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“Shoot for the moon and if you miss you’ll still be among the stars.” ~ Les Brown
Last October my husband and I attempted to run our first marathon in Chicago; the day turned out to be a miserable 91 degrees and after someone died they shut the course down and either rerouted people or forced them to walk to the finish line.
You will find plenty of people who tell you marathons are great; what nobody tells you about marathons is how much work they are. On average, people train for 18 weeks (4.5 months) and run about 25-40 miles per week by the middle of the program. This is about 5-8 hours of solid running per week, most of which takes place on weekend mornings. The commitment affects your social life, your bank account, and your diet – so a marathon commitment should not be taken lightly.
The other thing nobody tells you is how much running a marathon affects your body. I loved my body when I was training for the marathon – towards the end of training I was skinnier than my high school days. But running a marathon is dangerous, and you are almost guaranteed to have some sort of injury during training because running 26.2 miles damages the body. And there’s always the chance you will push yourself too hard and end up in the hospital, or die.
Despite my non-glowing review of marathons, I still recommend training for and running a marathon. I decided this while running an 8k (5 mile) race in Chicago this weekend. I haven’t run much over the last six months and I haven’t been to a gym at all in the last two months, so I had no idea what to expect; but I made it through the race at my regular marathon pace, despite not training.
And that is why you should run a marathon. No, not an actual marathon (unless you enjoy running), but rather a metaphorical marathon. Because real leaders don’t rest; they perform well every time and don’t use lack of preparation as an excuse. The only way to do well every time you run a 5 mile race, prepared or not, is to run that marathon once.
“Shoot for the moon and if you miss you’ll still be among the stars.” Truthfully, I have never liked this quote. Instead, shoot for the moon and hit it, and don’t bother shooting if you aren’t going to hit it. It doesn’t even matter how well you hit it, because the true value is in pushing yourself to the edge. And once you’ve hit the moon, living among the stars will be that much easier.
Figure out what your marathon is and get to it. There’s no doubt it will be the most painful, trying thing you do; but the best, most important accomplishments always are.
Monica O'Brien is the Director of Digital at Fizz and author of the book Social Pollination, which helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth!
