Most Inspirational Things Ever Said About Running

Written by
Jason R. Karp, Ph.D.
Inspiration can come in many forms—a subtle word from a friend, a bumper sticker on a passing car, watching the Olympics. By themselves, they are just words or observations. What you do with those inspirational words and observations is what matters. Combined with action, inspiration enables you to accomplish things you never thought possible. Here are 12 of the most inspirational things said about running.
"Don't ask me why I run...
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"Don't ask me why I run. Ask yourself why you don't."

Unknown
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"The main thing is...
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"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

Larry James
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"There is not substitute for finding out for one's self...
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"There is not substitute for finding out for one's self, for the personal revelation, for knowing first-hand. When I run, that happens. The body and the spirit become one. When I run, I am filled with confidence and the faith that word contains. I can face unanswerable questions, certain that there are answers."

George Sheehan, M.D.
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"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, knowing it must outrun the fastest lion...
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"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, knowing it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up, knowing it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you had better be running."

African proverb
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"When you run...
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"When you run, everything is perfect."

Greek taxicab driver
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"The real purpose of running...
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"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart."

Bill Bowerman
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"The will to win means nothing...
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"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare."

Juma Ikangaa
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"A race is like a work of art...
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"A race is like a work of art that people can look at and be affected by in as many ways as they're capable of understanding."

Steve Prefontaine
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"Only in something like running can finality be achieved...
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"Only in something like running can finality be achieved, the sort of finality that is almost perfection. But it is not the kind of perfection that leaves you with nothing to live for... because sport is not the main aim of life. Yet to achieve perfection in one thing, however small, makes it possible to face uncertainty in the more difficult problems of life."

Roger Bannister
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"Now bid me run...
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"Now bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible."

Ligarius in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
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"The marathon is an adventure into the limits of the self...
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"The marathon is an adventure into the limits of the self, representing for runners what has been called the moral equivalent of war—a theater for heroism, where the runner can do deeds of daring and greatness."

George Sheehan, M.D.
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"The runner does not know how or why he runs...
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"The runner does not know how or why he runs. He only knows that he must run, and in so doing he expresses himself as he can in no other way. He creates out of instability and conflict something that gives pleasure to himself and others, because it releases feelings of beauty and power latent within us all."

Roger Bannister
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