Runners Quotes

Runners exalt the marathon as a public test of private will, when months or years of solitary training, early mornings, lost weekends, rain and pain mature into triumph or surrender. That's one reason the race-day crowds matter, the friends who come to cheer and stomp and flap their signs and push the runners on. ~ Nancy Gibbs

If someone tried to take the hierarchy thing too seriously - for example, being lovely to producers but moaning to runners about the tea - that would not be accepted on 'Harry Potter'; someone would pull you aside and have a word. ~ Tom Felton

Every athlete has doubts. Elite runners in particular are insecure people. You need someone to affirm that what you are doing is right. ~ Lynn Jennings

NYC Marathon cancelled: runners are scrambling to find some other meaningless accomplishment to use as a proxy for control over their lives. ~ Nils Parker

Sometimes it can feel awkward going into the neighbors his houses. I mean, we really take over their world, not just a room is being read decorated. Participants give up so much control when you're on Trading Spaces. They have to let go of expectations they have for their own room, they have to let go of doing things their way and if seen their house is a home. To some degree, their houses become TV sets. We leave runners on the floor, we keep up with the trash, and we're careful, but there is only so much you can do when every room is filled with TV equipment or catering or make up or supplies, not to mention 20 to 30 people running in and out. And let's not forget the tablesaws, hammers, compressors, and a construction madness going on outside. ~ Paige Davis

I don't think I would have been such a good runner if I hadn't enjoyed it. ~ Grete Waitz

I was unable to walk for a whole week after that, so much did the race take out of me. But it was the most pleasant exhaustion I have ever known. ~ Emil Zatopek

In the race of faith, stay focused upon Christ, not the other runners, nor the spectators. ~ Steven J. Lawson

Nearly all runners do their slow runs too fast, and their fast runs too slow." Ken Mierke says. "So they're just training their bodies to burn sugar, which is the last thing a distance runner wants. You've got enough fat stored to run to California, so the more you train your body to burn fat instead of sugar, the longer your limited sugar tank is going to last."
-The way to activate your fat-burning furnace is by staying below your aerobic threshold
your hard-breathing point
during your endurance runs. ~ Christopher McDougall

Indeed, the zeal of Boston's rank-and-file marathoners rivaled, and in some ways echoed, the religious passion of Nathaniel Howe and his congregation. The runners indulged in orgies of self-denial-running 100 miles a week, working junk )ohs in order to have time to train, paying their own way to races, banding together in ascetic cells, forgoing the temptations of an idolatrous world in order to attain grace and salvation out on the road. As in Puritan New England, grace was not blithely attained. A believer-a runner-earned it by losing toenails and training down to bone and muscle, just as the Puritans formed calluses on their knees from
praying. No one made a cent from their strenuous efforts. The running life, like the spiritual life, was its own reward. ~ John Brant

When Heraclitus said that everything passes steadily along, he was not inciting us to make the best of the moment, an idea unseemly to his placid mind, but to pay attention to the pace of things. Each has its own rhythm: the nap of a dog, the procession of the equinoxes, the dances of Lydia, the majestically slow beat of the drums at Dodona, the swift runners at Olympia. ~ Guy Davenport

Pardon all runners,
All speechless, alien winds,
All mad waters.
Pardon their impulses,
Their wild attitudes,
Their young flights, their reticence.
When a message has no clothes on
How can it be spoken. ~ Thomas Merton

No one knows the fear in a front runner's mind more than me. When you set off at a cracking pace for four or five laps and find that your main rivals are still breathing down your neck, that's when you start to panic. ~ Ron Clarke

Many runners worry about who is in the race, or they think about the time they must run to win. I only try to run as fast as I am capable - nothing less. ~ Henry Rono

As runners, we all go through many transitions
transitions that closely mimic the larger changes we experience in a lifetime. First, we try to run faster. Then we try to run harder. Then we learn to accept ourselves and our limitations, and at last, we can appreciate the true joy and meaning of running. ~ Amby Burfoot

The most important thing I learned [from running] is that there is only one runner in this race, and that is me. ~ George A. Sheehan

Said a skunk to a tube-rose, "See how swiftly I run, while you cannot walk nor even creep."
Said the tube-rose to the skunk, "Oh, most noble swift runner, please run swiftly!" ~ Khalil Gibran

Winning times in the New York City Marathon have not dropped all that much over the years, but rather U.S. runners went backward. In 1983, there were 267 U.S. men who broke 2:20 in a marathon, and by 2000 that number was down to 27. ~ Alberto Salazar

I didn't know I hit that way (.625 with runners in scoring position). Maybe not knowing is my secret. If I chased numbers, maybe I wouldn't have as good results. ~ Ichiro Suzuki

Runners are competitive folks. I think some might feel slighted they haven't got more recognition. I think they have a point. In running, you won't necessarily get noticed just for turning in good performances. ~ Dean Karnazes

Which one of you is going to be runner-up? ~ Walter Hagen

A runner's stride is not perfectly efficient. ~ Nancy Gibbs

Runners in shoes that cost more than $95 were more than twice as likely to get hurt as runners in shoes that cost less than $40. ~ Christopher McDougall

There's more to marathon day than running long. Learning how your body reacts to the early alarm, light breakfast and warm-up is key. Minimize surprises come race day. Run long the same time of day as the race. ~ Gina Greenlee

Runners aren't impervious to pain, we're just better at choosing what kind of pain we have to feel.

And when I run, that's exactly what I'm doing.

I'm asserting control over the uncontrollable.

I'm housebreaking a tornado. ~ The Oatmeal

The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life. ~ George A. Sheehan

Darling, no," Constantine said.
"Love admit-and-runners don't get to have a say."
He smiled slowly. "I'll remember that. ~ Anne Zoelle

I thought about running a marathon a long time ago, but I'm just not a runner. ~ Shannon Miller

But they have preserved an aspect of the American persona that is uniquely vital to the health of this republic. Among many other things, those dirtbag river runners uphold the virtue of disobedience: the principle that in a free society, defiance for its own sake sometimes carries value and meaning, if only because power in all of its forms - commercial, governmental, and moral - should not always and without question be handed what it demands. ~ Kevin Fedarko

The fact is, you can't marry the best when you're dating the runner-up. While you're searching for Mr. Right, don't settle for Mr. Right Now. ~ Craig Groeschel

Death Valley is the perfect flesh-grilling device, the Foreman Grill in Mother Nature's cupboard.

It's a big, shimmering sea of salt ringed by mountains that bottle up the heat and force it right back down on your skull. The average air temperature hovers around 125 degrees, but once the sun rises and begins broiling the desert floor, the ground beneath Scott's feet would hit a nice, toasty 200 degrees - exactly the temperature you need to slow roast a prime rib. Plus, the air is so dry that by the time you feel thirsty, you could be as good as dead; sweat is sucked so quickly from your body,you can be dangerously dehydrated before it even registers in your throat. Try to conserve water,and you could be a dead man walking.

But every July, ninety runners from around the world spend up to sixty straight hours running down the sizzling black ribbon of Highway 190, making sure to stay on the white lines so the soles of their running shoes don't melt. ~ Christopher McDougall

Daddy said the world was dividing into two camps: runners and nesters. ~ Rick Yancey

My brother was a big marathoner. He was a great collegiate runner at Beloit College. He won his conference's races, and he did tons of marathons. I would go out and run with him every once in a while just to hang out with him. ~ Tate Donovan

(The only birdcall I know is the Road Runner's BEEP BEEP.) ~ David Levithan

Fartlek, or speed play, is variable-pace running that emphasizes creativity. During a 30-minute run, choose objects to run to - telephone poles, trees, buildings, other runners, whatever. Make choices that mark off different distances, so your pickups vary in length from 15 to 90 seconds, and modify your pace to match the distance. ~ Don Kardong

Overtraining is the biggest problem incurred by runners who lack the experience or discipline to cope with their own enthusiasm. ~ Marty Liquori

I was afraid to watch 'Blade Runner' in the theater because I was afraid the movie would be better than what I myself had been able to imagine. In a way, I was right to be afraid, because even the first few minutes were better. ~ William Gibson

I am very amazed by the runners out there because I like jog to the garbage can outside sometimes, and I get tired. ~ Kacy Catanzaro

All discomfort is not equal. Learning to listen will help you distinguish among effort, fatigue and pain. To what degree, under what conditions and over what period of time your body experiences these sensations will determine how you respond. ~ Gina Greenlee

If you can't win, make the one ahead of you break the record. ~ John McKeithen

A short term view will lead to a partial and perhaps twisted view of the whole picture. A crucial element may be missing. We may not be running the entire race. A friend of mine described a colleague as great at running the "ninety-five yard dash." That is a distinction I can do without. Lacking the last five yards makes the first ninety-five pointless. In fact, serious runners thing of it as a 110 yard dash so that no one will best them in the last few yards. You've got to think beyond the whole. ~ Max De Pree

Disciplined runners consistently clear their heads and focus fully on the journey ahead..because their passion and zeal for the goal supersedes the strain. The goal beckons them onward. Passion doesn't negate weariness; it just resolves to press beyond it. ~ Priscilla Shirer

People were actually approaching me on the street and thinking that I was an athlete. They couldn't quite place it, but a runner, or swimmer or something. ~ Kristanna Loken

One of the most painful things for me was Jay Leno, Jay Leno going back on the air and saying to people that it was a choice between his writing staff and his crew, I think that really hurt a lot of show runners, because it was never a choice between our writers and our crew. ~ Edward Allen Bernero

For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to the rain, and look to the day when it is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight. ~ George Sheehan

He'd danced around that story about why he'd moved to Terrebonne more smoothly than an Olympic skater on ice. ~ Susannah Sandlin

With my runners now, they get two month-long breaks during the year. ~ Alberto Salazar

Deep down we are all still runners ~ Bernd Heinrich

No, we always had something to do because I did all the wave runners and jet skis and boats approaching the atolls and stuff like that, so you could do that without showing the actual atoll or the set that you're going towards, but detailing all those guys racing towards it. ~ David R. Ellis

You certainly remember this scene from dozens of films: a boy and a girl are running hand in hand in a beautiful spring (or summer) landscape. Running, running, running and laughing. By laughing the two runners are proclaiming to the whole world, to audiences in all the movie theaters: "We're happy, we're glad to be in the world, we're in agreement with being!" It's a silly scene, a cliche, but it expresses a basic human attitude: serious laughter, laughter "beyond joking."
All churches, all underwear manufacturers, all generals, all political parties, are in agreement about that kind of laughter, and all of them rush to put the image of the two laughing runners on the billboards advertising their religion, their products, their ideology, their nation, their sex, their dishwashing powder. ~ Milan Kundera

The difference between my world record and many world class runners is mental fortitude. I ran believing in mind over matter. ~ Derek Clayton

In life, as in war, there are many ways to stay alive. But not all of them are right and honourable. The difficult part is not to stay alive but to live in the right way. We spend our lives running away from death or other frightful things like unemployment. But we should remember that there are faster runners than either death or destitution that can catch us much more quickly, especially if we cannot see them, such as wickedness and lack of integrity. I am leaving you today having lost my job, but wickedness also leaves here today empty-handed; it did not catch me because truth, honesty, and goodness chased them away. I am happy to report that my spine and moral fibre are all intact. I consider this result acceptable and if not just, just enough. ~ Aviezer Tucker

Buzz has reduced my range. Running safely with him means using fewer and shorter routes, with multiple laps per day or multiple returns there per week. Neither of us minds repeating ourselves. This is what runners do. ~ Joe Henderson

My kids are good athletes and runners. They run in a bunch of sports. ~ Scott Bakula

All runners are tough. Everyone has to have a little fire in them, that even in tough times, can't be turned off. ~ Shalane Flanagan

He'd figured out the body, so now it was on to the brain. Specifically: How do you make anyone actually want to do any of this stuff? How do you flip the internal switch that changes us all back into the Natural Born Runners we once were? Not just in history, but in our own lifetimes. Remember? Back when you were a kid and you had to be yelled at to slow down? Every game you played, you played at top speed, sprinting like crazy as you kicked cans, freed all, and attacked jungle outposts in your neighbors' backyards. Half the fun of doing anything was doing it at record pace, making it probably the last time in your life you'd ever be hassled for going too fast. ~ Christopher McDougall

We runners talk about having fun but I don't think anybody believes us. We talk about discipline and endurance, we take care, we exercise caution, we watch our diets and monitor our pace. We are ascetics who talk, unconvincingly, of the bracing enjoyment of self-abuse. ~ Peter Sagal

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

Every day of the year where the water is 76, day and night, and the waves roll high, I take my sled, without runners, and coast down the face of the big waves that roll in at Waikiki. ~ Duke Kahanamoku

As runners we all have the same challenges and share the same experience, with the goal to accomplish something and better ourselves. ~ Wilson Chebet

Marathon runners, by default, must have resilient minds. ~ Ed Caesar

Having never had dealings with Bow Street, Lady Fieldhurst was not quite certain what to expect: perhaps a stout fellow past his prime, befuddled with sleep or spirits, with a bulbous red nose - the same sort as might be found in any number of watchmen's boxes across the metropolis. The individual who entered the room in [the footman's] wake, however, was very nearly her own age. To be sure, his nose was somewhat crooked, as if it had been broken at some point, but it was far from bulbous, and it was certainly not red. He was quite tall, almost gangly, with curling brown hair tied at the nape of his neck in an outmoded queue. He wore an unfashionably shallow-crowned hat and a black swallow-tailed coat of good cloth but indifferent cut; indeed, his only claim to fashion lay in the quizzing glass which hung round his neck from a black ribbon, and which he now raised, the resulting magnification revealing his eyes to be a warm brown. Julia might have been much reassured as to his competence, had it not been for the fact that his mouth hung open as from a rusty hinge. ~ Sheri Cobb South

The best way to get America back to work, and reduce our deficit, is hire all the photographers in the country, position them on street corners, and have them take pictures of all the license plates of red-light runners, who will then receive a fine and all will be fine. But wait! Nobody will run red lights, because not only are gas prices too high, but with no jobs to be late to, nobody has anywhere to go. ~ Jarod Kintz

Sometimes I dream of revolution, a bloody coup d'etat by the second rank - troupes of actors slaughtered by their understudies, magicians sawn in half by indefatigably smiling glamour girls, cricket teams wiped out by marauding bands of twelfth men - I dream of champions chopped down by rabbit-punching sparring partners while eternal bridesmaids turn and rape the bridegrooms over the sausage rolls and parliamentary private secretaries plant bombs in the Minister's Humber - comedians die on provincial stages, robbed of their feeds by mutely triumphant stooges - - and - march - - an army of assistants and deputies, the seconds-in-command, the runners-up, the right-handmen - storming the palace gates wherein the second son has already mounted the throne having committed regicide with a croquet-mallet - stand-ins ~ Tom Stoppard

I am a runner. Last October, there was a marathon here in Beijing. I didn't participate this time, but friends told me that the run wasn't prepared too well. The organizers had only arranged about three hours' worth of food and water supplies. Most people don't finish within three hours, however. Too bad for them - or so it seemed. In fact, however, even those finishing last were perfectly taken care of, particularly during the fourth and fifth hour when demand is highest. ~ Zhang Xin

My guess is many top athletes, distance runners included, use performance-enhancing drugs, enough so that the problem must be tackled. ~ Bill Rodgers

But most of all I was inspired by the stirring examples of all the other runners. In some pictures they would seem like tiny dots in a mosaic, but each had a separate narrative starting a few months or a lifetime earlier and finishing that day in the New York City Marathon, the race with 37,000 stories. ~ Mark Sutcliffe

It makes me sick to see a superior runner wait behind the field until 200 meters to go and then sprint away. That is immoral. It's both an insult to the other runners and a denigration of his own ability. ~ Ron Clarke

Ideally I would start by racing my athletes once every two weeks. But, such a program has to be flexible because some runners improve better with weekly races or even bi-weekly races. A coach has to adjust to what is best for the runner. ~ Gerry Lindgren

I admire runners older than I - they are now my heroes. I want to be like them as I grow older. ~ Frank Shorter

The relatively thin distance runners ate more than you would expect (Cassidy loaded his tray with three scrambled eggs, two pancakes, sausage, nearly a quart of milk, and two doughnuts for later). A colossus like Mobley, however, simply ate with a vengeance. With unswerving deliberation and concentration, he sat and consumed. ~ John L. Parker Jr.

Thus the sum of things is ever being reviewed, and mortals dependent one upon another. Some nations increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and like runners pass on the torch of life. ~ Lucretius

If Beethoven and Bach hooked up with Mozart and made a band, they could be a distant runner up to The D. ~ Jack Black

In a brief space the generations of beings are changed, and, like runners, pass on the torches of life. ~ Lucretius

My soundless feet shall fly among the runners
Through the red thunders of a Zeppelin raid,
My still voice cheer the Anti-Aircraft gunners,
The fires shall glare - but I shall cast no shade. ~ Stella Benson

The potential elite runner must realize that hard means hard, easy means easy and they must patiently seek out what combinations work for them. They have to learn to be persistent and patient with their training and racing. ~ Frank Shorter

The brain's auditory cortex, for instance, processes an audio signal from your ear faster than a visual signal is processed in the visual cortex. The difference is around 40 milliseconds, which is not much, but enough to justify using a gun for starting a race, instead of a light flash. The faster audio processing speed means that sprint runners react more quickly to a bang than to a flash of light. ~ Jean Paul Zogby

Sneakers were meant to be worn out. ~ Anthony T. Hincks

I would like to see a fierce Fantasia mixed with Blade Runner, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars all in one. That's the kind of movies I want to make. ~ Michelle Rodriguez

...and lovers of romance novels and dissident rebels and brothers in Christ and druids and shamans and aphrodisiac vendors and scriveners and purveyors of real fake passports and gun-runners and porters and bric-a-brac trades and mining prospectors short on liquid assets and Siamese twins... ~ Fiston Mwanza Mujila

When one runs 45, 50 or even 100km, for me, is not an ultra runner ~ Yiannis Kouros

The reality is you don't get stand offs who are expert kickers as well as top drawer runners. The trick is to find a balance but Phil is putting a lot of guys into gaps. ~ Frank Hadden

The I.S. didn't teach its runners how to deal with this. Runners were runners, not murder investigators. They brought their tags in alive, even the dead ones. ~ Kim Harrison

A teacher is never too smart to learn from his pupils. But while runners differ, basic principles never change. So it's a matter of fitting your current practices to fit the event and the individual. See, what's good for you might not be worth a darn for the next guy. ~ Bill Bowerman

Baseball players practice, runners practice, so how can you practice being funny? You get up onstage. You train as an improviser, playing make-believe, using the vernacular of improvisation, saying 'yes and' to other people's ideas, making statements. ~ Ali Farahnakian

Runners like to train 100 miles per week because it's a round number. But I think 88 is a lot rounder. ~ Don Kardong

The baselines belongs to the runner, and whenever I was running the bases, I always slid hard. I wanted infielders to have that instant's hesitation about coming across the bag at second or about standing in there awaiting a throw to make a tag. There are only twenty-seven outs in a ballgame, and it was my job to save one for my team every time I possibly could. ~ Frank Robinson

Even for runners who never make the transition to more sophisticated workouts, easing into speedwork will lead to more enjoyable running. ~ Don Kardong

In athletics, older runners tend to go for longer races, but it's the opposite in swimming because your body can't handle the endurance. ~ Kirsty Coventry

The Christian race lasts a lifetime, with Christ Jesus as our goal, the prize that awaits us at the finish line in heaven. It can't be run all-out as a sprint or no one would last the course. Though there was one race in the ancient games where the runners wore full armor, most of the time the ancient runners ran naked, stripping away anything that would slow them down. Obviously the writer of Hebrews was familiar with the ancient sport of running when he advised believers to run with endurance the race God set before them. ~ Various

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

Many people are afraid of running because between 30 to 70 percent (depending on how you measure it) of runners get injured every year. ~ Daniel Lieberman

The main quality a great third base coach must have is a fast runner. ~ Rocky Bridges

If I run I lose so much weight, which I need because you're limited on weight when you are a tall driver. And have you seen marathon runners? They're quite skinny. ~ Jenson Button

When I go to a web video meeting and look around, at least half the show runners are women. And a lot are actors-cum-writers who are frustrated with the situation of being a woman actor in Hollywood and have decided to create their own show. ~ Felicia Day

I just do my best to put the ball in play and put it in play where no one's going to make a play on it and hopefully drive some runners in. ~ Joey Votto

Every day gives you an opportunity to improve. With every run, you can try to be better. Not just a better runner, but a better person. ~ John Bingham

The Line makes itself felt,
thro' some Energy unknown, ever are we haunted by that Edge so precise, so near. In the Dark, one never knows. Of course I am seeking the Warrior Path, imagining myself as heroick Scout. We all feel it Looming, even when we're awake, out there ahead someplace, the way you come to feel a River or Creek ahead, before anything else,
sound, sky, vegetation,
may have announced it. Perhaps 'tis the very deep sub-audible Hum of its Traffic that we feel with an equally undiscover'd part of the Sensorium,
does it lie but over the next Ridge? the one after that? We have mileage Estimates from Rangers and Runners, yet for as long as its Distance from the Post Mark'd West remains unmeasur'd, nor is yet recorded as Fact, may it remain, a-shimmer, among the few final Pages of its Life as Fiction. ~ Thomas Pynchon

There are gators, thousands of them. " said Rashawn.
" Then we better get out of here before we end up as a feast for gators." said Nicole. " What are going to do with him?" looking at the dead driver. " Let's get out of here and let him be the feast ~ Roland Smith

Runners don't run with their legs, they run ON their legs. In reality, they run with their Arms! ~ Percy Cerutty