Sport, speed, space. We all have our reason for running. On a track, in a park, down a country road. A common language to those who do it. Here are some voices, some famous, some not-so-famous, on the subject of running:

I was born to be a runner. I simply love to run. It’s almost like the faster I go, the easier it becomes.–Mary Decker Slaney quotes, American middle-distance runner.

Every day above ground is a good day. Every day I can run is a very good day.– Michael S. Bowen

When I’m in peak shape, I have this feeling of effortlessness and excitement. Before I race, I’m calm, but I’m also eager to get going and push myself harder than I ever have –Regina Jacobs (3-Time Olympian)

If the hill has its own name, then it’s probably a pretty tough hill.–Marty Stern (American track coach)

I don’t go looking for hills, but when I come to one, I run it.–Jack Mahurin

Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, like the muscles of the body.– Lynn Jennings

Hills are speedwork in disguise.–Frank Shorter (American Olympic champion)

The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare– Juma Ikangaa

Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don’t think about them, I just do them.–PattiSue Plummer (American Olympian)

A lot of people run a race to see who’s the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.–Steve Prefontaine

Whenever I run, I feel as if my best friend has come back.–Ellen Hart Pena

Run like hell and get the agony over with.–Clarence DeMar

Running has given me more energy than I’ve ever had before…It’s always my hope that I’ll inspire someone to walk or run around the block the next day.–Annabel Marsh

To keep from decaying, to be a winner, the athlete must accept pain – not only accept it, but look for it, live with it, learn not to fear it.–Dr. George Sheehan.

Running affords the perfect integration of body and spirit. It makes for a fullness of life.
–Sister Marion Irvine (oldest woman to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials at age 54)

On a flat road runs the well-train’d runner;
He is lean and sinewy, with muscular legs;
He is thinly clothed – he leans forward as he runs,
With lightly closed fists, and arms partially rais’d.– Walt Whitman

In recent years I’ve come to realize that the more of the outdoors I get, the more I want. That alone-that growing appetite for being out in the world-is a debt to running that I can never repay.–John Jerome

But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.–Isaiah 40:31

Run like hell and get the agony over with.–Clarence DeMar (Boston Marathon champion)

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the
prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the
mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible
crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly;
so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body,
and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached
to others, I myself should be a castaway.–I Corinthians 9:24-27

Running is my lover.–Toshihiko Seko (Boston Marathon champion)

Do what you know best, if you’re a runner, run, if you’re a bell, ring.–Ignas Bernstein.

I decided to go for a little run.–Forrest Gump.

I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, ‘I’ve never seen anyone run like that before.’ It’s more than just a race, it’s style. It’s doing something better than anyone else. It’s being creative.–Steve Prefontaine

Long distance running is 90% mental and the other half is physical. –Rich Davis

The answers to the big questions in running are the same as the answers to the big questions in life. Just do the best you can with what you’ve got, and that includes your stride length.–George Sheehan

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.–Henry David Thoreau

I love running cross country….On a track, I feel like a hamster.–Robin Williams

Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have nature and that is much better.–Juha Väätäinen (Finnish runner)

The runner has a view of life that makes all the jogging and racing worthwhile.–Dr. George Sheehan

Running has given me the courage to start, the determination to keep trying, and the childlike spirit to have fun along the way. Run often and run long, but never outrun your joy of running.–Julie Isphording, Marathon winner

Don’t underestimate the importance of easy days. Easy days help you beat fatigue, to keep fatigue from beating you.–Bob Glover

This chance will stand before you only once.–Sandra Day O’Connor

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.–Will Rogers

One chance is all you need.–Jesse Owens

It’s never too late to be what you might have been.–George Eliot

All glory comes from daring to begin.–Ancient proverb

When I run, truly run, I am certain of that. It is all there. My body does what it does best. The mind like a kaleidoscope constantly rearranges the things it has stored into new and exciting patterns. And my soul utterly loses itself in the present.–Dr. George Sheehan

My body is exercising and my body is relaxing. I think these are the essentials of the sport.–Delano Meriwether

All that I am, I am because of my mind.–Paavo Nurmi (9-time Olympic champion)

You have to think that you can’t quit. Your brain wants to quit, but you have to fight it. It has nothing to do with speed, and everything to do with finishing.–Abe Weintraub (completed 9 NYC Marathons between age 80 and 90)

Ninety percent of my training is done with partners. That’s probably why my motivation is so high…we’re always psyched.–Paula Newby-Fraser

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.–Eleanor Roosevelt

Running has given me a new life.–John Cahill, 75-year-old masters runner

When people keep telling you that you can’t do a thing, you kind of like to try it.–Margaret Chase Smith (Congresswoman)

Don’t ever accept anyone else’s preconceived limitations. If there’s something you want to do, there isn’t any reason you can’t do it.–Amy Dodson (runner, amputee)

The only limits are, as usual, those of vision.–James Broughton (American poet)

Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like muscles of the body.–Lynn Jennings

Long-distance running is particularly good training in perseverance.–Mao Tse-tung

Slumps are inevitable; they are a natural and unavoidable part of competition. But slumps will pass, and with time, performance will return to its expected level.–Jim Taylor, Ph.D.

Any day I am too busy to run is a day I am too busy.–John Bryant (Editor, London Times)

Good things come slow-especially in distance running.–Bill Dellinger (American track coach)

Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!–Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There

Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.–Dostoyevsky (Russian writer)

A lot of people run to see who’s the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.–Steve Prefontaine

Once that distance had been passed in training, an important physical and psychological
threshold had been crossed. It was no longer a question of *if* it could be done. Rather,
it became a question of *how fast* it could be done.–Mike Plant

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection.–Thomas Paine

There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.–Elie Wiesel

Bid me run, and I will strive for things impossible.–William Shakespeare

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.–Theodore Roosevelt

God gives talent. Work transforms talent into genius.–Anna Pavlova

If you run hard, there’s the pain — and you’ve got to work your way through the pain….
You know, lately it seems all you hear is ‘Don’t overdo it’ and ‘Don’t push yourself.’ Well, I think that’s a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond.–Bob Clarke, NHL Hall of Famer

The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.–Juma Ikangaa (Marathon champion)

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.–Dr. George Sheehan

There’s no traffic jam on the extra mile.–Unknown

There is no satisfaction without a struggle first. – Marty Liquori

Sweat plus sacrifice equals success.–Charles O. Finley

Every man dies, but not every man really lives.–William Wallace

Failure is not failure but the opportunity to begin again…more intelligently.–Henry Ford

You can never run a hill too hard, you will collapse before hurting it.–Adam Born

No one ever won the olive wreath with an impressive training diary.–Marty Liquori (American Olympian)

Mind is everything: muscle, pieces of rubber.–Paavo Nurmi

Anyone can win, unless there happens to be a second entry.–George Ade

The only competition of a wise man is with himself.–Washington Allston

Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.–Hebrews 12:1

It is better to wear out one’s shoes than one’s sheets.–Genoese Proverb

Do you know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.–1 Corinthians 9:24

Endurance is patience concentrated.–Carlyle

Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach.–Dr. George Sheehan

Why race? The need to be tested, perhaps; the need to take risks; and the chance to be number one.–Dr. George Sheehan

Luis Escobar quotes:

Enjoy your pain, you’ve earned it.

Some running is good, more is better, and too much is just enough.

The only way to define your limits is to go beyond them.

Remember the second most important thing to choosing the right shoe,
is choosing the left one.

The will to run is not as nearly as important as the will to prepare.

Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

Running is real. It’s all joy and woe, hard as diamond. It makes you weary beyond
comprehension, but it also makes you free.