Sunday, 9/22/24, I ran my first (and maybe my last) marathon. I finished in about 4 hours and 46 minutes. So, fairly slow. About 11 minutes per mile. And, you know what, I’m ok with that. 26.2 miles is a long way to run. I don’t know if I’ll ever run one again, but I wanted to see if I could do it. 

Here’s how I did it, my steps:

First: I quit smoking. This is the backdrop, and why I wanted to run the marathon. I did that through a combination of dumb luck and social pressure (I told everyone I was quitting). I’ll probably write something about that someday.

Second: I signed up way in the future, and way before I was ready. Nothing like the sunk cost fallacy to really push you forward in training. I’d already taken an action, so it was natural to keep applying myself to the effort. 

Third: I read one book “80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster By Training Slower.” What appealed to me was the slower training part, because I did not want to train fast haha. I still don’t most days. 

Forth: I talked to one person that had run a marathon before, and she said to get new shoes, specifically she recommended Hoka. I went and got them from a local store, so I could try them on first.

That’s how I made my plans, and that was all my equipment. So, altogether, about $220 worth of things. $100 to sign up for the marathon, $100ish for the shoes (I don’t remember honestly), and $20 for the book. 

I tried to run 3 times a week, usually 2 that were ‘short,’ i.e. 4 to 6 miles, and one that progressively got longer. If I couldn’t do it, I would not pressure myself and just move back the run a day. During this training we opened the restaurant, I had family come in from out of town, there was a GM meet up in Tulsa, the General Manager conference in OKC. So, lots of times I had to just accept that I couldn’t run those few days. Shit happens. Take a breath, accept what is going on, and keep going.

If I was tired, I did a bit less. If I felt good, I did a bit more. 

And that’s it. 

Go slow to go far. Do less to do more. Pick one small or big goal, apply sunk cost fallacy in your favor by investing in its completion, ask someone for advice, try one thing, and course correct along the way. You can literally do almost anything like that, given enough determination and time. 

That’s all I got.