If this week has proven anything, it’s that the running community knows how to stand together. Since Monday, I’ve read and seen on TV so many stories about runners helping other runners, and creating events to help the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy. This made me think of motivational quotes I’ve read over the years.
One of my most worn out running books is The Quotable Marathoner . My copy is filled with highlighted and dog-eared pages. 🙂
Below are four quotes from the book that I really like:
“The marathon. How an average runner becomes more than average.”
One of New Balance’s Top Ten Reasons To Run A Marathon
“When I finish a run, every part of me is smiling.”
by Jeff Galloway in Jeff Galloway’s Training Journal
“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”
by John Bingham in Bingham, The Courage to Start
“Crossing the finish line at my first marathon was like ending one life and starting another. Now I was a runner. A whole new world opened up to me.”
by Wayne Gibbons in First Marathon
- Questions:
- What are your favorite running quotes?
- What running groups or companies do you follow on facebook or twitter?
- Who’s racing this weekend?
One of my favorite quotes, which I used to relate a lot to soccer, but I feel also applies to running, is “The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when no one else is watching.”
I’ll be cheering at the GW Parkway Classic!
Those quotes are EXACTLY on-point with how I feel!
One of my favorite quotes is a cliche – but so true, “if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.”
I’m following ProCompression and the local running store/club in town.
No race this weekend 🙁
I love that quote, too!
This week I revisited Nikki Giovanni’s speech and I feel like there’s a quote from it that can be applied to running:
“We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be.”
That’s a very good quote for runners. I loved Nikki Giovanni’s speech! It was so perfect for Hokie Nation to hear.
“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)
-or-
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” (Christopher McDougall)
The gazelle quote is one of my favorites, and I’m saving it for a post all on it’s own one day. My sons had wrestling shirts that had that saying on the back. I was just digging through their closets the other day looking for them!
I had NO idea that this book existed but sounds right up my alley.
The gazelle quote is one of my favorite too!! 😀