Marathon Metaphor Still Works

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

We hear this phrase so often that its meaning can be lost. If you’ve never experienced running an actual marathon (26.2 miles) with your own two feet, then it becomes even more difficult to comprehend. But truth is constant: running a marathon is hard. It doesn’t happen instantly and if one doesn’t pace himself accordingly, destruction is inevitable.

I can tell you from experience: it feels really good when you’re done. When you’ve accomplished something so big, it serves as a great mood anchor. I know because I’ve done it a bazillion times. In fact, there was a time when marathoning and ultramarathoning was a weekly endeavor for me. Well documented on the Run Factory blog, I wrote post upon post detailing all the wild adventures I had during the 2010s. That was a great time for my personal development. And it translated into the real world as I gained so much confidence knowing how physically capable I was of doing hard things.

These days I don’t reach the same volume of miles that I used to, but I still enjoy running. And while the search for meaning in my new Texas life continues, I just knew I had to run a marathon again to get the old mojo back.

So I did. I signed up for the Beach to Bay Relay Marathon in Corpus Christi, and ran all six legs by myself yesterday. It was great. Hard. Hot. Humid. Lots of suffering was involved, but now that it’s all over I feel great.

I did something hard that most people wouldn’t even try. I went through months of training, discomfort and inconveniences because sometimes you just do things and life is hard, man. Sucking it up and stewing in suffering is, for me, often the remedy to a broken everyday life.

Now that I have accomplished the physical task I set out to do, I can ride the wave of confidence into my professional life as an artist. Lately I have been focusing on applying to art festivals, fairs and juried competitions. This is all very new to me but one thing I know already is there’s a lot of pain and suffering involved. There are lots of rejections. Lots of money spent on said rejections. Lots of self-doubt, ridicule and second guessing.

But as I’ve mentioned several times already: life is hard. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

And one of these days, when I have my feet up at the end of a long, successful go at one of these shows/fairs/festivals, I will remind myself how worth it all the pain and suffering really was.

Do you challenge yourself to do hard things? Tell me in the comments!