Marathon is a Metaphor for life
Initially, running will feel painful and wretched, but running will become addictive as years go by, but it is a healthy addiction. As you get used to the surge of endorphins flooding your brain, you will crave the daily fix of runner’s high, forcing you to lace your running shoes frequently. The main intention behind this book is to get you addicted to the endorphins of endurance so that running becomes a part of your daily life, like brushing your teeth. Once you get hooked on the endorphins, your life will change drastically. Unlike other addictions like alcohol and drugs, which will ruin you and destroy your health, your life will undergo a 360-degree reversal. You will become fit, healthy, positive, disciplined, spiritual and thriving because of the positive mental attitude that comes with running. Marathon training translates to real life in many ways, and it teaches a person a lot about himself which you will understand as you read on
The term “marathon” came from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the battlefield of the Marathon to Athens to announce the defeat of Persians in the Battle of Marathon. Pheidippides ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly exclaiming, “we have wοn,” before collapsing and dying. Running a distance of 42 km is so gruelling and demanding that it took the life of Pheidippides towards the end of his run. That is why running a marathon is one of the most challenging and daunting tasks. Training for a marathon requires enormous dedication because one has to run a distance of 42 kilometres in one go like the Greek messenger. Living our lives, just like marathon training, requires a commitment to living our best lives. That is why marathon training can teach us important lessons about living our best life.
The first lesson we can draw from training for a marathon is that you cannot achieve success overnight without working for it. Someone who wants to run a marathon cannot wake up one fine morning and run a marathon without the training. To be ready for a marathon, one would have to wake very early to train even when feeling like sleeping in and keep adding miles day after day till the body becomes adapted and ready to run the distance of 42 km. The same applies to life. Cracking the civil services exam or gaining entry into IIT or IIM cannot happen if one doesn’t put in the hard work to prepare for the exams by sacrificing daily pleasures like hanging out with friends for partying, movies or dating members of the opposite sex. Success comes only for those who cut out all distractions and work hard.
Second, our lives, like the marathon race, need massive goals. We frequently encounter individuals who have never 
run a kilometre after their childhood, finishing marathons. Marathon training teaches us to increase our mileage by conservative planned amounts each week till the body adapts to haul itself across the finish line at the end of 42 km. Running a marathon is a metaphor for life. In much the same way, you break up the 42km distance of the marathon into smaller chunks, you set smaller goals in your life as you go after larger ones. Anybody in life can conceive any massive dream, like building the most significant company like Elon Musk’s SpaceX or becoming the most outstanding sportsman ever by setting a life inspiring goal and taking small steps towards achieving the goal without giving up. Like a marathon aspirant who works his way towards the goal of 42 km, investing a little bit of time and effort daily and following a training schedule can do the trick.
Following a marathon training schedule may not be smooth for all. As in marathon training, life rarely goes exactly the way you plan. Obstacles can pop in the form of injuries/disease or change of location, personal tragedies or turmoil. Obstacles in life and marathon training come to test our determination, commitment and resolve. When I was training for the first marathon, I developed sciatica because of the load on my muscles due to overtraining. My marathon race was just a month away, and my doctor advised total rest for at least a fortnight. I had come very close to the marathon race to give up on my dream. I didn’t want sciatica to destroy my plans. So I took three days off and resumed my training by receiving a massage every morning and evening and eventually completed the marathon as planned. There is a way out of any obstacle for a determined mind, which is an essential takeaway from training for a marathon.
Similarly, in life, one must take proper care of one’s body by eating healthy food and regular exercise. Training for a marathon teaches one the importance of sleeping early, waking up early and eating the right foods to fuel one’s run. Someone training for a marathon will find it hard to finish the run if they abuse their bodies with unhealthy habits like late-night parties, excessive drinking and eating unhealthy foods. Marathon teaches one to invest in self-care to bring one’s best to every facet of life. Better health enables one to attain more and experience more from one’s mind, body, and diet. Marathon training can help you reach not only those race-day goals but also follow a new passion and live not just longer but better.
Marathon training can also be a metaphor for business. To achieve success in business and life, one should visualise and affirm. Visualising is a powerful tool if you are trying to build a successful company. Picture yourself as a successful businessman like Jeff Bezos if you want to be one. If you are a student trying for a 4.0 GPA, picture yourself as passing the course in flying colours or if you desire to own a fancy car, imagine yourself as a proud owner of a Ferrari. What you visualise and believe you will attract into your life. In the marathon, too, if you can vividly imagine crossing the finishing line, you will eventually succeed just as you imagined it in your mind.
Many entrepreneurs have great business ideas. They launch start-ups and companies with considerable fanfare and investments, but eighty per cent of the start-ups fail in the first five years. They lack the mindset to persist through 
setbacks and stay focused on their goals no matter how difficult it may seem. Marathon training teaches one the resilience and recipe for achieving the goal by remaining focused on the finish line and not giving up despite enduring enormous pain and suffering en route to the finish line. Marathon training may seem like an individual endeavour, but it teaches team spirit because you can’t run a marathon alone; you need the support and encouragement of your family and friends, as well as guidance from your coach and pressure from your peers to get over the finish line. So it also teaches one to be a team member.
From marathon training, you also realise that you have to put in the required time and effort to excel at anything, no matter how talented you may be. You also learn your capabilities and the abilities of others are never the same, so you have to do the best you can do. And to win in life, you must work ten times harder than the next person. Despite hard work and preparation, you must be ready to face disappointments along the way. The second time I ran the Auroville Marathon, at the 29th km, I twisted my ankle and couldn’t continue with the race. I had to drop out without reaching the finishing line. I was disappointed, but in life, there are times when many businesses had to close shop during the pandemic despite all the hard work. However, they were profitable ventures before the onset of the pandemic. Sometimes, the most gratifying experiences come from enduring life, like a marathon race. The surge of endorphins at the finish line comes from the suffering of having withstood a gruesome 42 km run.
The most important lesson from a marathon race is to first reach the start line to get to the finish line. I had long nursed a desire to write a book. But, the book I wanted to write never happened because it lingered in my mind and never tried stepping out of it. Only when the desire became unbearable and overwhelming did I decide to reach for the pen and paper to materialise my dream little by little. Another nugget we can pull out of training for marathons is 
that your mind is mighty. If you can train your mind to push through even when your body wants to quit, you can go far and be limitless when it comes to accomplishing incredible things. We can also learn from marathon training that every day is not the same. Some days are different. On some days running 15km seems like a song. You breeze through it as though it’s nothing. Some days it could feel like a cruel punishment. Every step of running seems impossible. Finally, think of this: someone who ran with the slowest pace, the worst time, and who completed the race last is still better off than those who refused to try. In life, too, someone who attempts and acts is far superior to the millions who are sitting on their sofas and bingeing on Netflix.
I am sure I have been able to drive home how life-changing participating in a marathon can be. Marathon training can alter your life forever. Once you train for a marathon and participate in one, your life will never be the same again. You will transform your life and the lives of others by inspiring them to go beyond themselves and test their limits. Once you traverse the physical distance of 42 km, just that mere knowledge helps your mind and body to believe that anything is possible and attainable in life. That’s why training for a marathon is training for life because once you develop discipline and resilience by training for one, you become unstoppable. After all, discipline in life translates to success, and nothing in life succeeds like success. I wish you all the very best. Happy running!
Dr.K. Jayanth Murali is based at Chennai, India. One fine day, he decided to substitute smoking with running. Now an avid runner, he has never looked back since then. He has done a bunch of marathons and half marathons over the years. When he is not working, he is usually running or helping people discover the endorphins of endurance.
