Education and The Marathon Mentality

Recently I witnessed firsthand my first marathon ever, and the experience gave rise to some very heady questions—about education of all things.   The answers reaffirmed my belief that what we do as parents and teachers in nurturing children and adolescents goes a long way in determining who they will become as adults.

Anyway, the questions that occurred to me while watching the race went very much like this:

• Why in the world would rational beings purposely subject themselves to 26.2 miles of running torture?
• Worse yet, why risk severe muscular and skeletal damage, vomiting, seizures, coma, kidney failure, and even death for the distinction?
• How can an average person possess the force of will to accomplish a feat once thought of as momentous?
• What drives such a diverse mass of humanity to pursue a goal that less than one percent of the world’s population will ever achieve?

So now you’re probably asking, “How do you get from the race to these questions to their answers to Education?”   Well, be patient and read on.

Short Info on a Long Run

Each October the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon starts in Grafton and winds its way through various towns, ending at Veteran’s Park near the Milwaukee Art Museum.   I’m told that it’s a pleasant and manageable course as marathons go and that finishing along the lake shore represents a nice bonus for runners.

The race measures 138,435 feet or 46,145 yards. Those big numbers made me wonder how many strides runners would need to cover that distance.  So, true to form, I later did some calculations based upon gender, average heights, and stride lengths.  If I’m right, then men take about 57,000 strides on average whereas women take closer to 63,000.   That’s what I call a ton of repetitions.  I shudder to think about the pounding a runner’s body takes going that far.

My Stake in the Race

I attended the event for one reason only — my 31-year old niece, Kristen, had entered.  For some insane reason,  she had decided a few months back that she would run a marathon.  As far as I could tell, her  motivation came out of nowhere.

Although she had participated in high school athletics, I never saw her as the over-the-top competitor who could pull off a physical and mental feat of such magnitude.  To be honest, I feared that she’d end up in an emergency room if not during training, then during or after the race.

To her credit, Kristen stuck to her running regimen and kept me apprised.  I think she also enjoyed making me feel like a slacker about the exercise I wasn’t doing!  No matter, I was impressed with her goal setting, planning, discipline, and perseverance, although I wondered whether she had seriously underestimated the toll that a marathon can take on a body.

Her chances weren’t helped by the fact that she needed shots of cortisone in her knee a few days beforehand.  I thought that masking the pain with drugs was risky, leaving her open to even greater injury.  Either way, I thought it was nutty to run an extreme distance like a marathon on an already bad knee.

Nonetheless Kristen ventured from her hometown of Pittsburgh to make her first attempt at this sacred running milestone here in Cream City.   Three great friends came along to cheer her on, and my wife and daughter rounded out the support team.  I was certainly pulling for my niece, but couldn’t leave for the starting line at the unGodly time of 5:45 a.m. like they all did.  I was scheduled to speak at the Parents’ Weekend Brunch later that morning, so I didn’t hook up with the crew until about 11:00.

Here Come the Road Warriors

Sad to say, here’s where I have to confess to being a major wimp.  My marathon experience consisted of walking maybe a mile from the parking garage to the finish line, waiting for about an hour, and thinking the whole time,  “My knee aches; my feet hurt; my back is sore; I’m getting cold; I’m hungry; I wonder when this thing will end…,” and so on.  Pathetic.

Then thankfully I gained perspective in the form of a massive dose of guilt.  I hadn’t taken so much as a single stride, yet there I was feeling sorry for myself while one brave Road Warrior after another sucked it up and completed the race.

What blew me away most of all was the incredible range of runners in the mix.  Oh sure, there were some unbelievably fit looking people, young and vibrant, and ready to take on the world.  But there were also many competitors  as old as dirt and looking like death-warmed-over who proudly crossed that finish line, too!

In the homestretch, there were plenty of runners of all ages who I’d classify as “the walking wounded,” limping to the finish while dragging a bad leg or two behind them.  Lots of them wore braces to support their legs, but every competitor appeared fiercely intent on completing the race regardless of any physical challenges or pain.

In fact, several of them who caught sight of the finish experienced a sudden burst of energy that propelled them to an enthusiastic sprint across the line.   Others just toughed it out one agonizing step after another.  Across the full range of finshers, the looks on their faces ranged from unbridled joy to total anguish and everything in between.

What’s the Motivation?

As far as marathons go, only a relatively small number of contestants run to win.  Most focus on their personal finish time and their placement within their age and gender groups.   And almost certainly a large number of runners just want to finish–period!  God bless them all.

All of these observations bring me back to my original questions about the runners’ motivations.  Just add superlatives like “amazing, astonishing, incredible, remarkable, and unbelievable” in front of the following attributes, and we’ve got our answers:

• Determination
• Resolve
• Commitment
• Willpower
• Courage
• Resilience
• Perseverance

But where did these uncommon qualities originate?  I’ll concede that some individuals come to them of their own accord.  But I’d bet the farm that far more people develop their tenacity largely through some educative process. My guess is that extraordinary mental discipline results from the experiences of youth interacting with someone in a formal or informal instructional role — either a parent, a teacher, an adult or peer role model, or a coach.  The learning experiences can range from subtle to intense, but the end result is the same.  The beneficiary is transformed from ordinary to single-minded and driven.

I’m honestly hardpressed to think of a much greater gift that we educators can give to students than an indomitable will. When they are armed with a “can-do, never give up” attitude, the unimaginable becomes possible.   It’s no coincidence that people who are unwilling to accept failure tend to be the most successful.  Persistence is a powerful virtue as accomplishment and distinction go.

And this message hits home for me personally.  In high school, I benefited immensely from the guidance of a master motivator, and I’ll write about him in a future post. In fact, this educator made me extremely tough mentally, not to mention physically, and that inner strength has served me well throughout my life and my professional career.

I wasn’t always a wimp you know! Ironically, the ravages of competitive athletics has rendered me physically limited.  If it weren’t for a knee that’s endured four major operations as well as three extensive surgeries on my feet, I might just get my tired old body out there and run me a marathon.  Well, at least that’s my story, and hey, a guy can dream.

A Well Earned Moment of Triumph

This last photo shows Kristen just before hitting the finish line.  She came in 1720th place overall (of 2706 starters) and 661st among the women.  For her first marathon, her time was very respectable.  But the most important thing is that she finished.

She could have quit a number of different times due to setbacks on the course.  To her abundant credit, she didn’t.

By the way, you may have heard that the top two female finishers were ruled ineligible.  So, if only 658 more women get disqualified, Kristen will win!  Very seriously, she made her uncle very proud that day.

The only downside of her finishing is that now I have to make good on getting the tattoo we bet on! So, let me know where in Milwaukee would be a good place to get inked, OK?