stimulator of my running was fear.
- Herb Elliott
First is first, and second is nowhere.
- Ian Stewart
I prefer to remain in blissful ignorance of the opposition. That way I'm not frightened by anyone's reputation.
- Ian Thompson, 2:09 marathon
At the two-thirds mark, I think of those who are still with me. Who might make a break? Should I? Then I give it all I've got.
- Ibrahim Hussein, on marathon tactics
They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary.
- Isaiah 40:13
Coaches are okay, I guess, but I prefer to do things my own way.
- Jack Foster
Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished.
- Jack Lovelock
To describe the agony of a marathon to someone who's never run it is like trying to explain color to someone who was born blind.
- Jerome Drayton
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
Friendships are born on the field of athletic strife and the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.
- Jesse Owens
For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.
- Jesse Owens
One chance is all you need.
- Jesse Owens
It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close
- Jesse Owens
I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.
- Jesse Owens
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
The Boston Marathon has had more to do with liberating and promoting women's marathoning than any other race in the world.
- Joe Henderson
The mile has a classic symmetry. It's a play in four acts.
- John Landy
Everyone in life is looking for a certain rush. Racing is where I get mine.
- John Trautmann
Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have nature and that is much better.
- Juha Väätäinen, Finland
The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.
- Juma Ikangaa
Act like a horse. Be dumb. Just run.
- Jumbo Elliott
Any idiot can train himself into the ground; the trick is working in training to get gradually stronger.
- Keith Brantly, U.S. Olympic Marathoner
A Coach can be like an oasis in the dessert of a runner's lost enthusiasm.
- Ken Doherty, former coach and Penn Relays director
As a sportsman, I accept being beaten. Everybody tries to be a winner, but only one in a race will win. It’s fun to win. But I don’t find unhappiness if I lose.
- Kip Keino
Anything is possible, but you have to believe and you have to fight
- Lance Armstrong
Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it
- Lou Holtz
Every athlete has doubts. Elite runners in particular are insecure people. You need someone to affirm that what you are doing is right.
- Lynn Jennings
The footing was really atrocious. I loved it. I really like Cross Country; you're one with the mud.
- Lynn Jennings
Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, like the muscles of the body.
- Lynn Jennings
Sometimes a slight pace change is all you need to snap out of a mental or pyhsical funk.
- Mark Plaatjes, 1993 World Marathon champion
Road racing is rock 'n roll; track is Carnegie Hall.
- Marty Liquori
Don't quit, dammit!
- Marty Liquori to Kip Keino
Intelligent coaching is sometimes no coaching.
- Marty Stern
If the hill has its own name, then it's probably a pretty tough hill.
- Marty Stern
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity.
- Michael Johnson
I tell runners to divide a race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart.
- Mike Fanelli, club coach
The secret of cross country is to do everything we do on the track and take it into the bush.
- Mike Koskei, Kenya
Set your goals high because what a person accomplishes is in proportion to what they attempt.
- Mitchell Naufell
Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission.
- Neil Kendall
The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.
- Nike Running Poster
Afraid you havent got what it takes? Then get it! Feed your mind.
- Ohio Runner
Some people go through life standing at the excuse counter. Get out of line.
- Ohio Runner
Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.
- Oprah Winfrey
Mind is everything. Muscle — pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.
- Paavo Nurmi
If you want to tell something to an athlete, say it quickly and give no alternatives. This is a game of winning and losing. It is senseless to explain and explain.
- Paavo Nurmi
This is a game of winning and losing. It is senseless to explain and explain.
- Paavo Nurmi, Finnish Olympic Great
When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.
- Paul Brown
Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'.
- Paul Tergat
The thinking must be done first, before training begins.
- Peter Coe
Yet that man is happy and poets sing of him who conquers with hand and swift foot and strength.
- Pindar, Greek poet, 500 B.C.
The New York Marathon: a fantastic event.
- Pope John Paul II, 1982
Concentration is the secret of strength.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Apres moi le deluge ("After me the flood")
- Roger Bannister, after running history's first sub 4-minute mile
Cross Country is like poker. You have to be holding five good cards all the time.
- Rollie Geiger, North Carolina State Coach
When runners win a big race these days, they get a car. When I won a big race, I got a ride.
- Ron Delany, Irish miler, 1956 Olympic 1500 Champion
Get going. Get up and walk if you have to, but finish the damned race.
- Ron Hill during the 1970 Boston Marathon
Those who say that I will lose and am finished will have to run over my body to beat me.
- Said Aouita
Blink and you miss a sprint. The 10,000 meters is lap after lap of waiting. Theatrically, the mile is just the right length: beginning, middle, end, a story unfolding.
- Sebastian Coe
Satisfaction is the DEATH of Desire
- Seen on the back of a runners t-shirt
Bid me run and I will strive with things impossible.
- Shakespeare
The mile has all the elements of drama.
- Sir Roger Bannister
If a man coaches himself, then he has only himself to blame when he is beaten.
- Sir Roger Bannister
I just run as hard as I can for 20 miles, and then race.
- Steve Jones
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
- Steve Prefontaine
What I want is to be number one.
- Steve Prefontaine
I don't just go out there and run. I like to give people watching something exciting.
- Steve Prefontaine
Someone may beat me today, But they're gonna have to bleed to do it.
- Steve Prefontaine
I don't drink. I don't kiss girls. These things do an athlete in.
- Suleiman Nyambui
Pain is Weakness leaving the body.
- Tom Sobal, 3-Time World Snowshoe Racing Champion
Pain is nature's way of telling you that you are still alive.
- Unknown
Running is a mental sport, and we're all insane!
- Unknown
Records are made to be broken.
- Unknown
Pain is temporary, pride is forever!
- Unknown
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.
- Unknown
A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you've done it you feel that you can do anything.
- Unknown
Marathon running is a terrible experience: monotonous, heavy, and exhausting.
- Veikko Karvonen, 1954 Boston Champ
Adversity cause some men to break; others to break records.
- William Arthur Ward
I run because it's my passion, and not just a sport. Every time I walk out the door, I know why I'm going where I'm going and I'm already focused on that special place where I find my peace and solitude. Running, to me, is more than just a physical exercise... it's a consistent reward for victory!
- William Arthur Ward
Now bid me run, And I will strive things impossible.
- William Shakespear, Julius Caesar
Learn to run when feeling the pain: then push harder.
- William Sigei
I was pushed by myself because I have my own rule, and that is that every day I run faster, and try harder.
- Wilson Kipketer
The training is my secret and if I told you what it was, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore! I keep the secret in my heart.
- Wilson Kipketer
Never, never, never, never give up.
- Winston Churchill
