I get inspired by thoughts of other runners, coaches and sportspeople and like to keep a copy of quotes that mean something to me... so I'll share them with you in the hope that they bring you some inspiration too!
"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, two-time Olympic marathoner from Canada
"The more I run, the more I want to run, and the more I live a life conditioned and influenced and fashioned by my running. And the more I run, the more certain I am that I am heading for my real goal: to become the person I am." --George Sheehan, M.D.
"If you want to become the best runner you can be, start now. Don't spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it." --Priscilla Welch
"Runners...you're competitive, but you want to have fun, too. You want to enjoy life. And runners really get to do that, I think—after we recover." - Bill Rodgers, four-time winner of the Boston and New York City
"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart." Bill Bowerman
"Set your goals high because what a person accomplishes is in proportion to what they attempt." Mitchell Naufell
"You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off your face."
"Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals." - Henry Ford
"I think I get used to, even addicted to, the feelings associated with the end of a long training run. I love feeling empty, clean, worn out, starving, and sweat-purged. I love the good ache of muscles that have done me proud. I love the way a cold beer tastes later that afternoon. I love the way my body feels light and sinewy."- Kristin Armstrong, Author and runner
"The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed." - Jacqueline Gareau, 1980 Boston Marathon champ
"Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like muscles of the body." - Lynn Jennings, Nine-time champion of the USA
"A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else." - Steve Prefontaine, American middle and long-distance runner
"Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be." - George Sheehan
"Running long and hard is an ideal antidepressant, since it's hard to run and feel sorry for yourself at the same time. Also, there are those hours of clearheadedness that follow a long run." - Monte Davis
"Stepping outside the comfort zone is the price I pay to find out how good I can be. If I planned on backing off every time running got difficult I would hang up my shoes and take up knitting." - Desiree Davila, marathoner and member of the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project
"Running well is a matter of having the patience to persevere when we are tired and not expecting instant results." - Robert de Castella, World champion marathon runner
"Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission." - Neil Kendall
"Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission." - Neil Kendall
"If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat." - Herschel Walker, American football player
"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life." - Muhammad Ali, former American boxer and three-time World Heavyweight Champion
"It's very hard to understand in the beginning 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 to quit." - Dr. George Sheehan
"When people ask me why I run, I tell them, there's not really a reason, it's just the adrenalin when you start, and the feeling when you cross that finish line, and know that you are a winner no matter what place you got." Courtney Parsons, athlete
"Thank God for running. It is the ultimate detox for me, whether my poison is bubbles, a foul mood, or a bad attitude. If I combat inertia, get out, and get moving, eventually every kind of toxin works its way out." - Kristin Armstrong, Author and runner
"There is no satisfaction without a struggle first." - Marty Liquori, American middle distance athlete
"May the road rise up to greet you, and the wind always be at your back." - Irish proverb
"Good things come slow-especially in distance running." - Bill Dillinger , Oregon
"The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life." - George Sheehan
"Running is real and relatively simple - but it ain't easy." - Mark Will-Weber, author and running coach
"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart." - Bill Bowerman, American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Inc.
People ask why I run. I say, "If you have to ask, you will never understand". It is something only those select few know. Those who put themselves through pain, but know, deep down, how good it really feels. - Erin Leonard, athlete
"Running has taken me in, and continues to comfort, heal and challenge me in all kinds of magical ways. I am not a 'good runner' because I am me. I am a good 'me' because I am a runner." - Kristin Armstrong, Author and runner
"If you can't excel with talent, triumph with effort." - Dave Weinbaum, Businessman, writer and part-time stand-up comic
"Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running." - Sarah Condor
"This is not about instant gratification. You have to work hard for it, sweat for it, give up sleeping in on Sunday mornings." - Lauren Fessenden, Cross Country Athlete
"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run." - John Bingham, Runner and author
"When I do the best I can with what I have, then I have won my race." - Jay Foonberg, 72-year-old runner
