Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.
— Oprah Winfrey
Cheerful Distance Running quotations
In running it is man against himself, the cruelest of opponents.
The other runners are not the real enemies. His adversary lies within him, in his ability with brain and heart to master himself and his emotions.
When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.
Go in any direction..seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.
I always loved running.... It was something you could do by yourself and under your own power.
I have a saying 'train, don't strain.
' The Americans have the saying 'no pain, no gain' and that's why they have no distance running champions. They get down to the track with a stopwatch and flog their guts out thinking that it'll make them a champion, but they'll never make a champion that way.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep but I have promises to keep...
It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse.
Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'.
They say the breaks even up in the long run, and the trick is to be a long-distance runner.
The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.
There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.
Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves.
It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about.
Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body.
Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have Nature, and that is much better.
Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.
Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.
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.
The mile has a classic symmetry....It's a play in four acts.
Running hills breaks up your rhythm and forces your muscles to adapt to new stresses. The result? You become stronger.
Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished.
It is true that speed kills. In distance running, it kills anyone who does not have it.
Everyone is an athlete. The only difference is that some of us are in training, and some are not.
Concentrate on small segments of your race at a time.
For example, rather than obsessing about the distance that remains, simply complete the next mile in good form...try another, then another, until the race is done.
The real competition is against the little voice inside you that wants to quit
We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore.
What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.
We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves
I haven't seen too many American distance men on the international scene willing to take risks. I saw some U.S. women in Barcelona willing to risk, more than men. The Kenyans risk. Steve Prefontaine risked. I risked - I went through the first half of the Tokyo race just a second off my best 5000 time.
Running! If there's any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can't think of what it might be.
In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.
The essential thing in life is not so much conquering as fighting well.
Long distance running is particularly good training in perseverance.
The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank.
There's no such thing as bad weather - only the wrong clothes.
In golf, as in life, you get out of it what you put into it.