Education

I have recently been overwhelmed with congratulations and admiration from complete strangers that have crossed my path. The reason for this: I ran a marathon.

A conversation that I had last night at the gym(while wearing my marathon shirt):

Girl: "So did you actually run the marathon?"

Me: "Yes I actually did."

Girl: "Wow! That is my lifelong dream to someday do a marathon!"

Me: "Cool."

Girl: "My sister did a marathon once.......etc. etc. So how did you do? Did you have to train? Was it hard?"

Me: "Well, I've done an Ironman so I've done the distance before, but I wanted to try doing just a marathon by itself"

Girl: *Blank Stare* "Oh. Hmmm.." *look of confusion*

Part of my reason for wanting to do a marathon was to be able to say that I've done a marathon. Many people who know me are confused by this as I have done a marathon before, it was just coupled up with just over 100 miles of biking and swimming beforehand. This girl solidified my theory that the general public is more impressed with running a marathon, than finishing an Ironman Triathlon.

Ignorance.

I feel it is my duty to the public to not let them wander around ignorantly. I want to educate them. I too wandered around in ignorance once. I can't fault somebody for not knowing. I just want them to give an Ironman credit when they see one. Here is the difference between a marathon and an Ironman.

Marathon:
Swimming 0 miles
Biking 0 miles
Running 26.2 miles

Ironman:
Swimming 2.4 miles
Biking 112 miles
Running 26.2 miles

Total mileage difference: 114.4 miles.

I understand that running a marathon is quite a large accomplishment, one that most people won't even attempt. Running a 5K is a large accomplishment for some people too. I'm not undermining marathoners in any way or saying that one sport is better than the other (of course I have my biases). I just know that we can push our bodies much more than we usually think we can and we won't find out how far we can actually go unless we try. Running a marathon then? It's a good lifetime goal, but how about an Ironman? How about an Ultraman event? What about Adventure racing?

How long can you go? How hard can you push? It's probably more than you actually think. I hope I've educated.