Introduction. An important part of the content of human culture today relates to quality organized leisure time, in which sports recreation has one of the prominent places. This is evidenced by the recent social phenomenon of the recreational running mass movement organized by the running schools of Croatian running clubs, sports associations and recreational societies. The aim of the research was to determine the motivational structure of recreational runners, running schools’ students, and to examine the differences in intrinsic motivation and goal orientation of participants regarding their socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age and level of education). Methods. The research involved 819 participants, students at recreational running schools, which operate within Croatian running clubs, sports associations and societies for sports recreation in Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek, Zadar, Šibenik, Pula and Čakovec. 384 participants were males and 435 females. In the research the following measurement instruments were used: Croatian version of the intrinsic motivation questionnaire (Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, IMI), Croatian version of the goal orientation questionnaire in sport (Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, CTEOSQ) and the Croatian version of the exercise motivation questionnaire EMI-2 (Exercise Motivations Inventory). Results. The obtained results showed that among recreational runners, students of running schools in general, there is a strongly expressed intrinsic motivation for exercise, with the most expressed dimension being interest and enjoyment in running, and somewhat weaker the dimension of competence, following effort, and the weakest dimension of pressure. Furthermore, the results showed that recreational runners are rather task and learning than outcome and result oriented, and that they train in running schools mostly for revitalization motives, positive impact on health, strength and endurance, enjoyment and mobility, and the least because of social recognition and health pressures. The results regarding gender showed that the intrinsic motive of competence is significantly more pronounced in male runners compared to female runners, but also that they feel significantly more pressured to progress and achieve results. This agrees with the finding that male runners have more prononunced ego goal orientation while the task goal orientation is significantly more pronounced among female runners. Unlike male runners who are significantly more motivated for social recognition and competition, female runners have significantly more motivation for weight maintenance, disease avoidance, appearance, stress management, positive impact on health, affiliation, health pressures and mobility. The results regarding age showed that there are significant differences in the expressiveness of intrinsic motives for investing effort in activity and exercise due to a sense of competence. Thus, the motive for investing effort is less expressed among runners over the age of 55, compared to those under the age of 45, while exercising due to a sense of competence is most expressed among those under the age of 35 compared to all older runners. For runners under the age of 35, the goal orientation towards the outcome and the result is significantly more pronounced in relation to all the older ones. The goal orientation to learning and acquiring skills is significantly more noticeable in persons younger than 45 years of age than in those older than 55 years. Among persons under the age of 35, the most expressed motives are those for social recognition, increased strength and endurance, enjoyment of exercise and competition and challenges, while runners classified in the age categories 35-34 and 45-55, mostly have the same motives for training as other age groups, with the fact that, compared to younger and older people, they have more pronounced motives for training due to stress management, weight maintenance and mobility. For runners over the age of 55, the most observable motives for training are those related to health due to avoiding illness and due to various health pressures. The results regarding the level of education showed that the expression of the intrinsic motive for investing effort is strongest among runners with secondary education; that runners of all levels of education are equally ego goal oriented, with an equally highly expressed orientation to learning and improving skills- which serves as dominant criterion for assessing personal success in running. For highly educated runners, the most pronounced motives for training are weight maintenance, revitalization, appearance, impact on health, mobility and health pressures, compared to high school graduates, whose motives are social recognition, strength and endurance, and competition. Among runners with a higher education, motives are equally represented as among others, except for the motive of health pressure, which is much more pronounced for them than among runners with a secondary education. The obtained results showed that with the increase in the level of education, the expression of motives for avoiding illness and managing stress increases significantly. Conclusion. Based on the obtained results, socio-demographic differences (gender, age and level of education) are important factors influencing the motivation for exercise of recreational runners, students of running schools. Knowledge of the recreational runners’ motivational structure regarding these variables is important for the possibility of application in practice, i.e., to create recommendations for sports and recreational programs, which could ultimately help recreational runners, participants of running schools, to meet their needs and persist in the selected physical activity.