You are Going to Finish a Marathon Today

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Desperately gasping for breath while fighting back tears I crossed the finish line… I had been running for 3 hours and 40 plus minutes and was running on fumes as I approached mile 25. For the past 6 miles, a steady stream of runners passed me as I ran the furthest distance I ever had in my life. I could barely lift my feet. And since mile 15 had been thinking to myself – “Why did I decide to do this again?” “No one forced you to sign up for this misery. No one will care if you quit.” Self-doubt had taken over as the lower half of my body was in pain. But at mile 25 I saw a sign… no literally a handwritten sign. It read: “You are going to finish a marathon today.”

It was at that moment I lost it. I tore off running as fast as I could while choking back tears. All of the self-doubt, exhaustion, and pain turned into fuel. Everything I had been working towards was summed up in that statement. I sounded like a wounded animal taking its last breath as I ran on pure adrenaline the last 1.2 miles. I ran my fastest mile of the race. Finishing my first marathon in tears in 3 hours 51 minutes and 59 seconds. I had done it! I thought to myself, “I really did finish a marathon today.”

Financial Glass - Approaching the Finish Line at the 2018 AACR Philadelphia Marathon

That time I didn’t finish a marathon

Let me rewind for a minute. In 2014 while in Thailand, I signed up to run a local half-marathon with a friend. I hadn’t really done the proper training. The longest I’d ever run up to that point was about 8 miles. I was very nervous. As the race weekend approached my friend and I almost didn’t pick up our race packet because we were having second thoughts. I convinced him to pick it up. Yet in the end, I made up excuses as to why I didn’t want to run that next day and I didn’t. I have regretted that decision to not run that half marathon ever since.

I analyzed why I chose not to run that morning and I have a hundred reasons. Ultimately I was looking for an excuse to avoid pain – self-doubt, fear, etc. Fast forward to December 2017. I still had not run a formal half-marathon but have been running longer distances than I ever had previously. In the past 3 months, I completed a 5-mile Tough Mudder and a 14 mile Spartan Beast Race. As you could imagine I was feeling pretty good about myself. As a tradition leading into 2019 I made some New Year Resolutions which I’ve written about previously (Original & Revisited). One of which was to finish a marathon before year’s end.

Financial Glass - You're going to finish a marathon today sign

Commit to Win

At this point, 14 miles is the longest I’ve run and I think it won’t be too difficult to get up to 26.2. Well fast forward to early September and guess what? I have still not run nor signed up for a marathon. At a company leadership coaching session put on by Warren Anderson, he challenged everyone in the room to write down at least one thing you’d like to accomplish before the end of the year. And then to build a plan around how you are going to accomplish it. After identifying the goal we put them into the calendar and all of the steps needed to achieve it. That afternoon I looked up marathons I could run before December 31st, 2018. I found the Philadelphia marathon scheduled for November 18th. I registered and inputted a training regimen leading up to the marathon.

Financial Glass - Struggling the last 1.2 miles to the finish line

Marathon Training and Injuries

That Saturday I ran 16 miles and played tennis with my friend Vince that next day. The outer bottom of my foot hurt badly and I had trouble walking. I still ran 4 miles Tuesday to see if it would loosen up. When it only got worse I decided it was best to see a podiatrist. The doctor said I had tendonitis in my outer peroneal tendon. (A piece of tissue that connects the leg bones to the outer arch of the foot stretching over the outer ankle). Years of playing soccer, running, and having high arches caused the injury. I caught it early enough that the treatment was simple. The prescription to buy better running shoes, stay off it for at least a week, and wear a brace.

So within the first week of signing up for a marathon, I was already on the injured reserve list. Not to mention most training programs recommend beginning training 2 and half months before I even signed up! I eventually got back into the groove. But between the injury and moving from Florida to New York City, I had lost a lot of training time.

Financial Glass - Turning into high gear the last mile before the finish line

Is today the day I finish a marathon?

I couldn’t sleep leading up to the race between the nerves and carbo loading my stomach was in knots. When my alarm went off at 5:20 am I was alone in the hotel. The thought of just snoozing the alarm and saying I overslept crept into my head. That triggered flashbacks to the feeling I had after not running the half marathon in Thailand. Thus forcing me to pull myself out of bed.

The hotel I was staying at refused to give me a late checkout. Likely because 80% of the occupants were also running the marathon and beat me to it. Knowing I had to be back at the hotel before noon and having a start time of 7:15 am I was going to have to hustle. My goal for the race was to finish in under 4 hours 30 minutes. And my stretch goal was under 4 hours.

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Race Day – Hopefully I’ll Finish a Marathon Today

I ran a little too fast in the beginning and hit a wall around mile 19. But I only stopped to walk at the later water hydration stations. I knew I had to keep moving forward or else. The actual race day was a lot of fun with tons of people supporting. There were people holding funny signs, bands playing music, and lots of high-5s. When I came to mile 25 and saw the sign that read “you are going to finish a marathon today” I couldn’t help but lose it. All of the training anticipation, doubts were about to pay off. I was going to finish my first ever marathon despite a lack of proper training, suffering an injury, and self-doubt. It was one of the most emotional moments I have had. The true sense of accomplishment I felt was unparalleled.

Financial Glass - 2018 AACR Philadelphia Marathon official finish time on the racejoy app

I finished my first marathon on my terms and under my time target. No one can take away my sense of pride in myself. It brought me such a sense of clarity to do something that challenged me physically and mentally. I went past the point of exhaustion and ultimately to triumph over my own limitations.

Financial Glass - Crossing the finish line to complete my first marathon at the 2018 Philadelphia Marathon

I don’t know if I’ll ever run another marathon. But I do know I’ll never forget the euphoria and sense of accomplishment of finishing my first. I will always get a boost from the phrase you are going to finish a marathon today.

Financial Glass - Proudly showing off the finisher medal for the 2018 AACR Philadelphia Marathon

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https://financialglass.com/spartan-race-and-a-moment-of-compassion/

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