An ode to marathon runners

This weekend, I again joined cheering fans watching the Zurich marathon. Have always admired the persistence of finishing a marathon. The sheer determination required to meet that goal.

I don’t run races, yet the person who got me jogging for exercise had run the Boston Marathon several times, which provoked my curiosity and questions. During one of our conversations, he suggested that I might like jogging, especially outdoors.

But he made me promise one thing: if I ever tried it – he said almost casually, not that he felt I must or should, really only if I was genuinely curious – I must do it every day, for at least 10 minutes for two weeks. Gradually increasing the distance each day. No day out of 14 missed. Then I could talk to him about the experience.

At first, I didn’t intend to do it. Yet, of course, I started noticing runners everywhere. One day, on my own, quietly, I pulled on my “quasi” running shoes and walked out the door. Didn’t tell a soul I was going to try it. Swore at that guy under my breath for the next 10 minutes. And the next day’s 15 minutes. And so on. Until by Day 14, when I felt the strength difference already, I was totally hooked. Best exercise for me ever.

What he understood was both persistence and the power of a healthy commitment. I kept the two week promise, in part, because I knew he wanted the best starting experience for me related to something he loved.

The many lessons of persistence

On Friday before this weekend’s marathon, you could spot world-class runners on warm-up jogs along the route in the city center. A few days later, as winners dashing across the finish line. Joy in their fatigue.

It felt equally like joy for people who seemed to be finishing their first (often half) marathons – combined winces of physical pain and happy disbelief crossing the line. Persistence with less practice.

We hear many stories of persistence: entrepreneurs with businesses that almost failed or collapsed before the great one (Steve Jobs). Or artists who didn’t give up when told they lacked talent (Walt Disney).

Age is one of our great universal challengers of persistence. To keep going, stay positive, remain committed to the goal of living our own lives – yet flexible in our way of achieving it.

Even ideas can be persistent. They stick with us sometimes after wrong decisions or surprises that send us off on different paths to our dreams. Some of them make us wonder if they (and we) were crazy to begin with.

The choices we make

“What really causes someone to do what it takes to run a marathon?” I asked myself again last weekend.

I don’t know. I’ve never done it. I have only observed a few things:

The older we get, the more persistence we practice and the better we learn to trust what our soul tells us is worth persevering. And what needs a different route on our journey.

Which brought to mind a quote from my favorite travel journalist Mark Twain about analyzing the scientific workings of a rainbow or the aurora borealis. “We have lost as much as we gained by prying into the matter.”

Sometimes it is quite enough to simply admire in wonder. Sometimes, we just simply know.