Respect the Distance

The hill running I have been doing is paying dividends.  Yesterday I ran 20 miles on the Highline Canal Path, averaging just under 7:20 / mile.  Afterwards I commented that I felt as if I could have easily held that pace for another 20 miles.  That reminded me of three comments I often hear from first time marathoners.  

1)      “I’ve run a couple of 20 milers.  The marathon is only another 10 km run tacked on the end”

2)      “I’ve run a few ½ marathons.  A full marathon is just double that.”

3)      “Based on my 10 km race times, the on-line race calculator predicted a marathon time of (your goal time here).”

My responses to those statements are

1)      Wrong

2)      Wrong

3)      Maybe, if you’ve done enough long runs.

The marathon is a metaphor for life.  It is an exercise in life mastery.  Here are six things I have observed in my training for and racing in marathons.

My first marathon was awful.  I had just run a 10 km in 35 minutes.  I plugged that into an online race calculator which predicted a 2:50 marathon.  On race day I passed the ½ way point at 1:25.  The second half took me two hours.  Many people would have been happy to finish, but I was embarrassed by my performance.  I let myself get dehydrated and beaten.  I walked, a lot.  Blood stained my singlet and my shoes.  I did not live up to my expectations as a runner.  I knew I could do better.  

That is the first marathon metaphor, deciding to try.  Most people when asked about marathons say, “I could never do that!”  That just isn’t true.  The biggest road block is that first step; committing to try.  Once you’re past that stumbling block the rest is relatively easy.

The second metaphor for life is that you can’t let one experience define future events.  I was so angry after that first marathon that signed up for another one a year later.  My second marathon was only slightly better.  Tempered by experience, I ran the first half a little slower (1:28), but still collapsed in the second half (1:50).  It would be ten years before I would attempt another marathon.  

Which leads me to the third marathon metaphor.  Achieving your goal is only one step in a great progression.  I learned so much along my journey towards my goal of running a marathon in under three hours.  When I finally reached that goal, I was a changed person.  Knowledge comes from the journey.  

The fourth marathon metaphor is that straining yourself makes you stronger and better able to handle more stress.  I ran track workouts and tempo runs every week, in addition to the long runs.  By purposely operating beyond my comfort zone a couple times a week I was able to improve.

The fifth metaphor is to divide the race into sections and focus on completing each one so you don’t get overwhelmed.  One of the most valuable things that marathons have taught me is not to focus on the entire 26.2 miles.  Sometimes this means concentrating on the next light post.  Like climbing a mountain; when you start out, the summit seems an impossible distance away.  With enough steps, the summit soon appears.  

The sixth marathon metaphor is about getting stuck in a rut.  Running year in and year out can wear on you; tear you down.  As I got older I had to push harder just to stay at the same level.  Running became a responsibility, not a time to play.  So I entered open water swim races.  I swam the length of Horsetooth Reservoir in Ft. Collins (six miles).  

All of this is a long winded answer to the question, ‘why the marathon’?  The distance is fairly arbitrary, but it captures attention and stirs emotions.  If I were really clever, I’d be able to apply these lessons to the rest of my life.