Five Things a Marathon Walk Teaches/Reminds You
3 min readJul 20, 2020
- There are a lot of seconds in the day. 86,400 to be exact. Yesterday we started our mega walk at 8:25AM and did not return to my buddy’s place until approximately 7:30PM. We walked over twenty-six miles and that didn’t even take up half the day. It really makes you think, and bring to the forefront, how you’re spending your days. There is so much time, and yet most of us say, “if only I had more time!” Are you using it to the most of its potential?
- Tasks/activities get harder the more frequently you stop. On the second half of this walk, after lunch, we started to take more breaks. The first stop after sitting down I think I pinched a nerve in my leg that was making my hamstring feel utterly useless. My buddy continued to sit down at the benches but I got to the point where if I sat down it was much harder to get up and get semi-loose again. I elected to stay standing the last couple of hours. On this long walk a lot goes through your mind. And I remember many work related tasks that got harder the longer I put them off. They’re tasks that aren’t necessarily that hard but just a pain, and the longer I put them off the harder they become. For this walk, luckily, we had no choice but to finish, no way to leave this task for later.
- Most of what you think is impossible is not. I admit that I thought this walk would not be as hard as running a half marathon, and it may have not been quite so bad had I been prepared with blister pads, but when we were nearing the end there was little doubt that this was harder than the three half marathons I had run. We got to the point where we had to keep encouraging ourselves that we just had to focus on the next step. Richard kept saying, “We spent years on our actuarial exams, no way we’re letting this stop us.”
It was mid-nineties and we were getting blisters. The last hour didn’t make it any easier as it started to downpour. That quote going something like, “most people overestimate what they can do in a year, but underestimate what they can do in five years”, kept coming back to me. We were doing a serious trek but if a driver passing us saw us they’d probably think to themselves, ‘those guys are probably just walking to the store up ahead.’ It’s tough to see progress when you’re so close up and to see the ultimate goal but every little bit of progress gets you one step closer to the goal, literally in our case. - Our bodies are unbelievable healing machines. The amount of pain and mental stress that I felt immediately following this walk was immense. The blisters, which I thought had most certainly popped, made it feel like walking on needles and I wanted to cry, but didn’t have the energy to do so. I was also super worried about driving home and the chances of my hamstring tightening up during the drive were increasing, which could be quite dangerous.
That being said after drinking about four more cups of sports drinks, water, and a good sleep I felt much better. My blisters were still noticeable, and I was definitely sunburnt, but that nerve in my hamstring had stopped firing and I felt more at ease. I was thinking not only are our bodies amazing but also I need to do everything in my power to really take care of it; Every person only gets one body. Eat Right. Exercise Right. Rest Plenty. - People that you can spend 11 hours with are rare and should be cherished. If you do this type of adventure there will probably be long periods spent solely focusing on each step and breath. There will also be some interesting conversations. At one point we brought up the question, “If you could be any three people, living or dead, for a day each, who would you be?” These types of conversations get rarer and rarer in our busy lives and I think people who you can spend that much time with should be cherished.
