Today’s post is going to be about why I think running a marathon should be on every person’s bucket list.
To be clear, I’m defining a marathon as any long distance run, because let’s be honest- I’m not going to convince you to run an entire 42 kilometer marathon from just a blog post. I haven’t even convinced myself to do that yet! However, I can convince you to run a 10 kilometer or even a 5 kilometer marathon, because I did it myself.
Personally, I’m not really a fitness fanatic, but for some reason I decided I wanted to try running. So, in February 2019, I decided to try running a 5k run. A few months later, in September 2019, I ran a 10k. I was absolutely not the fastest, but it was definitely an experience that changed my outlook completely.
It Forces You To Be Determined
A marathon is not just something you roll out of bed and decide to do. It takes a lot of physical and mental training- even if it is just a 5 kilometer run. Anyone that tells you otherwise is either already super into fitness or a liar. I was completely out of shape when I decided to run one. It took me a lot of time to mentally convince myself that it was something that I could actually do. It took even longer to build enough stamina to run continuously for an hour.
You Learn To Pick Yourself Up When You Fall
Some of you might expect some sort of sappy story about how I didn’t believe in myself, but no- I literally fell into a gigantic puddle in the middle of one of my marathons. In my defence, it was pouring rain! I literally picked myself up, wiped the mud off my legs, and kept running.
Sure, my friends laughed at me once we were done- I don’t blame them, it was hilarious!
You Feel Like A Superhero
I can’t speak for anyone else, but when I finished running one of the marathons, specifically the 10k, the amount of confidence I felt after- call it endorphins or a sense of accomplishment, it felt amazing.
Fine, maybe it WAS the shiny, new medal…
You Get To Binge Eat The Day Before
I don’t know if there’s actual science behind this, or if my friends were just messing with me, but apparently there’s something about eating a lot of carbohydrates the day before so that you have more energy stored- I’m not sure!
Nevertheless, if I ever decide to run another one, I’m definitely keeping up with my new pre-run junk food tradition. I’ll take any excuse to eat pasta all day!
See The World On A Budget
We always say that we love to travel, but what about checking out the landscape around us? From personal experience, I find that we never really explore the beauty that’s already within our reach. Too accessible I guess?
I was able to notice new things that I had driven by every day for the past 6 years. Running a marathon gives you an excuse to check out the most scenic parts of the city- what better way to do that than on foot?
If anything, you can always just run a marathon for the free snacks after the run.
Until Next Time.
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