Many of you may have started off the year with the promises and goals of beginning an exercise program that may or may not have included walking, jogging or running, and perhaps thoughts of a 1K walk up to a marathon, or even an ultra-marathon or Ironman event. Some of you may be doing a 5K in hopes of moving up to a 10K, then to a half-marathon, then up to the full marathon. Regardless of your goal, the single most important thing is that you took that first step and you did something about it.

One thing I always tell anyone who is attempting any distance for the very first time is, “Congratulations!”, because no matter what your time is in the race, you are going to run a PR (Personal Record)! If you have a family member, friend, co-worker or anyone on the street that asks you how you did, simply reply, “I did great! I had a PR!” Of course, you will need to tell them what “PR” means, and the vast majority of them have no idea how far various distances are anyway, or what a fast or slow time is, so the most common reply you will get is, “Wow, that is great!”

I have talked to so many people who tell me that they want to participate in some sort of fun run or other event, but they are too concerned that they will finish “last”. Let me speak from the experience of someone who truly has finished last in a field on more than one occasion and tell you that I have come to realize that I may have been last on the course, but I was always ahead of everyone else who never got up and took that first step to even try. When my daughter and son were in junior high and I attended their cross-country events, there was inevitably the boy or girl who crossed the finish line last in their race. The beautiful thing I have noticed is how the other kids who have already finished recognize this, whether the student is from their school or not, and they gather together to cheer that person on and make them feel just as important, if not more-so, than the ones who finished first. Adult runners do exactly the same thing. Most will walk back to the finish line or somewhere around the home stretch to cheer in the runners behind them, and all of us have said or smiled at other runners who are walking around after a race proudly wearing their medals or finishers tshirts.

Most of us seem to drink from a bottle that should be labeled “Hurry Up and Finish!” because our lives in general revolve too much around a timetable. We are so busy starting one thing, barely completing it, and then rushing on to the next thing, that we rarely have time, or more importantly, make time, to enjoy our accomplishments. Most major marathons these days have pace teams, which are great for those people who have a specific goal. The person in charge of the pace team carries a sign on a long stick that has the designated hour and minutes that their pace group is shooting for (i.e., 3:00, 3:30, 4:00, 4:30, 6:00, etc.). A part of me wishes that there was one very large pace group carried by lots of people whose sign read “Time, what time? We are just out for a good time.” 

For those of you that are going to be participating in an upcoming race soon or in the in the future, let me offer you a different point of view. Try to look at it not as a “race”, but as your Victory Lap. To put where you have come into perspective, let’s say that you started training for a marathon 6 months prior to the race, which is fairly typical for most programs. If you look at most of the training schedules for beginners in the popular running periodicals or on various running sites online, then during that time you have probably logged about 750 miles. Yes, that’s right – 750 miles. Now, take out a map of the state or country where you live, find your home city, and then find another city that is 750 miles away. Trace your finger along that map, take it in, and realize how far you have already come. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? In this example, do you realize that you have already run the equivalent of nearly 30 marathons before you have even stepped up to the starting line?! You have already trained roughly 30 miles for every 1 mile you will have to run in the marathon. The marathon you will be attempting is only about 3% of the miles you have already completed! You are 97% done! Do you remember the day that even running 1 mile seemed insurmountable? You can do the same math for your training for a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, or any other distance you might be attempting. Realize this, with ALL that you have already accomplished, when you step up to that starting line, it is not a race, it is YOUR VICTORY LAP. 

When I first set my goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon, it was my 38^th birthday on December 1, 1997. My goal was to train for the next 2 years and qualify to celebrate my 40^th birthday and the new millennium. I trained as hard as I could and ran nearly 4,000 miles in those 2 years. I came very close to qualifying in a couple of marathons, and had 2 or 3 marathons where it just was not my day and I was not even close to the time I needed. Finally, in February of 1999 at the Austin Marathon, I made my qualifying time by a mere 24 seconds, which qualified me for the 2000 Boston Marathon. Boston was the celebration of the realization of a great goal, one that seemed far more unattainable at times than I can describe in mere words. It was my Victory Lap, and I celebrated it along with the thousands of others whose stories mirrored or made mine seem pale in comparison. After I completed my third Boston Marathon in 2002, I did my own formula of what I had run. When I crossed the finish line in Boston that year, since setting that initial goal in December of 1997, I had run approximately 8,000 miles, which equated to roughly 100 miles of training for every 1 mile that I had run at Boston. Like all of you, I have endured the struggles and joys of training, and the struggles and joys of life in that time, all of which makes any accomplishment all the sweeter. 

Now stop for a moment and think deeper. How far have you really come to get to your goal and step on that finish line? If we push ourselves to our personal limits, to go farther than we ever dreamed, is that not a microcosm of life itself? Your accomplishment will take you through the ultimate emotional and physical rollercoaster filled with the highest of highs and lowest of lows. I promise you that you and every other runner standing on that starting line on, regardless of skill level, is going to have doubts. Alberto Salazar, the last American runner to win the Boston Marathon in the early 80’s, said, “We are all cowards standing at the starting line.” The way that I overcome that fear is simple. I had a reason and a goal when I set out to do this, and I never lose site of that reason. Think of the obstacles that you have overcome in life, the hardest of the hardships, and draw strength and courage from those times. Think of the people that have inspired you and the people you have inspired in your efforts. If it takes you 6 ½ hours or longer to finish, then all I can say is you had a longer standing ovation from the spectators than did anyone else. Be proud. Visualize the finish line and see yourself raising your hands in triumph. You have earned the right to be there, you have made the necessary sacrifices. Enjoy your Victory Lap.