The Marathon

The Marathon

“Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.”
Danny Kaye

One day, hanging out with a few friends in my early thirties, I asked them a question. “How would you like to do something you can tell your grandkids about?” When they looked at me expectantly, I said, “Let’s run the L.A. Marathon.” Two said no, but one said yes. So Scott McNatt, later my best man, and I registered. We began training by running each day and gradually increasing our distance.

Then I had a chance to go skiing in Vail with my family. Thinking it dangerous to ski all day and then run in the dark on unfamiliar icy roads, my interest in the marathon diminished. When I bailed, Scott reluctantly did as well.

But about two weeks ahead of the marathon, I thought, what the heck, we’re not out to set a record, let’s run it anyway. And so we did, in a most unusual way.

We started off with the pack and ran the first ten miles or so fairly strongly and jogged most of the next ten. But then we got hungry, so we swerved into a McDonalds…and later a Dunkin’ Donuts. And, amazingly with all that sugar and fat fueling us, we finished all 26.2 miles.

I have often thought fondly of that day. And I’m reminded of the quote by G.K. Chesterton that, “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.” After all, it is the joy of the experience that matters, and not how quickly you finish.