My feeling is that any day I am too busy to run, is a day that I am too busy.
–John Bryant
Quotes are meant to motivate and inspire. Sometimes quotes make us think, others times they make us laugh. Put a quote on a tee-shirt and it makes a statement.
Most runners have a large stockpile of old tee-shirts with funny, motivational, inspirational, or provocative quotes on them. Think back to some of your favorite running tee-shirts or dig through some old boxes to find your favorites. Here are some of ours:
(Tim)
When I was in high school, my team got tee-shirts made that had a classic quote on the back. “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” I had never seen the quote before and I loved wearing that shirt!As a coach, my teams had some good ones, but my favorite one was the year the boys won the state championship. They knew they were good, and decided they didn’t need a slogan on the team shirt for motivation. They decided on the slogan, “No Slogans” for the back of their shirts. It was pretty funny to us, but I don’t think anyone else understood.
(Adam)
I had to call my high school coach to remember what we had on our Cross Country shirts. She reminded me that during my junior year we had shirts made that said, “Pardon our Dust!” on the back referring to the State Championship we won the year before. She remembers those shirts well because she was uncomfortable sounding so brash. We probably should have listened to her since we didn’t win that year!As a professional athlete most of my shirts say, “Nike” or “Just do it” on them, so instead of cool shirts for me, I am into finding cool baby shirts, and onesies for my son Colt. Check these out:
If only Kara would let me dress him!
Here are Adam and Tim’s top 5 favorite running Tee-shirt quotes based on reader comments below.
Adam’s Top 5
5. It’s not supposed to tickle!
4. If you wanna catch me, you gotta be fast… if you wanna stay with me, you gotta be good… if you wanna pass me….You’ve got to be kidding
3. Running won’t kill you, you’ll pass out first!
2. If it were easy, they’d call it your Mom
1. We’re the fast girls your mama warned you about
Tim’s Top 5
5. The Surgeon General has declared that it’s OK to smoke your opponents
4. If you wanna catch me, you gotta be fast… if you wanna stay with me… you gotta be good if you wanna pass me….You’ve got to be kidding!
3. Run like you stole it
2. We’re the fast girls your mama warned you about
1. Last year, we had “UNFINISHED BUSINESS” on the back of their shirts (after 2 straight 2nd places at State). When we won State, someone pulled out a black sharpie and everybody crossed out the UN
“Running is a mental sport and we’re all insane!”
and….
“Running won’t kill you, you’ll pass out first!”
“Run till you can’t…then crawl.”
“Pain is weakness leaving the body.”
“Run like you stole it.”
We’re bringing XC back.”
I can’t say that it’s a quote on the back of our shirts, but the girls have a quote that we tend to write on the back of our legs.
Run with your heart, not with your legs One of our girls came up with it and it’s just stuck with us.
Last year for our “fun” time trials, the girl’s Silver team tee shirts said on the back
if you wanna catch me, you gotta be fast
if you wanna stay with me, you gotta be good
if you wanna pass me….You’ve got to be kidding
It’s not a quote thats on a teeshirt…but I hope in the near future I can make it into a team tee-shirt
See It
)
Believe It
Do It (Oscar Ponce
Last year, the kids had “UNFINISHED BUSINESS” on the back of their shirts (after 2 straight 2nd places at State). When we won State, someone pulled out a black sharpie and everybody crossed out the UN.
This year, our shirts say: Excuses don’t make champions. Champions don’t make excuses”
My favorite t-shirt quotes:
“My goal is simple. Run faster, a lot faster.” - Bob Kennedy
“The Surgeon General has declared that it’s OK to smoke your opponents”
“Never succumb to the woos and wiles of the pain fairy.”
“Twenty years of pain with Bruno and Timo” – On the front, one of the kids did a drawing of Mt. Rushmore with the heads of our 3 coaches and Pre, and labeled it Mt. Runmore.
Some kid posted on Dyestat a few years ago the funniest t-shirt quote:
Cross-Country. If it were easy, they’d call it your Mom.”
At the Chicago Marathon expo, I saw a shirt that said:
“In my mind, I am Kenyan.”
When I saw this shirt in at Bill Rodgers Running Centre, I had to buy it. It has Bill’s famous quote: “The marathon will humble you”
my friend on my team who use to go to a school in nevada had a shirt that said if your reading this I just went kenyan on your ass I thought it was pretty good
Still wear the “no slogans” – it is all stained but who cares.
Also liked the:
Running is not a test but a therapy,
not a trial, but a reward,
not a question but an answer.
next year thinking about putting on the shirt:
“:Its not supposed to tickle”
Whenever a kind comments after a hard workout about how it hurt, I like throwing this back at them. ;o) They’ve stopped complaining
Also like saying
“toughen up princess”
Those are the two best quotes to go on shirts!!! Why not combine the two???????????
my first cross country experience at camp ramblewood, the shirts said “the hills are my friends.” i was not looking forward to the week after that.
my coach liked to keep it simple. “got pride?” “get tough.”
my senior year the seniors only got “fast girls have good times.” my coach told the story of how her first year of coaching at our all girls catholic school, the entire team got shirts that said this slogan, and of course our coach got in trouble by the administration. hence the reason for simple slogans from then on. but we got the shirts made anyway, we just never wore them to school.
for track we had “no speed limit.” we had a speed sign on the back with a person running. we all got a kick out of it.
i got a pre shirt at penn relays that says “i run best when i run free.” i used to sleep in it before every race.
running at the oval during preseason, a woman walker yelled out “you are my SHE-ROES” as we ran by. we thought about getting that as a slogan this year.
We’re the fast girls your mama warned you about.
Came up with this for my son when he started running CC.
Run because you want to.
Race because you need to.
Win because you can.
(yeah sorry for the multiple replies)
I actually just found our team shirts for this season (Thanks Coach!!!
)
‘Motivation gets you started
Desire keeps you going’
I know you have already annouced your favorite slogans, and I don’t know if you had this one submitted, but I thought it was great.
“The TRUTH of the matter is that you can always run faster. The FACT of the matter is the TRUTH sometimes hurts!”
Great one! It would have been in the running for sure!
“In a world of give and take, Give what it takes”
“There are two types of people in this world…those who run, and those who should!”
“There is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.” -Bowerman
Those are the xc tshirts from my junior and senior year of high school.
The shirts for the guys senior year: The best pace is a suicide pace and today looks like a good day to die.
My senior year shirt: Don’t tread on me
I run….and run…..and run….and run…..and run
went snarky for my kids_ private school hence prissy latin translation of”run fast turn left ” and “let it all hang out”. looked really profound unless you could read latin.that team did medal and place 1st in state meet competions
this is SupersExyeXtra credit i love
“let it all hang out”. this part