Ultrarunning Quotes

“Running efficiently demands good technique, and running efficiently for 100 miles demands great technique. But the wonderful paradox of running is that getting started requires no technique. None at all. If you want to become a runner, get onto a trail, into the woods, or on a sidewalk or street and run. Go 50 yards if that's all you can handle. Tomorrow, you can go farther.”
― Scott Jurek, Eat & Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness

“What else is there to do in this world but love other people?”
― James E. Shapiro, Meditations from the Breakdown Lane: Running Across America

“I started running for reasons I had only just begun to understand. As a child, I ran in the woods and around my house for fun. As a teen, I ran to get my body in better shape. Later, I ran to find peace. I ran, and kept running, because I had learned that once you started something you didn’t quit, because in life, much like in an ultramarathon, you have to keep pressing forward. Eventually I ran because I turned into a runner, and my sport brought me physical pleasure and spirited me away from debt and disease, from the niggling worries of everyday existence. I ran because I grew to love other runners. I ran because I loved challenges and because there is no better feeling than arriving at the finish line or completing a difficult training run. And because, as an accomplished runner, I could tell others how rewarding it was to live healthily, to move my body every day, to get through difficulties, to eat with consciousness, that what mattered wasn’t how much money you made or where you lived, it was how you lived. I ran because overcoming the difficulties of an ultramarathon reminded me that I could overcome the difficulties of life, that overcoming difficulties was life.”
― Scott Jurek | Steve Friedman

“I had never felt more alive, more happy to be living in the moment. My suffering stood on the horizon, like the mountain, contrasting comfort. It stood starkly against familiarity, above old limitations, and towered over complacency. The mountains added the beauty and depth to the landscape around me. I was pushing into a totally new realm and pushing towards my dream of testing my limits. It did not feel pleasant, not in this hour, but I forced myself to run the last mile.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“If it's a nod from society you're looking for, run a marathon. But if it's a life-changing experience of personal strength and perseverance that you want, finish an ultra.”
― Vanessa Runs, The Summit Seeker

“There's not enough said about winter runing. Running in the winter is like not giving up when the road gets hard. It's about willpower and perseverance and being faithful to your sport.”
― Vanessa Runs, The Summit Seeker

“When you feel bad, try to hold on. When you feel good, it's time to push.”
― Travis Macy, The Ultra Mindset

“A race is a life that is born when you get up in the morning and dies when you cross the finish line.”
― Kilian Jornet, Run or Die

“In a sprint, if you don't have perfect form, you're doomed. The ultra distance forgives injury, fatigue, bad form, and illness. A bear with determination will defeat a dreamy gazelle every time.”
― Scott Jurek, Eat & Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness

“I'd rather be the last runner who saw a cool thing that everyone else missed, than to be a speedy runner who had a miserable experience.”
― Vanessa Runs, The Summit Seeker

“Endurance races are a microcosm of life; you're high, you're low, in the race, out of the race, crushing it, getting crushed, managing fears, rewriting stories.”
― Travis Macy, The Ultra Mindset

“Once you master breaking down the mental wall of running, there are no limits. When you both see and believe that you can run further, run faster, you can.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“Pablo Picasso famously said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” There is truth in that thought. Considering my own experience, I tailored it a little: every child is a runner. The problem is how to remain a runner once we grow up.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“Most ultramarathons are a sufferfest. I have concluded that it does not matter who you are or how much training you have completed, everyone suffers at some point during an ultra. What differentiates ultrarunners is how they handle themselves in the low moments.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“I started easy, so I reminded myself of the wisdom I had often heard repeated by experienced ultrarunners: it’s not about who goes the fastest, it’s about who doesn’t slow down the most.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“Resting when you are tired at mountain races is unwise until you reach lower altitudes, I have learned.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“200 milers are different, you can come back from the dead.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“It was only sifting through depths that deep that I was able to uncover my soul. Maybe it was not really about this race; it was about finding those few thoughts that transcended the darkness, the ones that would only be conjured up within my head during times of need. Maybe it was finding a spiritual level of flow while running, floating down the trail like I’ve never experienced before, finding myself running within ultra.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“It can be hard, out there during a tough race or long run gone wrong, to remember that we choose these mental and physical tests. We are fortunate to experience these events.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“There is no finish like the one you questioned.”
― Rob Steger, Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack

“In un mondo saturo di informazioni, la scelta di essere vaghi è come una tre- gua. Una corsa senza compravendita, senza sponsor, senza cellulare. Anche al di là del malinteso della distanza, Barkley non ha quasi niente a che fare con altre 100 miglia come Hardrock, Western States, UTMB o la Diagonale des Fous. La Barkley è un oltre-trail, un'isoletta inclassificabile riservata a quaranta corridori. Non ci sono vincitori, solo dei rari non-vinti. Ma soprattutto, a Frozen Head non si trova niente che non si abbia già, nessun trofeo da portarsi a casa.
«La maggior parte delle corse sono organizzate in modo da essere sicuri di poterle finire. La Barkley non consiste soltanto nell'esplorare i limiti, ma nel confrontare i partecipanti. Mostra la fine e il limite di ognuno».”
― Alexis Berg, The Finishers: The Barkley Marathons

“Actually, it's rare for someone to die doing this sport, but it's not at all rare to want to.”
― Marshall Ulrich, Running on Empty

“Just like the mountain sometimes does not let you pass, the heat would not allow me to run in those canyons as I wished.”
― Chris Zehetleitner, Runhundred: Heart Versus Heat at Western States 100