Top 161 Marathon Quotes

I was working for a chef a long time ago who told me to not skip steps or be in a hurry. Success in a kitchen is more like a marathon and less like a sprint. Rising up the ranks too quickly isn’t necessarily a good thing. This advice was from a guy who was sorry he had done that and didn’t want me to do the same.

I happen to be a huge ‘Lord of the Rings’ fan. I do an annual marathon of the extended editions.

But it is nice to know that you have other races lined up, because sometimes you can get so focused on your next marathon that it can become kind of unhealthy in some ways. So it’s nice to have something else to slap you in the face and say, all right, there is life after the Olympics.

I started running outside when I was at ‘Biggest Loser.’ Then I got runner’s knee, and thought I was never going to be able to shake it. When I overcame that and ran the L.A. Marathon, it was such an amazing thing, and now running is such a part of my routine.

The starting line of the New York Marathon is kind of like a giant time bomb behind you about to go off. It is the most spectacular start in sport.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I actually feel like I come to work stronger when I’ve had a little time on the weekend to step away from it and enjoy my family and other things. I come back energized. If people think they’re going to work 24/7, week in and week out, they’re not bringing their full strength to the table.

My first proper race was a full marathon in 1987. A work colleague convinced us this was the best way to start and signed me up for the Lakeland marathon.

I was training for the N.Y.C. Marathon and was really lean and people would tell me I looked too skinny and sick and that I should go eat a cheeseburger… Those words hurt, I’m not going to lie.

Marathon Day in Boston and all of Massachusetts, it’s Patriot’s Day, and it’s a big celebration for us. It’s a day when we’re kind of the whole world’s city there.

There was no way to lock down, or tighten up, or Fail-Safe into Security Theater a race that covers 26.2 miles, a race that travels from town to town, a race that travels past people’s houses. There was no way to garrison the Boston Marathon. Now there will be.

Fiona Bruce isn’t some token middle-aged woman at the BBC. Alongside her, at 52, my former running partner Sophie Raworth is a familiar face on our screens, with enough energy to run the scorching desert challenge, Marathon des Sables, to celebrate her 50th.

I’ve been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It’s natural.

I invested in the ‘Globe’ because it is one of the best and most important news organizations in the world. We saw this vividly in the days and weeks after the tragic Boston Marathon bombings, and we also see it in many other ways every day.

I ran a 100-mile marathon, and I was powered by coconut water.

When you run a part of the relay and pass on the baton, there is no sense of unfinished business in your mind. There is just the sense of having done your part to the best of your ability. That is it. The hope is to pass on the baton to somebody who will run faster and run a better marathon.

It’s like running a marathon race. We train all hours of the day. When you are taking a bath, you are thinking of the flight.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev is telling no tales. The older of the two brothers who committed the Boston Marathon bombings was likely the one who planned the attack, but when he died in a shootout with police just days after the blasts, his thoughts and motivations vanished with him.

I might have to do the London Marathon. I like crowds, so that is why I like the big marathons.

I did a movie called Marathon Man and it was one of my best memories.

You don’t want to be sore when you’re running. So I wouldn’t suggest you train for a marathon and do CrossFit at the same time; the two don’t align with one another. When you’re a runner, your body builds the muscle where it needs to build muscle.

I love watching the N.Y.C. Marathon – it might even be the best day of the year. I’m already in a true romance with the Big Apple, but the determination, spirit, sport, and glory that are all in full force on race day make it a true standout.

It’s impossible in heptathlon to have a proper rivalry – you’re spending two days together and seven events and dedicate your life to it. It’s like a marathon: two days of mental and physical exhaustion.

Running a marathon is a stressful event for your body, mind and spirit. But when you put yourself through that willingly, consciously and in a learning atmosphere, you begin to understand how to deal with any stressful situation in a way that does not drain you.

My goals are to run the London Marathon and do the best that I can.

We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.

With theater, the time commitment and the demands on your body, your personal life, and your wallet are crazy. It’s four months of feeling like you’re running a marathon and getting paid in hugs.

Running a marathon is appealing to runners for many reasons. It’s epic! A real test for your mind and body and a challenge that truly fills you with complete elation when you cross the finish line. But it is in no way a trivial undertaking.

People talk about world title offers, but boxing is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

Life, especially the life of an early-stage entrepreneur, is full of gigantic ups and downs. Make sure you don’t let yourself get too high or too low. It’s a marathon, and you just have to keep your legs moving at a steady pace.

The marathon can humble you.

Life is a marathon and you have to pace yourself. I believe that slow and steady wins the race, so in that way, I’ve been training for a marathon my whole life.

I was formed by ‘The Forsyte Saga’ marathon. There was something about seeing all those events telescoped that was unbelievably moving: that sense of time as something that can be tinkered with.

We are brunch hounds. We also like movie dates. There’s a lot of diners, a lot of movies. We’re ‘simple pleasures’ people. It doesn’t have to be crazy. It could be a ‘Law and Order’ marathon on the couch, or it could be dinner or a show. We like to mix it up.

Toeing the starting line of a marathon, regardless of the language you speak, the God you worship or the color of your skin, we all stand as equal. Perhaps the world would be a better place if more people ran.

I love to run. I was challenged to run the New York marathon four months after having my youngest son, and since running isn’t a big part of softball, the thought of a marathon was a stretch for me.

I respect the hell out of everyone who does a network show. That is a marathon. It’s so many episodes, and it can be a meat grinder. Anyone making a network show, and on top of that making a very good network show, that’s an insane feat of Herculean endurance and fortitude.

I think Dustin Hoffman has been in at least three of my favorite movies of all time with things like ‘Tootsie,’ ‘Marathon Man.’ Getting a bit more arthouse and darker, ‘The Graduate’ – incredible, barrier-breaking movie, ‘The Graduate.’

I remember when the photograph was taken. The famous one, I mean. The one of me being rushed from the Boston Marathon bombing without my legs.

When George Hirsch ran the New York City Marathon in 1976, the first year the course snaked through all five boroughs, the event was a lean affair. He and two thousand others dodged wayward bicycles and pedestrians on the streets, with little help from an anemic police presence.

Whenever I’m being invited to the New York City Marathon like today, I need to think twice because I know it’s a very tough race.

For the most part, the only contact that most Quebecers have with the world of Islam is through these images of violence, repeated over and over: wars, riots, bombs, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Boston marathon… The reaction is obvious: We’ll have none of that here!

In my sports or workout life, I like to prove to myself I can do something, whether it’s a half marathon or whatever it is. I like to take challenges that scare me because then once we’ve accomplished it, we feel stronger.

I look for every game in the same way. And I think the league is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. So you don’t have to score or win against the big six – you have to score and win against everyone.

It was always a plan that we were going to have a retail side with what were doing musically, like an Apple store or Nike Town. I wanted something where you can come get everything – ‘Marathon’ or ‘All Money’ or ‘Crenshaw’ – and make it like an experience. Especially with what Crenshaw and Slauson meant to my story.

Imagining what a character will do in a given situation – it’s like an equation, and working it out is a marathon rather than a sprint.

You know the marathon in my country is just exceptional. It’s like soccer in England. If England win the world cup and Ethiopia win the marathon – it’s the same.

The only way I’ll ever run a marathon is if I’m involved in the administration.

I am a fitness freak, and I do not celebrate any festivity in a grand way during the months of December and January because I am busy preparing for my marathon.

In high school, during marathon phone conversations, cheap pizza dinners and long suburban car rides, I began to fall for boys because of who they actually were, or at least who I thought they might become.

To run a big marathon and win takes five months. When I’m on the starting line, my mind starts reviewing what I have been doing the last five months. I believe in my training, and I treat myself as the best one standing on that line.

I think that’s kind of nice that there’s this kind of inherent respect between runners who do a marathon. People respect somebody who has done it, and I will do anything to get some respect because I don’t get a lot respect in my life.

I don’t have as tight a time limit anymore but I still write in long marathon sessions and then I won’t write for a while, I’m not a write-every-day writer.

In the marathon obstacle course of a career, it’s just good to have all the stats on paper for why you’re not only a team player but also why it makes sense to support you in the projects you want to do – because you’ve made so much damned money for the studio.

We didn’t crumble after 9/11. We didn’t falter after the Boston Marathon. But we’re America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line.

When I make a live-action movie, it’s a very physical process. It’s like running a marathon.

I don’t have great running technique, but I like to run. I’ve heard from countless people that the last six miles of the marathon is all mental. But what better city to have this in than New York City where there are millions of people there supporting you?

I understand that people in the media want this to be a sprint every day, but the truth is a presidential campaign is a marathon.

Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

I do a lot of marathons as training runs. If I’m somewhere and there’s a marathon, I’ll sign up and just go run it.

In the marathon a crazy athlete can just keep pushing from the beginning, at a championship you don’t need a time just to win the race.

I gave birth to my first son in April 1986. I thought it would be a good goal to get back in shape after having a baby if I ran the New York City Marathon. I ran in it November 1986. I had just shot the ‘Sports Illustrated’ swimsuit issue, so I was in great shape.

What could be funnier than a fat person trying to run a marathon?

I’ve run the marathon several times, so I definitely don’t look like the Great Ancestor!

Being on stage is like running a marathon every night.

The book I always say that influenced me, subconsciously, because at the time I didn’t know I wanted to be a writer, was William Goldman’s ‘Marathon Man.’ That was the first adult thriller that I loved. I read it when I was 15 or so, when my father gave it to me.

Plenty of people who are 38 have run really well in the marathon.

In some respects, progressing through life is like running a marathon.

When I said I wanted to run a marathon, I wanted to do it under four hours. But when I started training, I was like, ‘Oh I got this,’ so I wanted to run between 3:30 and 3:35. I’m really proud of myself.

When you get close to race day, there’s that anticipation and excitement – it’s the same whatever level you’re running at because the marathon is like a festival.

The marathon always starts after 30K. That’s where the problems start. You start without any problems, without any pain. All the pain comes after 30K. Sometimes, it’s possible to have pain even in the finger.

Some of the life lessons that my mom has taught me is that the road is not for the fastest or the swiftest, but it’s for those who enjoy it to the end. Just telling you that life is not pure grace. It’s like a marathon.

Long runs improve your endurance but shorter intervals improve your speed. They are mutually beneficial for a distance runner. If you do 5k runs it will help your marathon.

Who ever would have thought that I’d be running a marathon? Certainly not me, but it’s amazing where life leads you if you’re willing to live passionately!

At the end of a marathon, it’s going to hurt whether you’re speeding up or slowing down. You may as well push.

I’ve said to people before that I’m going to do my very best to make it, and I’m not going to give up. And that’s true. But I might not make it. And if I don’t make it, the Marathon of Hope better continue.

Being the lead of the show and working a lot of hours – all good stuff, a tremendous education, incredible opportunity, it changed my life – it was a marathon, and by the end of it I was pretty beat.

I don’t sleep at night at all. Making movies is a marathon. I’m a good 100-yard-dash guy.

A couple of years ago I ran in the LA Marathon.

I try to avoid the temptation with time as a total indicator for what my possibilities are for the marathon. It’s the not the best indicator, but it’s more how you feel, how you cover the distance and how you are able to do the training afterward.

The season is a beast within itself. It’s not the quickest race; it’s a marathon. In the playoffs – if you’re fortunate enough to make the playoffs – that’s more like a dash. You have to concentrate on one opponent. When they’re done, you have to concentrate on another one.

I’ve had a lot of success over the years racing in New York, but the main point is that I feel the marathon is a different event, a lot more my event.

I would honestly say I’m in the turtle’s race. My journey is a marathon.

I used to run a full marathon in three hours and 25 or 26 minutes. Not any more.

When I’m hard at work, when I’m deep in it, there is no other feeling. For me, my work is at all times building a nation out of thin air. It is manning the troops. It is painting a canvas. It is hitting every high note. It is running a marathon. It is being Beyonce. And it is all of those things at the same time.

People don’t realise how much energy it takes to sing and hit all those high notes – but I always feel like I’ve done a marathon.

While Fidel Castro used to deliver his marathon seven-hour speeches in Havana, Cubans used to joke that if Spanish lacked a future tense, their leader would be speechless. He was only fluent in broken promises, they lamented.

In a marathon, if you run too fast, you get exhausted. If you run too slow, you never make it.

I know a lot of marathon runners who are at their best when they are close to 40. You say to yourself, ‘It’s 42 kilometres and they are 37 or 38 years old,’ but the body can. What you have to make sure you don’t lose is your head. That is the most important thing.

My husband and I both have our bucket lists. Running a marathon was on mine.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s about taking a bigger-picture approach.

Building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. I don’t believe it when people tell me they’ve been working 80-hour weeks for five years in a row. I just don’t think that’s possible.

I don’t think you just can put people on the starting block and then wait… for the next Ebola-like epidemic. I think that you need somehow a small-capacity response who’s going to run the first few kilometers of the marathon.

It is not easy to participate in the 21 km. marathon. It takes a lot of energy, determination, and will power. It takes months to train to reach that mark with a proper diet chart.

When I went to the starting line of the 1976 Olympic marathon in Montreal, it was with the unsettling conviction that some of my competitors were cheaters.

Humans are built for endurance, not speed. We’re awful sprinters compared to every other animal. We try to run our races as if they were speed races, but they are not. They’re endurance races. Even a marathon, the way it’s run now, it’s not an endurance contest.

If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.

There is nothing in this world that I love more than my family. To be able to share the joy of running with them at the Runner’s World Half Marathon and Running Festival where we can all participate together is as close as you can get to a perfect weekend.

I did ‘My Fair Lady’ for almost 3 1/2 years, eight performances a week. It was a marathon.

Health is your greatest wealth, so experiencing a marathon and seeing what you’re capable of is really special.

I set myself some specific goals, but the key one is just getting myself into as good a shape as possible for one day this year: the Olympic marathon.

Running a marathon is something I’ve always wanted to do.

The word ‘hackathon’ was born out of ‘marathon’ for a reason. It’s exhausting.

Prestigious events like the Main Event at the WSOP are marathon races. Fatigue is sure to set in.

I do a lot of biking. I need that mileage and the long-distance stuff because tennis demands it. My fitness trainer is always trying to convince me to do an Ironman. I can probably run the marathon, I can make the 112 miles on the bike, but I will never swim for 2.4 miles. I will die after 100 meters.

As you move through the application process, keep refining the way you present yourself. Like any skill, you’ll only get better with practice, and you’ll only hurt yourself if you get discouraged too early. This is one race that’s definitely a marathon, not a sprint.

I am a huge box sets fan and love a Sunday marathon session watching my favourite series back-to-back.

I have not had the chance to go out there and do myself justice in an Olympic marathon yet. I have not been able to get to an Olympic marathon injury-free yet.

Marathon runners set explicit goals.

Some of the greatest shows in history – ‘Seinfeld,’ ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ and ‘House’ – had puny starts but the benefit of schedule protection, increasingly scarce in today’s DVR world. Cable nets can tolerate small ratings, building hits in progress like ‘Breaking Bad,’ or marathon their way to a ‘Duck Dynasty.’

I’m so happy to have done this, and now I can say I ran the New York City Marathon.

I’m the 27th pick – not too many people thought I was gonna play the way I am. It’s just a testament to having confidence and work ethic and believing in yourself and keeping the marathon going.

Making a movie is like a marathon, and commercials are like sprints – they’re equally satisfying, but in different ways.

I’m just trying to spread the word and upturn the myth that actually you should be resting after cancer treatment. You shouldn’t; you should be getting out and doing any kind of exercise you can. You don’t have to run a marathon, but you just have to up your activity levels.

The world is full of people who have dreams of playing at Carnegie Hall, of running a marathon, and of owning their own business. The difference between the people who make it across the finish line and everyone else is one simple thing: an action plan.

I’m not on a mission. I’m not a paragon of health for anybody. I’m not going to run a marathon or model for ‘Men’s Health’ or go on bike rides with Lance Armstrong. I’m not. Trust me.

Marathon runner Sophie Raworth is always trying to get me to put my running shoes back on, but I can’t match her for fitness.

I don’t smoke, don’t drink much, and go to the gym five times a week. I live a healthy lifestyle and feel great. I can run a marathon, you know.

Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best.

My wife and I work out together almost every day. It’s just a great way to spend time together. We’re going to run a marathon together later this year, and that’s one more goal that we’ll accomplish as husband and wife.

I used to carbo load. But then I ran my first marathon, actually on a whim. All I could think of was that I needed protein. I remember going to the grocery store and buying one of those roasted chickens. I remember downing a bunch of that and, yes, I had some carbs, but that’s what I felt I needed.

Life is a long marathon, and you have to be consistent. Anyone can sprint for 1500 meters, but you have pace yourself through your entire life.

I couldn’t be more excited to return to the ING New York City Marathon.

As a scientist, I play in the top league – the Olympics, the World Championships – and I want to be in the lead. As a runner, I set personal goals, and I want to push beyond my own personal limits. I was very happy when I practiced for several months and then reached my goal to run a marathon in 2:50.

I trained for the marathon. I run along the East River, and I used to run all the way down Manhattan, up the West Side and back home.

When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.

Running for office is similar to being a trial lawyer in a very long trial. It requires adrenaline and stamina; it requires being in shape mentally and emotionally. It’s a marathon.

Fear is a very explosive emotion, but it has a short life span. It’s the sprint. The marathon is hope.

Most major races, including the New York City Marathon, require runners to provide photo identification when picking up a bib. Most provide bibs only a few days before the race, shortening the window in which someone could copy a bib.

Business is a sprint until you find an opportunity, then it’s the patience of a marathon runner.

The Muslim world and its subset the countries of the Middle East have been left behind in the marathon of political, economic and human development. For that, there is a tendency to blame others as the primary cause.

Playing a three-hour Rush show is like running a marathon while solving equations.

I am much more wired to be an athlete than anything else. I understand the ‘hard work = payoff’ equation in sports. I run marathons and I box. And that’s my Puerto Rican flag hanging in Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing gym. I gave it to him. My last N.Y.C. marathon time I ran in three hours flat.

I am a marathon runner. I ran the New York City marathon and almost died. I tried to run, like, a two-minute mile early on in the race. I was crazy enough to think I could win. After seven miles I thought I would die, but I slowed down my pace and kept going.

It’s never going to be a smooth sailing ship, there’s going to be ups and downs and I think one of the most important things to understand is not to ride the highs too high and ride the lows too low – it is a marathon and if you can just try to steady the ship as you go.

By running the N.Y.C. Marathon in 2008, I became a runner and I think that’s what works the best for me and keeps my body the way I like it to be.

Have you seen a marathon race? Some runners will be leading right from the first – but after the halfway mark, it is the runners at the back who take over while the early leaders fade out.

I can now check Oregon off the ‘marathon in every state list.’

For three years, I lived in a miniscule apartment on Beacon Street, less than a mile from the Boston Marathon explosions.

My goal is to break three hours in a marathon.

I think animation is like running a marathon, and making a movie is like a 100 meter sprint. The question is: are you a marathon man or are you a sprinter? I realized that I was more of a sprinter than a marathon man. With a long, long project, I get bored easily.

I’ve run the Boston Marathon 6 times before. I think the best aspects of the marathon are the beautiful changes of the scenery along the route and the warmth of the people’s support. I feel happier every time I enter this marathon.

I love my lifestyle now, but at the end of nine months, you’re toast. You are toast. It’s like running a marathon. You can’t think while you’re doing it. Especially when different directors come in who are not part of the posse, the circle.

In my bright, utopian future world, they will hand out college educations like cups of water at the end of the L.A. Marathon.

The music for ‘The Last Five Years’ is like running a 26-mile marathon, and singing Sondheim is like ballroom-dancing up Everest.

If you don’t ever stop singing, your voice stays in shape. It’s like the marathon runner. You’ve got to run, run, run to stay in shape.

There’s always somebody doing something more extreme than you are. It used to be that if you ran the marathon, that was the end of it.

Judging a child taking his first steps for not being able to run a marathon is shortsighted.

To me, drum soloing is like doing a marathon and solving equations at the same time.

I really can’t tell you the feeling I feel, like, being on stage: it’s such a high; it’s like running a marathon. You just can’t get that feeling anywhere else.

Mick Jagger knows how to run a show. It’s all about pacing. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. His output is amazing, but his movements are subtle. As I get older, I’ll have to adhere to these rules.

My teacher at RADA said I was going to have trouble when I left because I wasn’t an obvious juvenile lead, although I could do both comedy and drama. But I understood enough to know that my career was going to be a marathon, not a sprint.

A season is like a marathon and there will be plenty of ups and downs.

If India grows steadily and does the structural things right and carefully unties knots, builds an institutional process which sort of cleans up the corruption and the baggage in the system, I see it as a wonderful marathon.

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.

I am the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Marathon Agency, a new venture with my business partner Steve Carless. It’s a management, branding, marketing, and business strategy. I’m in charge of marketing and branding clients like Nick Cannon, Nicki Minaj, and more.

The Federal appropriations process is a marathon, not a sprint, and we are at the beginning of that process.

We can never completely prevent another tragedy like the Boston Marathon attacks from happening. But every American should ask themselves if their community is as prepared as it could be.

I enter myself in races. I did a triathlon, and I have done a marathon a couple of times.

It’s kind of like a midlife crisis kind of thing. When you turn 40, you have to run the marathon, while all the parts still work properly.

The most important thing is to understand that this career is not about speed. It’s about stamina. This is a marathon. It’s not a 50-meter sprint. You have to persevere and understand it takes a lot of time. You have to know you’re going to knock on 100 doors and 99 of them are going to close in your face.

Novel writing is the slowest art form in the world. It is not a sprint. It is not even a marathon. It is a series of marathons that stretch over and over across a continent.