There is a special mystique about the marathon, for example, because of its length-but that's just the bit you do at the end of an Ironman — Chrissie Wellington
The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. Every jogger can't dream of being an Olympic champion, but he can dream of finishing a marathon. — Fred Lebow
Few things in life match the thrill of a marathon. — Fred Lebow
Running a marathon is just like reading a good book. After a while you're just not conscious of the physical act of reading. — Frank Shorter
Triumph over adversity that's what the marathon is all about. Nothing in life can't triumph after that — Kathrine Switzer
When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time. — Haile Gebrselassie
Anyone can run 20 miles. It's the next six that count. — Barry Magee
If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon. — Emil Zatopek
Long distance running is particularly good training in perseverance. — Mao Zedong
If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon. — Kathrine Switzer
Life is a marathon, not a sprint; pace yourself accordingly. — Amby Burfoot
Like the marathon, life can sometimes be difficult, challenging and present obstacles, however if you believe in your dreams and never ever give up, things will turn out for the best. — Meb Keflezighi
A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. — Steve Prefontaine
Short Marathon Quotes
Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it. — Oprah Winfrey
Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired. — Jules Renard
I completed five half marathons in 2002. — Wim Hof
I wanted the world to know that my country Ethiopia has always won with determination and heroism. — Abebe Bikila
Just put one foot in front of the other. — Austin Peck
I live in New Jersey, so I kind of just go to New York whenever. — Sadie Sink
When brands run podcasts, they stand a chance of taking their success to the next level. — Vladimer Botsvadze
When you think about winning, you go to the extreme. — Giannis Antetokounmpo
I always loved running.... It was something you could do by yourself and under your own power. — Jesse Owens
Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. — Fred Rogers
Marathon Image Quotes
Half Marathon Quotes
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. — Jerry Lynch
If you feel bad at 10 miles, you're in trouble. If you feel bad at 20 miles, you're normal. If you don't feel bad at 26 miles, you're abnormal. — Robert de Castella
The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama, competition, camaraderie & heroism — Fred Lebow
There's an old adage that for every second too fast per mile in the first half of the race, you'll run at least 2 seconds slower at the end. — Jeff Galloway
A half marathon is a good way to have a bit of fun and race against those girls and learn a bit more about them.The world half marathon is a world championship at the end of the day and it's important. I've win it twice and it's a quality event. — Paula Radcliffe
There is nothing in this world that I love more than my family. To be able to share the joy of running with them at the Runner's World Half Marathon and Running Festival where we can all participate together is as close as you can get to a perfect weekend. — Summer Sanders
I am happy that I ran the half-marathon, but to me, just running and saying that I finished a race isn't enough for me. I want to run the race as best as I can. Working out for pants size isn't enough. I need a goal or a race to get back on the treadmill every day. — Drew Carey
Most people have this perception that you have to be out there running for an hour and a half every day. But you don't have to give up your career and family to run a marathon. — Jeff Galloway
I want to encourage people to make healthy life choices, whether it's training for a half-marathon, or eating more vegetables. — Kina Grannis
It can be said that the first half of the marathon is 20 miles long; the second half, 6.2 more. — Hal Higdon
Motivational Marathon Quotes
Go in any direction..seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs. — Paula Radcliffe
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
I always tell beginning runners: Train your brain first. It's much more important than your heart or legs. — Amby Burfoot
I’ve learned from watching my mother train to become a police officer that small steps add to giant leaps. — Scott Kelly
I think I got a little cocky — I mean, more than a little bit. — Sam Bankman-Fried
I started doing MMA and boxing at the same time – I always wanted to try an MMA fight to see what it was like. I had one fight, and I was hooked. — Holly Holm
It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse. — Ann Trason
Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'. — Paul Tergat
The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare. — Juma Ikangaa
First Marathon Quotes
I’ve been training for Ronda Rousey [to compete with her] since my first fight in the UFC. — Amanda Nunes
When I first started running, I was so embarrassed I'd walk when cars passed me. I'd pretend I was looking at the flowers! — Joan Benoit
I think it's important to keep mantras fresh (sometimes the same verse can get stale). That being said, I love this powerful statement: 'Define yourself.' I rehearsed it a million times during the 2005 Chicago Marathon [her first win]. — Deena Kastor
You plant a garden one flower at a time. ... You write a book one word at a time, clean a closet one shelf at a time, run a marathon one step at a time. If you feel defeated by some large task, get your spade and dig the first hole. — Jeanne Marie Laskas
Best wishes for a great marathon. Be sure to savor it. The first marathon is something special. Run long and healthy. — Amby Burfoot
Our favorite: a former garbage dump converted into a riverside park. I first ran there more than 30 years ago when a marathon passed through this park that later became home to Pre's Trail. — Joe Henderson
When using the run-walk method to finish a marathon, the most important walk break comes in the first mile. The second most important one comes in the second mile, and so on. The point is, walk before you become fatigued. — Jeff Galloway
If youre a vegan who ran a marathon & got your dogs from a shelter, how do you decide which thing to wedge into the conversation first? — Ken Jennings
Movie Marathon Quotes
I miss my Dad. My Dad loved cheesy monster movies, so we'd have Godzilla movie marathons. Those are some of my favorite memories, laughing at how the monster outfits were so bad, like black garbage bags for heads. — Ahmet Zappa
I adore watching movies; movie marathons are my favorite pastime. I can watch up to five movies back to back. I also love music and like reading whenever I get the time. — Priyanka Chopra
Making a movie is like a marathon, and commercials are like sprints - they're equally satisfying, but in different ways. — Tony Scott
I want to do a movie on sports - like a movie on a racer or a marathon runner - as I feel I'll fit that bill perfectly. — Bipasha Basu
I think animation is like running a marathon, and making a movie is like a 100 meter sprint. The question is: are you a marathon man or are you a sprinter? I realized that I was more of a sprinter than a marathon man. With a long, long project, I get bored easily. — Marjane Satrapi
When I make a live-action movie, it's a very physical process. It's like running a marathon. — Zack Snyder
I did a movie called Marathon Man and it was one of my best memories. — Dustin Hoffman
I think Dustin Hoffman has been in at least three of my favorite movies of all time with things like 'Tootsie,' 'Marathon Man.' Getting a bit more arthouse and darker, 'The Graduate' - incredible, barrier-breaking movie, 'The Graduate.' — Ricky Gervais
Marathon Runners Quotes
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. — PattiSue Plumer
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
Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have Nature, and that is much better. — Juha Vaatainen
The mile has a classic symmetry....It's a play in four acts. — John Landy
You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming. — Frank Shorter
Most people who do a lot of exercise, particularly in the form of competitive athletics, have unneurotic, extraverted, optimistic personalities to begin with. (Marathon runners are exceptions to this.) — Robert M. Sapolsky
We runners are all a little nutty, but we're good people who just want to enjoy our healthy, primitive challenge. Others may not understand running, but we do, and we cherish it. That's our only message. — John J. Kelley
Running hills breaks up your rhythm and forces your muscles to adapt to new stresses. The result? You become stronger. — Eamonn Coghlan
It is true that speed kills. In distance running, it kills anyone who does not have it. — Brooks Johnson
I definitely want to show how beautiful the marathon can be. I am the opponent of all those who find the marathon bad: the psychologists, the physiologists, the doubters. I make the marathon beautiful for myself and for others. That's why I'm here. — Uta Pippig
Ultra Marathon Quotes
The human body is capable of amazing physical deeds. If we could just free ourselves from our perceived limitations and tap into our internal fire, the possibilities are endless. — Dean Karnazes
I run because if I didn’t, I’d be sluggish and glum and spend too much time on the couch. I run to breathe the fresh air. I run to explore. I run to escape the ordinary. I run…to savor the trip along the way. Life becomes a little more vibrant, a little more intense. I like that. — Dean Karnazes
The real competition is against the little voice inside you that wants to quit — George A. Sheehan
It is not the critic who counts...The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. — Theodore Roosevelt
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. — Theodore Roosevelt
There is magic in misery. Just ask any runner. — Dean Karnazes
I run because it's my passion, and not just a sport. — Sasha Azevedo
If it felt good, you didn't push hard enough. It's supposed to hurt like hell. — Dean Karnazes
I run to breathe the fresh air. I run to explore. I run to escape the ordinary. — Dean Karnazes
Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness. — Dean Karnazes
Training For A Marathon Quotes
I don't think about the miles that are coming down the road, I don't think about the mile I'm on right now, I don't think about the miles I've already covered. I think about what I'm doing right now, just being lost in the moment. — Ryan Hall
Analysis is a glittering opportunity for training: it is just here that capacity for work, perseverence and stamina are cultivated, and these qualities are, in truth, as necessary to a chess player as a marathon runner. — Lev Polugaevsky
The freedom of cross country is so primitive. It's woman vs. nature. — Lynn Jennings
Dream barriers look very high until someone climbs them. They are not barriers anymore. — Lasse Viren
Having a true faith is the most difficult thing in the world. Many will try to take it from you. — Steve Prefontaine
I try to avoid the temptation with time as a total indicator for what my possibilities are for the marathon. It's the not the best indicator, but it's more how you feel, how you cover the distance and how you are able to do the training afterward. — Ryan Hall
Top results are achieved only through pain. But eventually you like this pain. — Juha Vaatainen
Training for a marathon is much like climbing a ladder. Each ring is a short-term goal that must be met in sequence in order to reach the long-term goal at the top of the ladder. — Richard Benyo
Marathon training doesn't have to be a grind. By running for about 30 minutes two times a week, and by gradually increasing the length of a third weekly run-the long run-anyone can finish a marathon. — Jeff Galloway
I find that I get a little depressed if I don't move my body each day, so sometimes it's just as simple as walking, and other times it's training for a marathon or some kind of personal goal that I'm trying to meet. — Ryan Reynolds
Boston Marathon Quotes
When I go to the Boston Marathon now, I have wet shoulders—women fall into my arms crying. They're weeping for joy because running has changed their lives. They feel they can do anything. — Kathrine Switzer
Let's hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American. — David Sirota
Every runner has a specific motivation and inspiration for running a marathon. This year, all 36,000 of us will 'run together' to demonstrate the spirit of the marathon. We will still have our individual motivations, but we will be unified under the Boston Strong umbrella. — Meb Keflezighi
I ran the Boston Marathon out of love. I believe that love is the basis of all meaningful human endeavor. Yet it was a love that was incomplete until it was shared with others. — Bobbi Gibb
A picture, of Jock Semple kissed me,appeared in The New York Times the next day after Boston Marathon in 1973, and the caption was "The end of an era." — Kathrine Switzer
Comedy Central made me delete the Boston Marathon joke. I wasn't happy about it but, despite popular belief, I can occasionally be a team player. — Anthony Jeselnik
I wasn't going to toss off words like love and forever until I was sure. Until he was sure. Forever can be a very long time for a n=Bean sidhes, ans so far his track record looked more like the fifty-yard dash than the Boston marathon. — Rachel Vincent
Jock Semple said "Oh the women ran well today the Boston Marathon and they deserve to be in the race." I had to laugh. I said "Well it took us five years but anyway, we're here." It pretty much changed everything. — Kathrine Switzer
Boston is the cream of the crop of the marathon world. It has such history that you feel such honor just being a part of it. All the other races have pacers to get you to a Boston qualifying time. — Summer Sanders
There is a unique energy surrounding the Boston Marathon that you can't help but feel. It includes every runner and every person along the course. It brings every person there together as one. — Amy Hastings
Marathon Man Quotes
Since my fried left me,I've got nothing to do but walking.I walk to forget.I walk,I escape,I get further.My friend will not come back,now I am a marathon man. — Shel Silverstein
I realized that I was more of a sprinter than a marathon man. With a long, long project, I get bored easily. — Marjane Satrapi
William Goldman's Marathon Man was a novel that taught me about suspense. I was maybe 16 years old when I read it and I remember thinking, "You could put a gun to my head and I wouldn't put this book down." I loved that feeling - and want to give it others. — Harlan Coben
I got plenty of cautions that one or two of these marathons was all a man should do in a lifetime. — Clarence DeMar
Man, he wasn't going to need a stress test anytime soon. If his heart could get through a kiss from her, he could probably run a marathon. While dragging a car behind him. Sideways to the road. — J.R. Ward
Long Distance Running Quotes
Walking long distances is fundamental to being a hunter-gatherer, but people sometimes have to run. One powerful motivation is to sprint to a tree or some other refuge when being chased by a predator. — Daniel Lieberman
They say the breaks even up in the long run, and the trick is to be a long-distance runner. — Chuck Knox
In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be. — Haruki Murakami
We have these amazing gifts of music and mathematics and painting and Olympic running. I mean, we're the animal that is best of all the animals at long-distance running. Why? It is quite amazing. Superfluous gifts you don't really need to survive. — Freeman Dyson
I get stoned, I can't get home, I'm calling long distance on a public saxophone. My head is achin', my back is breakin', feel I got run over by Captain Coconut and his dog named Rover. — Jimi Hendrix
During long, slow distance training, you should think of yourself as a thoroughbred disguised as a plow horse. No need to give yourself away by running fast. — Marty Liquori
It is always easiest to run with the herd; at times, it can take a deep reservoir of courage and conviction to stand apart from it. Yet distancing yourself from the crowd is an essential component of long-term investment success. — Seth Klarman
Long slow distance makes long slow runners. — Jim Bush
I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners. — Sebastian Coe
Distance Running Quotes
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. — Glenn Cunningham
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep but I have promises to keep... — Robert Frost
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. — Arthur Lydiard
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. — George A. Sheehan
Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body. — Lynn Jennings
Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run. — Rudyard Kipling
Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started. — Steve Prefontaine
Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished. — Jack Lovelock
Everyone is an athlete. The only difference is that some of us are in training, and some are not. — George A. Sheehan
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. — John Wesley Powell
When I came back, after all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. Now what's the difference? — Jesse Owens
The night before my amputation, my former basketball coach brought me a magazine with an article on an amputee who ran in the New York Marathon. It was then I decided to meet this new challenge head on and not only overcome my disability, but conquer it in such a way that I could never look back and say it disabled me. — Terry Fox
Rincewind had always been happy to think of himself as a racist. The One Hundred Meters, the Mile, the Marathon -- he'd run them all. — Terry Pratchett
There's no way to become great overnight, but in the marathon of success, it takes a lot of intention to see you through each day of the journey. — Lewis Howes
Don't listen to negative influences. Believe in yourself, and show others what you can do. Only "you" can find your potential. — Marla Runyan
Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best. — Michael Johnson
People who start at the top never understand what they missed at the bottom. The guy who started by sorting the mail, or cleaning the restaurant late at night, or fixing the equipment at the gym, that’s the guy who knows how things get done. After he’s eventually worked his way up through the ranks, he knows how everything works, why it works, what to do when it stops working. That’s the guy who will have longevity and value and impact, because he knows what it took to get to the top. You can’t claim you ran a marathon if you started at the seventeenth mile. — Tim Grover
When it comes to how we fare in the marathon of life, effort counts tremendously. — Angela Duckworth
The beautiful part of the cloud is, you know, it’s unlimited capacity, in theory. — Eric Yuan
Speed is only useful if you’re running in the right direction. — Pat Flynn
Deadlifts are key to mass. Don’t shy away from what works. — Martyn Ford
Your goal might be to run a marathon, but your gateway habit is to put on your running shoes. — James Clear
There is something about the ritual of the race - putting on the number, lining up, being timed - that brings out the best in us. — Grete Waitz
Comfort is number one for me with shoes. I like to do a test walk in heels to make sure I won’t fall or get crazy blisters. — Sadie Sink
Life is like reading a novel or running a marathon. It’s not so much about reaching a goal but rather about the journey itself and the experiences along the way. — Edward O. Thorp
I'm not on a mission. I'm not a paragon of health for anybody. I'm not going to run a marathon or model for 'Men's Health' or go on bike rides with Lance Armstrong. I'm not. Trust me. — Duff Goldman
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of marathon quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about marathon to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of marathon quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
