8 Reasons Why You Should Run A Marathon At Least Once

One day, you are scrolling posts on social media aimlessly. Suddenly, your friend sends you a link – registration of a marathon. Your eyes widens, as you are excited, yet hesitating whether to sign up. Well, you are thinking whether you should run a marathon.

You hesitate because you are SCARED of signing up for a marathon.

Well, you are just an inexperienced runner without having proper running skills. Running for 3km, perhaps, is your limit. And you might struggle beyond 3km running.

Then, you start to image being unable to finish the marathon. And you feel terrible while others cheers for their completion. – And you totally embarrass yourself.

Why should you run a marathon when you know you will embarrass yourself?

Well, there are getting more and more marathons around the world. And the number of participants is growing.

Are all of them able to finish running marathon? Obviously, NO. Besides, many of them are leisure runners or even beginners. – Why do they go for it, nonetheless?

So, here are the 8 reasons why you should run a marathon, at least once, even as an inexperienced runner.

1. Accept challenge

So, you have a long thought process. Finally, you decide and sign up for your first-ever marathon.

Guess what, you are already MENTALLY STRONGER than many runners!

Running marathon is tough. And many people are terrified of running distance of 21 km or 42 km.

Reluctant to improve your running skills as these are too tough for you? Also, are you too attached to your 3 to 5km run without the intention to run longer?

Now, you know it’s time to make a change.

To make sure you are able to run 21 km or 42 km, you need to improve your running skills and stamina.

You have to put in effort to TRAIN for that.

Right now, you might even start to be aware of NUTRITION that is good for running.

Even before your actual marathon, you already change your mindset, from a fixed mindset to a GROWTH mindset.

Here you are. You can apply the same mindset in real life. You know challenges are anywhere. But, you are not afraid of them and are willing to accept them.

2. Planning

running plan — Image by Pexels from Pixabay

After you have signed up for the marathon, you have around 6 to 8 months to prepare for the marathon.

Meaning, you have to train and transform yourself within this period of time.

From 3km to 21 or 42km. Tremendous achievement, isn’t it? – And it seems scary……

To make you achieve this, you know you need a proper plan. Not only this, you need COMMITMENT to execute your plan.

Here comes the running skills and nutrition. And you plan the training schedule, too! – This is your Plan A.

Meanwhile, you know you couldn’t follow your Plan A 100%. Then, you know you might need to alter your plan. – That is your Plan B.

You start to sharpen your planning skill, which you can use for your jobs or other tasks.

Not only this, as you keep training, this forms your habit. And it slowly becomes your running routine and your lifestyle.

Perhaps, you maintain this running routine even after the marathon.

So, you’ll realize you keep improving in the process BEFORE your actual marathon.

3. Resilient and confident

Finally, today is your big day. Now, you need to put all your preparation into real action.

Your first 21 or 42km is awaiting you.

For the first half of your race, you don’t struggle at all. Easy peasy.

Then, you start to struggle during the second half. And the struggle gets stronger. Every step is heavier and you take more effort to run. Right now, your evil mind starts to tempt you to stop and give up.

But, you had these evil thoughts in your training. Since you conquered and resisted the temptation to give up, you can also do this in your actual run.

Essentially, the second half of your race is more like a MENTAL battle. So, you keep grinding, and the moment seems eternal. – But, you don’t give up.

Until you see the finishing line!

And once you cross the finishing line, you can feel a huge surge of pride right away! You prove that you can do it!

But, even if you can’t make it, you should be PROUD of yourself, too. That’s because when you look back where you used to, you are much better than the OLD you. – That’s ok, ‘cause you know what to further improve and try next time.

And these boost your confidence right away! So, you are hugely motivated to sign up for next marathon. In fact, this is a spiral effect as it further sharpens your planning skills and your confidence……

4. Compete with yourself

Ask yourself. What is the purpose of a race? Well, you’d probably want to defeat your opponents so you can win the race. So, you feel great about yourself.

Hence, you focus on your opponents, rather than yourself. So, your achievement is highly dependent on the strength of opponents.

Well, your opponents suck, and you win the race with ease. You feel proud of yourself.

In contrast, your opponents are strong, and you lose the race, even if you perform much better than the above. You feel awful.

In other words, you are clouded by the external factor while ignoring your real improvement.

And this is why running marathon is unique. Arguably, marathon is one of the few races that you compete with yourself, rather than your opponents. – Of course, we don’t mean elite runners, who run for ranking and prizes.

By competing with ourselves, we run marathon because we want to challenge our boundaries and comfort zone.

Because of that, we know how much we improved, and how much we NEED to improve.

This is similar to our lives. We live with PURPOSE. And to find the purpose, we need to keep improving. By doing this, we need to compare with OURSELVES, rather than others.

5. Bridge for extreme races

Sometimes, we see someone who has completed ultra-marathon or ironman triathlon. This is truly inspiring. We wish we could do the same sometime……

Are you thinking to join ultra-marathon or ironman triathlon in the future?

Ultra-marathon and ironman triathlon are the extreme races that challenge the limit of athletes. Even for your debut, you need to be on top notch.

The thing is, how do we get the experience if we haven’t joined these races before?

Well, the answer is clear. Joining a marathon is your best bet.

The level of expertise to run a marathon, on the other hand, is less extensive than ultra-marathon or ironman triathlon.

This is a SWEETSPORT for you to experience the handling of harsh conditions. You learn to combat your mental conflict and keep grinding.

So, this gives you the perfect foundation prior to joining ultra-marathon or ironman triathlon. Then, you can leverage this experience and apply that in those extreme races.

In other words, you can adapt better and this increases the chance of finishing the races.

6. Aura

aura of running a marathon — Photo by **RUN 4 FFWPU** from **Pexels**

If you ran a marathon before, you would notice the aura of marathon is unique.

As mentioned just now, we tend to compete with others in any races. Thus, this makes the atmosphere hostile and aggressive. – We even feel glad if our opponents fail or lose.

In contrast, the aura of marathon is cheerful. Runners laugh and talk to each other. Sometimes, they even share their tips to HELP other runners, so that they could finish the run.

Everyone is enjoying themselves and excited about the race. We don’t care about age, gender, race, or experience level.

Perhaps this also reinforces what I mentioned earlier. We don’t compete with others, so we let our guard down. Hence, we make space for ourselves to help each other, so we can finish the race together.

Besides, every runner has their own personal goal. Some of them want to achieve breakthrough; some of them are fighting against disease; and some of them might be disabled. – Nonetheless, all runners want to prove that they are WORTHY.

When you are tired and tempting to give up, just look at other runners. You guys are running for your goals.

And the volunteers are there to cheer you guys up, to give you support to continue. Trust me. You’ll be overwhelmed by the atmosphere.

Despite the struggle, you are not alone. That’s why there is increasing number of runners joining marathon every year. And the popularity doesn’t subside.

7. Charity

Nowadays, many organizations organize marathons to raise fund. They will use the fund for charity or raising awareness purposes.

So, before you sign up to run a marathon, you should read the mission of the marathon. And it will tell you the purpose of the fund raised.

This makes running marathon more MEANINGFUL, as it feels more personal to you.

Not only do you run for yourself, but also run for helping others and spreading the right messages.

You start to understand the meaning of EMPATHY. It helps strengthen your purpose so it further motivates you to run.

8. Travel

run a marathon — Image by ALEXANDR FIRSOV from Pixabay

Do you like travelling? I’m sure you do, don’t you? So, these things come to your mind: city, food, beach, island……

These are standards when we travel. It’s nice, but this could be bland. And you want UNIQUE experience for your travel.

If you have this thought, then you should run marathon overseas.

Why is this even a thing?

Do you realize marathons are always in the city, especially the capital? That’s right. You get to view the architecture of building or landmarks of the countries.

These directly reflect the countries’ culture. And you get to learn the culture right away.

Likewise, it’s easy to spot many foreigners when you run local marathons. So, they are the ones who choose this kind of travelling.

Feel excited to travel around the world in a unique way? It’s time to shortlist these famous marathons in your bucket list.

Once they are open for registration, go sign up and tackle them!

Final thought: why you should run a marathon

If you are a runner who is hesitating to run a marathon, I believe you should take action and run a marathon at least once.

It’s ok to be scared if you think you can’t finish the race. And you don’t think you can learn those running skills and train yourself to run 21 km or 42 km.

The main part is, you learn through the process. You find that you are much more capable than you think.

The moment where you cross the finishing line is EXQUISITE, which is hard to describe verbally.

Your effort throughout the process pays off. And you gain confidence, and this further encourages you to accept more challenges.

Even if you can’t finish the race, you should be proud of yourself, too. You’ll realize you gain and improve so much, and you become stronger.

That’s why you should run a marathon at least once. Embrace the fear, accept the challenge.

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