The best running posters for a home gym are big enough to read from the rack or the treadmill and specific enough to mean something to you. Pick one theme, hang three to five prints in the same size, and go 24x36 for the wall you see from across the room. Our running posters come in five themes below: Pre, training roads, race moments, mantras and gear. Every one is made to order in 12x18, 16x24 and 24x36 inches, from $25, and buy 2, get the 3rd free applies automatically.
You spend more time looking at your walls than you think. The minute before a long run. A foam rolling session. The thirty seconds you spend not quite wanting to start the workout. The walls of a home gym say something about what you are training for. The question is whether they say the right thing.
Our prints are not a motivational calendar you forget to flip or a lone runner at golden hour with "seize the day" underneath. They reference real places, real races and the lines runners say to themselves. Here is how to build a wall that earns its space.
Home gym running posters at a glance
The Pre collection
If you ran high school or college track in the United States, or you have read more than one book about American distance running, you know Steve Prefontaine. He came from Coos Bay, Oregon, raced from the front with an all or nothing mentality, and died in a car accident at 24. What he left behind still gets runners out the door at five in the morning.
The Stop Pre poster comes from the 1972 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene. Before the 5000 meter final, shirts showed up in the stands with a red stop sign and the words STOP PRE, made to needle the home crowd. Pre won, took one of the shirts and wore it on his victory lap. The poster is a red stop sign reading STOP PRE above a ONE WAY arrow. It does not shout motivation. It reminds you of the mentality Pre brought to every workout.
The Somebody May Beat Me poster is more direct: a runner in a STOP PRE shirt and the line "Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it." It is about how hard you are willing to push to win. Hang it where you will see it in the middle of a hard session. The full story of both prints is in our guide to Steve Prefontaine posters.
The training roads
Most distance running happens in places nobody else thinks are special: the roads around your house, the trail you run every Sunday. They are special to you because you have run thousands of miles on them. A few places have become known across the sport for hard work, and Magnolia Road is near the top of the list.
Magnolia Road climbs out of Boulder Canyon toward Nederland, Colorado. About 4.5 miles up, the pavement turns to dirt for another 7.5 miles, rolling between about 8,000 and 8,700 feet. The road does not look like much in a picture, but runners who know it know exactly what it stands for. The Magnolia Dr poster is a photo of the street sign in the pines, in black and gray with only the sign in green. The Magnolia Drive AD poster is the same road laid out like a retro running ad: "Where the best get better", 8700ft.
If Magnolia is where athletes go to get better, Hayward Field is where they show who is best. The Eugene, Oregon poster is a hand-drawn sketch of Hayward Field from high in the stands. Eugene calls itself TrackTown USA. Hayward hosted the 1972 U.S. Trials, the 2024 Olympic Trials and, in July 2022, the first World Athletics Championships held in the United States. For runners who have raced there, this print marks it.
The race mythology
These posters come from moments that changed what runners believe is possible.
- Olympic Trials. A pack in motion blur under the roof at Hayward Field, from the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials (June 21 to 30, 2024). In most events the top three made the team, as long as they had the standard. Everyone else waits four years. The training in a home gym is for moments like that.
- Impossible. For years the four minute mile was treated as a wall. On May 6, 1954, at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, Roger Bannister ran 3:59.4, and six weeks later it fell again. The poster crosses out the IM, so IMPOSSIBLE reads POSSIBLE. It is for people who believe in things others say cannot happen.
- Sub-4 High School Mile. Printed like a long store receipt from the Festival of Miles in St. Louis, June 2023, the first high school only race with four runners under four minutes. The whole field is on the receipt, not just the top four.
- Paris, France. A hand-drawn view of the Stade de France, where the track was laid in purple for the 2024 Games. It pairs with the Eugene print. The Friday morning workout before work is the same sport those finals were.
The mantra wall
Some runners do not want history or places on their walls. They want something that keeps them focused on the hard days.
- Consistency: "It's about how many days you can put an hour into. Not how many hours you can put in a day." A perfect day does not matter much. Consistent days do. This is the print for the days you have nothing to give and run anyway.
- Work Harder and Run Harder: "There is no secret. Work harder." To get better you have to do more. It is hard, it is not fun, but it is simple. Run Harder adds a spent runner in the grass and a few lines about what to do when chaos catches up.
- Bet on Yourself: "Yourself" over a lone runner on a cross country finish straight, and "The only bet you can control." It hits differently after you have entered a race you are not sure you can finish.
- Just Run: three runners in black silhouette and two words, in blue, red, orange, green or pink. The most minimal print we make. For some home gyms, that is exactly the right amount of text.
- You Have to Believe or It Just Takes One: pick by what you are training through. Believe is for doubt. It Just Takes One is for waiting on the breakthrough.
All of these are in our motivational running posters collection, except Just Run.
The gear shrine
For runners who care about the gear as much as the training:
- Waffle Racer AD. In 1971 Oregon coach Bill Bowerman wanted better grip on a new urethane track, so he poured urethane into his wife Barbara's waffle iron. The waffle iron was ruined, the idea worked, and the waffle sole became part of running shoe history. The poster is a mock vintage magazine ad: "Why eat waffles? When you can run in them!"
- Dragonfly. The underside of a track spike, the pins across the forefoot and the grooved plate, in blue, red or yellow. It is the view most runners only see when they check their pins before a race.
- Dragonfly 2. A new pair of spikes in an open shoebox, laces coiled, tissue paper still in. Race week in one photo. It pairs with the Dragonfly poster.
- Why Vape. "Why vape? When you can Vaporfly." A super shoe joke laid out like an old print ad, the same style as the Waffle Racer.
The Waffle Racer, Why Vape and both Magnolia prints are in our vintage running posters collection. The Dragonfly prints are in track and field posters.
Where each print goes in a home gym
- Across the room from the rack or the treadmill: go 24x36. You are looking at it from several feet away, often mid set, and a smaller print reads as a blur.
- On a narrow wall between equipment: 16x24 fits without crowding.
- Next to the door, the mirror or a desk: 12x18 works for a mantra you read up close.
- Frames: all three sizes fit standard ready made frames. In a gym, choose acrylic over glass anywhere a bar, a plate or a band could hit it. Keep prints out of the path of equipment.
- Garages and basements: they ship as unframed paper, so frame them rather than taping bare prints to a wall that gets damp or cold.
Our running poster size guide goes deeper on sizes by room, viewing distance and hanging a set of three.
Building the wall
A home gym wall benefits from some restraint. Three to five prints that share a theme usually beat a wall full of everything. Start with the theme that means the most to you:
- High mileage runner: the mantra prints plus a training road.
- Follows the sport as closely as their own training: the Pre collection and the race mythology prints. Our track and field posters keep most of them in one place.
- Gear obsessive: the gear shrine, hung above the shoe rack.
Mixing one text heavy print with one design heavy print is a good combination. Buy 2, get the 3rd free applies automatically, so every third print is free. Marathoners should also see our best running posters for marathoners.
Sizes, prices and shipping
- Printed to order on semi-gloss paper. Ships unframed and fits standard frames.
- 3 to 4 business days to print, usually 3 to 4 business days in transit. See our shipping page.
- Buy 2 posters, get 1 free, automatically. Free US shipping on orders over $125.
- Posters are made to order, so there are no change of mind returns. A print that arrives damaged or misprinted is replaced free.
Browse every design in our running posters collection.
The walls are yours. Make them worth looking at.
