Inspiring Trail Running Quotes

What Can Trail Running Quotes Provide?

Personally, I enjoy finding motivating trail running quotes that have importance or greater meaning at that point in time.

Here’s a list of benefits that trail running quotes can provide.

• Remembering particularly motivating or inspirational quotes can change your runs. Perhaps it might be a sudden change in course, a rocky hill climb detour, or a speedy decent down a forest track, weaving around the trees. I love this about recalling quotes whilst out on my trail runs. They get you to think a little differently and try out new things.
• Inpirational trail running quotes can help provide a bit of a boost when you’re out on the trails. Perhaps you might be going through a tough section, or have a bit of pain or fatigue. Whatever the case may be, sometimes recalling a good quote can give you that little bit of a kick to get you through hard times.
• They can provide motivation when you’re not feeling up to getting out for a run. I suspect this is a common issue for most, as it certainly is one for me. Getting out for a run, especially when conditions are not great, is the hardest part.

Check out this short mini-film I created about why I trail run – it features one of my favourite running quotes:

Their Meanings Can Be Ephemeral

Some tail running quote meanings are ephemeral for me. In other words, they can have particular importance or meaning to me at the time I read them, but at some point in the future they might not be particularly important or inspiring anymore.

I think they’re great, as long as you get some kind of a benefit from them at the time, whether it be trail running motivation, inspiration, or other.

Trail Running Quotes

Here is my current list of meaningful trail running quotes. I’ll try to update the list as time goes on. I’ve added citations for each quote where possible, and will also include a short biography on that person below each quote.

When I’m running I don’t have to talk to anybody and don’t have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can’t do without.

Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. He has multiple best selling books and stories around the world, with much of that having been translated to a multitude of languages and selling millions of copies around the world.

Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.

Julie Isphording

Mary Julie Isphording, a long-distance runner from the United States. Now retired, but when actively competing, she represented her native country at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. However, she did not reach the finish line there. She set her personal best in the classic distance of 2:30:54 in 1989.

There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul.

Kristin Armstrong

Kristin Armstrong is a former professional cyclist (road bicycle racing). She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and holds many other accolades. Prior to her professional cycling career, she was a junior olympian in swimming, a long distance runner in college and after that a triathlete.

Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.

Lowell Thomas

Lowell Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, actor, and traveler.

My feeling is that any day I am too busy to run is a day that I am too busy.

John Bryant

John Bryant played a pivotal role in the success of the London Marathon. His career spanned more than 40 years. His love for running started as a child, living in a small village in Somerset, UK, where he would chase the school bus (and catch it) as it drove through the village.

The pain of running is an excellent remedy for many other pains.

Unknown

Act like a horse. Be dumb. Just run.

Jumbo Elliot

Jumbo Elliot is a retired American football player. He played for fourteen years as an offensive tackle in the NFL with the New York Giants from the mid to late eighties to the mid ninetees. Later on he played for the New York Jets.

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.

John Muir

John Muir has a bunch of aliases, such as “John of the Mountains” and “Father of the National Parks”. He was an influential naturalist, author, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and environmental philosopher. Importantly, he was also an early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America.

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Neale Donald Walsch

Neale Donald Walsch is an American author, actor, screenwriter, and speaker.

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.

John Muir

See further above for some of John’s biography.

Hopefully you’ll get some inspiration or good out of these favourite quotes of mine at a time when you need it most!