Running has been praised as a gift, captured in inspiring and thought-provoking quotes from athletes, authors, celebrity coaches, and runners.

From relatable mantras to bold proclamations that remind us of the power of self-determination, this curated collection of 100 quotes offers motivation and support to runners around the world.

Whether you need extra encouragement or an inspiring thought to help reach your running goals, explore these quotes to get the creative juice flowing and fill yourself with inspiration.

100 Quotes, Sayings, & Instagram Captions About Running

  1. You can alter your mood by running. – Tumpal Sihombing
  2. Just stick with it. What seems hard now will one day be your warm-up. – Anonymous
  3. If you still look cute after running, you didn’t go hard enough. – Anonymous
  4. Waking up early in the morning and jogging for half an hour is all you need to overcome your mental health issues. – Invajy
  5. Running is a lot like life. Only 10 percent of it is exciting. 90 percent of it is slog and drudge. – Dave Bedford
  6. The reason we race isn’t so much to beat each other,… but to be with each other. – Christopher McDougall
  7. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. – Eleanor Roosevelt
  8. Run in the morning … before your brain figures out what your body is doing! – Unknown
  9. In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, ‘I have finished.’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that. – Fred Lebow
  10. Unless you puke, faint, or die, keep going! – Jillian Michaels
  11. If we had a drug that did what exercise did, it would be the biggest revolution ever and would be promoted all over the world. And all you have to do is go out for a run. – Greg Wells
  12. Nothing lifts me out of a bad mood better than a hard workout on my treadmill. It never fails. To us, exercise is nothing short of a miracle. – Cher
  13. The marathon can humble you. – Bill Rodgers
  14. Running is kind of like coffee. The first time you drink it you might not like it. It’s bitter and leaves a bad taste in your mouth but you kind of like the way it makes you feel. However, after a few times, it starts to taste better, and then all of a sudden you’re hooked and it’s the new best part of waking up. – Amy Hastings
  15. Exercise is so amazing from the inside out. I feel so alive and have so much energy. – Vanessa Hudgens
  16. I don’t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days. – Ronald Rook
  17. In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, ‘I have finished.’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that. – Fred Lebow, New York City Marathon co-founder
  18. One run can change your day, and many runs can change your life. – Unknown
  19. Running is the greatest metaphor for life because you get out of it what you put into it. – Oprah Winfrey
  20. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle
  21. I always run without music. Being disconnected is what I’m addicted to more than anything. There aren’t many places where you can be without your phone and computer. I’ve started to crave and enjoy that time alone. – Christy Turlington
  22. Every marathon I ran, I knew I had a faster one in me. – Dick Beardsley
  23. I really love going places without a map. When I went running in Paris, I headed for a monument or a statue that I could see off in the distance. To get back where I started, I simply used the GPS on my phone. – Brooklyn Decker
  24. Running is the quickest endorphin hit I can get. I like to do it really early in the morning before everyone gets up. It gives me a clear head and sort of resets the clock. It’s like, ‘OK, I got that out of the way. Now I can deal with people.’ – Julie Bowen
  25. There’s great empowerment that I get from running, not only from the endorphins . . . Being a runner to me, has made being depressed impossible. If ever I’m going through something emotional and just go outside for a run, you can rest assured that I’ll come back with clarity and empowerment. – Alanis Morissette
  26. Exercise is like meditation for me. And I’m giving myself that time . . . I cannot live without it now. When you have such a good workout, it clears everything up mentally, and physically, and you just have a better day. – Minka Kelly
  27. I like what it does for my mind. If I’ve had a bad day, if I’m feeling stressed out, if I’m feeling overwhelmed – it takes it all away. It’s my antidote for everything. If I feel any sort of emotional upheaval, I go for a jog and I feel better. – Kelly Ripa
  28. [Working out] really did make me feel better and kind of saved me. It gave me a bit of sanity . . . I’m serious about my exercise. I don’t just doodle around. I see people at the gym talking on their cell phones. If they think their bodies are really going to change . . . I mean, you’ve got to put in the effort! – LeAnn Rimes
  29. I love running but I think you have to find a workout routine that really speaks to you beyond trying to get goals for your body. For me, running, I need it as much for my head and to clear my head as I do for keeping in shape. – Meghan Markle
  30. I never listen to music when I run – I listen to the beat of my heart. I like to feel the blood pumping in my veins. If I’m running for a long time, I take my hydration pack. I like to disappear up a mountain or into the woods and come back two hours later. – Fred Sirieux
  31. [Working out] really did make me feel better and kind of saved me. It gave me a bit of sanity . . . I’m serious about my exercise. I don’t just doodle around. I see people at the gym talking on their cell phones. If they think their bodies are really going to change . . . I mean, you’ve got to put in the effort! – LeAnn Rimes
  32.  running but I think you have to find a workout routine that really speaks to you beyond trying to get goals for your body. For me, running, I need it as much for my head and to clear my head as I do for keeping in shape. – Meghan Markle
  33. I never listen to music when I run – I listen to the beat of my heart. I like to feel the blood pumping in my veins. If I’m running for a long time, I take my hydration pack. I like to disappear up a mountain or into the woods and come back two hours later. – Fred Sirieux
  34. It was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could run. The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in the destination. – John Bingham
  35. I often hear someone say I’m not a real runner. We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I never met a fake runner. – Bart Yasso
  36. Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts. – Dan Gable
  37. To win without risk is to triumph without glory. – Pierre Corneille
  38. The reason we race isn’t so much to beat each other,… but to be with each other. – Christopher McDougall
  39. Run like hell and get the agony over with. – Clarence DeMar
  40. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. – Confucius
  41. To be a consistent winner means preparing not just for one day, one month, or even one year – but for a lifetime. – Bill Rodgers
  42. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. – Theodore Roosevelt
  43. I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we’re all cowards.  – Alberto Salazar
  44. The five S’s of sports training are Stamina, Speed, Strength, Skill, and Spirit; but the greatest of these is Spirit. – Ken Doherty
  45. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. – Haruki Murakami
  46.  Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste death but once. – Julius Ceaser
  47. 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
  48. Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don’t think about them, I just do them. The decision has already been made. – Patti Sue Plumer
  49. As a runner, you have to face the truth about yourself on a regular basis, and it makes you more honest. You can’t pretend to be faster than you are. You can’t pretend that you are better prepared than you are. You cannot pretend to be a runner; you actually have to run. – John Bingham
  50. A 12-minute mile is just as far as a 6-minute mile. – Unknown
  51. Go as long as you can, and then take another step. – Unknown
  52. 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
  53. I’m often asked what I think about as I run. Usually, the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I’m running? I don’t have a clue. – Haruki Murakami
  54. In running, every step you make and every push forward changes you – it transforms you into a different person. Every single run adds something to you, and then it also takes something away. You are not the same person you were at the starting line and by the time you cross the finish line, your inner self has been reinvented and reimagined. – Zen of Running
  55. Just because your muscles start to protest doesn’t mean you have to listen. – Runner’s High Day-to-Day Calendar
  56. Never limit where running can take you. I mean that geographically, spiritually, and of course, physically. – Bart Yasso
  57. Our running shoes have magic in them. The power to transform a bad day into a good day; frustration into speed; self-doubt into confidence; chocolate cake into muscle. – Mina Samuels
  58. 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
  59. Running is a road to self-awareness and reliance – you can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet. – Doris Brown Heritage
  60. Shut up legs. We got this. – Unknown
  61. Some people train to know they’re not working as hard as other people. I can’t fathom how they think. – Alberto Salazar
  62. Struggling and suffering are the essences of a life worth living. If you’re not pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone, if you’re not demanding more from yourself – expanding and learning as you go – you’re choosing a numb existence. You’re denying yourself an extraordinary trip. – Dean Karnazes
  63. The Hopis consider running a form of prayer; they offer every step as a sacrifice to a loved one, and in return ask the Great Spirit to match their strength with some of his own. – Christopher McDougall
  64. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle
  65. What is the source of my success? I think it’s a combination of consistency and balance. – Mark Allen
  66. The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. – Confucius
  67. Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and, most of all, LOVE of what you are doing. – Pele
  68. Patience is the key which solves all problems. – Sudanese proverb
  69. When it’s pouring rain and you’re bowling along through the wet, there’s satisfaction in knowing you’re out there and the others aren’t. – Peter Snell
  70. Run in the morning … before your brain figures out what your body is doing! – Unkown
  71. We all know that if you run, you are pretty much choosing a life of success because of it. – Deena Kastor
  72. The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life. – George Sheehan
  73. It’s my own space, my own time when I’m just out there letting my thoughts go. It’s part of my day like eating, and it’s one of my favorite parts. – Louise Kent
  74. Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts. – Steve Prefontaine
  75. The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start. – John Bingham
  76. Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body. – Lynn Jennings
  77. Tough runs don’t last; tough runners do.
  78. Run the first two-thirds of the race with your head and the last third with your heart.
  79. ‘I breathe in strength and breathe out weakness,’ is my mantra during marathons – it calms me down and helps me focus. – Amy Hastings
  80. Running is the quickest endorphin hit I can get. I like to do it really early in the morning before everyone gets up. It gives me a clear head and sort of resets the clock. It’s like, ‘OK, I got that out of the way. Now I can deal with people.’ – Julie Bowen
  81. Running releases more than just sweat. – Anonymous
  82. My morning run is the in-between space of yesterday’s forgotten problems and today’s beautiful possibilities. – Knownm
  83. Running is alone time that lets my brain unspool the tangles that build up over days. – Rob Haneisen
  84. It’s fine. I ran today. – Anonymous
  85. Running allows me to set my mind free. Nothing seems impossible. Nothing unattainable. – Kara Goucher
  86. When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. – Anonymous
  87. The real purpose of running isn’t to win a race. It’s to test the limits of the human heart. – Bill Bowerman
  88. This is my happy hour. – Unknown
  89. Shoutout to all the people who wake up early to shine before the sun does. – Unknown
  90. Some days you just have to create your own sunshine. – Anonymous
  91. Don’t fear moving slowly forward…fear standing still. – Kathleen Harris
  92. Get going … walk if you have to, but finish the damned race. – Ron Hill
  93. Run like hell and get the agony over with. – Clarence DeMar
  94. The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start. – John Bingham
  95. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. – Eleanor Roosevelt
  96. Don’t dream of winning, train for it! – Mo Farah
  97. Running allows me to set my mind free. Nothing seems impossible. Nothing unattainable. – Kara Goucher
  98. I’ll be happy if running and I can grow old together. – Haruki Murakami
  99. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. – Fred DeVito
  100. The pain of running relieves the pain of living. – Jacqueline Simon Gunn

After taking a look at 100 quotes about running, it’s easy to see why people are attracted to this sport. Whether it’s for the physical benefits or the therapeutic feeling of pushing yourself and hitting goals, there are so many reasons to lace up your sneakers and head out the door.

One thing is consistently true – running can help improve mental attitude as well as physical health. So don’t wait for tomorrow, grab your shoes and start running today!