Running or watching a marathon is incredibly inspiring and moving, and it’s tough to put the feelings you experience into words. All marathoners will admit that the experience changes them, and the person who starts the race is not the person who finishes the race. Here are some of the best marathon running quotes that help to capture the experience.
1. “Running 26 miles is a feat that truly stretches a human being. At the 20-mile mark, someone has said, the race is half over. Almost anyone can run 20 miles, but the last six are the equivalent of 20 more. Here the runner finds himself pushed to the absolute limit. And therefore needs to call on those hidden reserves, to use all the fidelity and courage and endurance he has.”
–George Sheehan, best-selling running author
2. “The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. It has camaraderie. It has heroism. Every jogger can’t dream of being an Olympic champion, but he can dream of finishing a marathon.”
-Fred Lebow, co-founder of the New York City Marathon
3. “Always concentrate on how far you’ve come, rather than how far you have left to go.”
-Unknown
4. “You should run your first marathon for the right reasons, because you’ll never be the same person again. You must want to do it, not do it because your boss did it or your spouse did it.”
-Bill Wenmark, running coach
5. “At mile 20, I thought I was dead. At mile 22, I wished I was dead. At mile 24, I knew I was dead. At mile 26.2, I realized I had become too tough to kill.”
-Unknown
6. “The key to running a good marathon is to not listen to anyone’s advice the last week before the race. That’s when people tend to do stupid things that disrupt all the input and training of the previous months.”
-Don Kardong
7. “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.”
-Rob de Castella, winner 1983 World Marathon Championships
8. “The thirst you feel in your throat and lungs will be gone minutes after the race is over. The pain in your legs within days, but the glory of your finish will last forever.”
-Unknown
9. “A marathoner is a marathoner regardless of time. Virtually everyone who tries the marathon has put in training over months, and it is that exercise and that commitment, physical and mental, that gives meaning to the medal, not just the day’s effort, be it fast or slow. It’s all in conquering the challenge.”
-Mary R. Wittenberg, former president, New York Road Runners
10. “If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.”
–Kathrine Switzer, women’s marathoning pioneer
11. “There will be days you don’t think you can run a marathon. There will be a lifetime of knowing you have.”
-Unknown
12. “The reason people want to run the marathon is because the challenge, physically, is you. The distance – how you get there – is all up to you and how hard you work. That’s why people want to do it.”
-Meb Keflezighi, winner 2009 NYC Marathon and 2014 Boston Marathon
13. “There are times when you run a marathon and you wonder, Why am I doing this? But you take a drink of water, and around the next bend, you get your wind back, remember the finish line, and keep going.”
-Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
14. “There are no shortcuts in marathoning, so anyone who is a marathoner has worked hard.”
-Jeffrey Horowitz
15. “That’s the beauty and the horror of the marathon, that it has that sense of, ‘Am I going too fast? Could I blow up? Am I gonna hit the wall?’ And there’s something about overcoming that.”
-Ryan Lamppa, Running USA
16. “My goal has always been to slow down as slowly as possible. It’s as simple as that.”
-Frank Shorter
17. “In the first half of the race, don’t be an idiot. In the second half, don’t be a wimp!”
-Scott Douglas
18. “Why do people run the marathon? Most of us won’t perform on a stage. But whether a person is a world-class athlete or a four-hour runner, the marathon gives us a stage, where we perform and be proud, while millions of people applaud. In an unequal world, in this one endeavor, people of vastly different abilities share something in common: the act of going the distance.”
-Fred Lebow
19. “That day remains very special to me and if I had one day to live over in my lifetime, it would be my first marathon.”
-Dick Traum, first amputee to run the New York City Marathon
20. “Mental toughness doesn’t come from reading a book or listening to a motivational speaker, it’s earned just like your physical fitness. Every time you make that tough decision to go run, you’re building mental toughness. In the marathon, this is mandatory.”
-Greg Meyer, 1983 Boston Marathon men’s winner
21. “You can never be sure. That’s what makes the marathon both fearsome and fascinating. The deeper you go into the unknown, the more uncertain you become. But then you finish. And you wonder later, ‘How did I do that?’ This question compels you to keep making the journey from the usual to the magical.”
-Joe Henderson, running coach and writer
22. “A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you have done it, you feel that you can do anything.”
-Unknown
23. “The marathon. How an average runner becomes more than average.”
-New Balance
24. “Marathons are extraordinarily difficult, but if you’ve got the training under your belt, and if you can run smart, the races take care of themselves. When you have the enthusiasm and the passion, you end up figuring how to excel.”
-Deena Kastor, U.S. Olympic marathon bronze medalist
25. “Motivation remains key to the marathon: the motivation to begin; the motivation to continue; the motivation never to quit.”
–Hal Higdon, running coach and writer
26. “To finish will leave you feeling like a champion and positively change your life.”
–Jeff Galloway, U.S. Olympian, running coach, and running author
27. “Everything you wanted to know about yourself you can learn in 26.2 miles.”
-Lori Culnane
28. “Only after a marathon can I say I have given everything. Because of the enormity of the attempt, the cleansing of the pain, I can sit, even stiff and blistered, and know a kind of peace. “
-Kenny Moore
29. “Nothing hurts more but is so rewarding at the same time.”
-Sandy Zanchi
30. “Life is like a marathon. It’s full of ups and down that take your breath away.”
-Unknown
31. “You can run 5K races until your dresser drawers overflow with T-shirts, but it is not quite the same as going to the starting line of a marathon.”
-Hal Higdon
32. “The marathon is an opportunity for redemption. Opportunity, because the outcome is uncertain. Opportunity, because it is up to you, and only you, to make it happen.
-Dean Karnazes
33. “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, U.S Olympic marathoner
34. “Marathons are like having kids. Sometimes you’re not sure why you signed up for it…then in a moment, it all becomes apparent.”
-Unknown
35. “Finishing a marathon is a state of mind that says anything is possible.”
36. “When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.”
-Haile Gebrselassie, former world record holder in men’s marathon
37. “Your legs will ache. Your mind will get fuzzy and you’ll just want the thing to be over. But, you must fight. You must keep going just like you did in training runs. Just get to the next mile marker and then the next and so on.”
–Greg McMillan, running coach and author
38. “The marathon is not really about the marathon, it’s about the shared struggle. And it’s not only the marathon but the training.”
-Bill Buffum, Boulder Road Runners
39. “Every time we go out and race we defy what our body says we should do. Our body screams at us to stop, yet we keep going. We endure and conquer every pain, every doubt that we have. If we apply that same mentality to life, we can overcome any obstacle.”
-Kellyn Taylor, American long-distance runner
40. “Running is just you, the work you put in, and the clock. You can’t cheat yourself. If you don’t put in the miles, you can’t go to the starting line thinking you’re going to pull a miracle out of nowhere. You get out exactly what you put in.”
-Des Linden, 2018 Boston Marathon women’s winner
41. “When I’m finishing a marathon and feeling like I really went to the wall — put it all out there and raced to the best of my ability — whatever place that may be, I can feel pretty satisfied with that.”
-Molly Seidel, 2021 Olympic marathon bronze medalist
42. “For me, running is both exercise and a metaphor. Running day after day, piling up the races, bit by bit I raise the bar and by clearing each level I elevate myself. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.”
-Haruki Murakami, author, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
43. “My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another, and each race telling me more about myself and others.”
-George Sheehan
44. “In the marathon there are many ways to define success and derive satisfaction and enjoyment. We all face the same challenge together and overcome the limitations that exist within each of us.”
-Yuki Kawauchi, 2018 Boston Marathon champ
45. “You can either choose to let that pain dictate the last five miles of the race, or you can decide to lean into it and appreciate that you are lucky enough to push your body this hard. You need to re-wire your brain to believe that this is how you’re supposed to feel, and keep running your hardest in spite of it.”
–Veronica Graziano, 2020 Olympics Trials Qualifier
46. “Running a marathon is not a question of whether it will be painful, but when it will be painful. It does help to have a sense of humor, but I’m also respectful of the race.”
-Will Ferrell, actor, Boston marathon finisher
47. “While you, and only you, can move your legs from start to finish, no one runs a marathon alone.”
– Alexandra Heminsley, author of Running Like a Girl
48. “I try to think about positive things – how great my form is, how my arms are swinging, my breathing, how loud people are cheering. My sports psychologist taught me there are a million things telling you you can’t keep going, but if you find the things that say you can, you’re golden.”
-Kara Goucher, Olympic marathoner
49. “Long distance training can be a positive and constructive form of selfishness. After all, once you’re at the starting line, you’re there by yourself. No one can run a single step for you. No one can jump in and help you. No one but you can make the decisions about what to do to keep going. It’s all up to you.”
50. “In the midst of an ordinary training day, I try to remind myself that I am preparing for the extraordinary.”
-Shalane Flanagan, U.S. Olympian and 2017 New York City Marathon champion
51. “Marathoning is a metaphor for life, so there are a lot of parallels you can draw. I tell people to follow your dream, follow your heart, follow your passion, run your own race and believe in yourself. I think anybody who wants to succeed has to have passion. My love for this sport, you can’t instill it in someone else.”
-Joan Benoit Samuelson, 1984 women’s Olympic marathon winner
52. “I dare you to train for a marathon, and not have it change your life.”
-Susan Sidoriak, marathon runner
53. “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
54. “The more you frame the marathon as a stressful experience, the more negative messages you’ll receive. But it’s just as easy to frame it as a positively challenging journey.”
-Jeff Galloway, U.S. Olympian, running writer, and coach
55. “You’re running on guts. On fumes. Your muscles twitch. You throw up. You’re delirious. But you keep running because there’s no way out of this hell you’re in because there’s no way you’re not crossing the finish line. It’s a misery that non-runners don’t understand.”
-Martine Costello, journalist
56. “So many people crossing the finish line of a marathon look as happy as when I won. They have tears in their eyes. The sport is full of winners.”
– Gary Muhrcke, winner of the first NYC Marathon
57. “The marathon never ceases to be a race of joy, a race of wonder.”
-Hal Higdon
58. “The music of a marathon is a powerful strain, one of those tunes of glory. It asks us to forsake pleasures, to discipline the body, to find courage, to renew faith, and to become one’s own person, utterly and completely.”
-George Sheehan
59. “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you start to think, Man this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The hurt part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand any more is up to the runner himself. This pretty much sums up the most important aspect of marathon running.”
-Haruki Murakami
60. “You can’t think of your next marathon until you’ve forgotten your last one.”
-Frank Shorter
61. “No marathon gets easier later. The halfway point only marks the end of the beginning.”
-Joe Henderson
62. “I feel about marathons the way my parents taught me to feel about the ocean: it is a mighty thing and very beautiful, but don’t underestimate its capacity to hurt you.”
Also see: 26 Thoughts You Have During a Marathon
Quotes About Getting Over Bad Runs and Races
Running coach, avid runner, and fitness writer Christine Luff is an RRCA-certified running coach and ACE-certified personal trainer. Founder of the website Run for Good and author of the book Run for Good: How to Create a Lifelong Running Habit, she coaches runners, from beginners to advanced, who are training for races, from 5Ks to marathons.
