Three Key Questions Before a Marathon
Here are three essential questions to ponder before you start training for a marathon, and especially before booking your race entry… So, are you truly ready?
No doubt about it: the marathon is the holy grail for runners. It’s a goal that stirs a mix of motivation, stress, and sometimes, to be honest, genuine anxiety. As a respected myth, the marathon often seems unreachable. The path to it is akin to an Indiana Jones adventure: full of pitfalls, littered with obstacles, and laden with challenges… Yet, with the right ingredients, the marathon is within reach for all everyday heroes. Of course, running 42.195 km at lightning speed isn’t for everyone, but simply completing the distance is realistic, as long as you’re willing to put in the effort and set a clear project. Ready to get started?
Do I Really Want This?
Let’s jump right into the heart of the matter. Desire. Mental preparation experts distinguish between two types of motivation:
- Intrinsic motivation, which is connected to the sport itself: the joy of running, the satisfaction of improvement, the desire to explore your physical and mental limits…
- Extrinsic motivation, which relates to the consequences of the activity. Running becomes a means to earn recognition from a loved one, to get a finisher medal, to outdo a friend, to win admiration from your partner…
For your commitment to be solid and lasting, it’s ideal to first nurture intrinsic motivation and only then look to extrinsic motivation. If you find deep pleasure in training, then you maximize your chances of completing both the preparation and the marathon itself. Your fundamental question should be: why am I taking on this challenge? What are the reasons driving me to face this challenge? The answers you provide will help assess the strength (or weakness) of your motivation.
It’s always better to know why you’re doing something!
Am I Ready to Do What It Takes to Achieve My Goal?
A marathon challenge is a bit like New Year’s resolutions: we promise ourselves we’ll do it, but quickly fall back into (bad) habits! However, there’s nothing worse than starting a challenge and realizing midway that it’s unreachable. In such cases, we either quit or, worse, show up at the starting line… only to end up dropping out. It’s a hard hit to one’s self-esteem! Before experiencing failure, it’s better to ask yourself: am I ready to do what it takes to achieve my goal? Am I willing to dedicate the necessary time for training, to adopt a different lifestyle and dietary habits, to endure certain constraints? If your answer is hesitant, perhaps it’s better to set a different challenge that’s less time-consuming and demanding. Why not try a half-marathon? Or perhaps an obstacle race with friends? If the answer is a clear “yes,” you shouldn’t solely become a future marathon runner during your preparation. You need to remain a whole person, in other words a parent, a child, a partner, a friend, a colleague…
If the marathon goal isolates you from everything else, take a moment to reflect. Is it all really reasonable?
Is This the Right Time?
A busy period at work, family summer vacations, a big project to wrap up… There are various reasons, but they all indicate a lack of material and mental availability. Yet, this dual availability is essential for successfully tackling a marathon challenge. The best approach is to take a calendar and identify periods when you know adhering to a training schedule and a reasonable lifestyle won’t be possible. It’s also important to note the times when you’re generally more fatigued: some feel low in the fall, others endure high stress at the start of the school year… Once these periods are identified, you can spot suitable slots to arrange the training weeks and schedule your marathon. This small calendrical work will also help you sift through the abundance of possible events. But that’s another (long) topic…
