One of my Couch Potato to 5K groups recently asked me for suggestions for slogans or sayings to go on a running t-shirt. There were a few that I thought of off the top of my head, but when I started browsing for more I found a ton of awesome ideas. Here were some of my favorite running slogans and quotes – which would you put on your running t-shirt??
Inspirational:
- Focus, breathe, believe
- Strive for progress, not perfection
- “The five S’s of sports training are: Stamina, Speed, Strength, Skill and Spirit; but the greatest of these is Spirit.”
- “Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart.”
- “_______ (company/team name): Where the weak become strong, and the strong become champions”
Motivating you to push harder:
- The pride you gain is worth the pain.
- “I do what you won’t today so I do what you can’t tomorrow”
- Champions train, losers complain.
- Run for fun – race for place.
- Train insane or remain the same.
- PR or ER
- My sport is your sport’s punishment
- I bust mine to kick yours.
- Suck it up, buttercup.
- Death before DNF.
Funny (and a few mildly inappropriate, haha):
- I train with Kenyans.
- Run like there’s a hot guy in front of you and a creepy guy behind you.
- On the back: Thanks. I’ve Never Passed Anyone Before.
- Slow runners make fast runners look good. You’re welcome.
- I’m the fast girl your mother warned you about.
- The Surgeon General says it’s okay to smoke your competition.
- Carbs 4 Life.
Chrissy Carroll is a Registered Dietitian, RRCA Running Coach, and USAT Level I Triathlon Coach. She specializes in sharing training tips, sports nutrition information, and healthy recipes for runners, triathletes, and active women.Chrissy holds a Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition, a Masters Degree in Public Health, and is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer.
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Haha, my favorite of those are:
Run like there’s a hot guy in front of you and a creepy guy behind you.
Strive for progress, not perfection.
Those are my favs too! I also love “PR or ER” 🙂
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As a sllllooowww runner this is my favorite:
On the back: Thanks. I’ve Never Passed Anyone Before.
Slow runners make fast runners look good. You’re welcome.
Haha, I love those ones too!
This isn’t exactly a slogan, but remembering this story about Bruce Lee has gotten me through many difficult runs:
“Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.” I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.” So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” –and we’re still running-”if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
The “then die” part is what really gets me going. Ugh, I’m so tired, I can’t go on, I’m gonna die. Then die!
Love it!! Thank you for sharing that 🙂