2 of the 0.014%.
“So, how was it?”
“Amazing! Hard!”
“Happy with your time?”
“No.”
“But it was never about that.”
I’m talking to my marathon mate with the ginger hair and cheeky grin. The only Six Star Finisher I’ve met. Who inspired me to do it. And convinced me that I could.
We met in Thailand on a bike - 800km in 8 days. The man who taught me about hitting walls, how to ride through them. And, when to let go. Summer, 2011.
3 years later, we’re in the basement of a Germanic sausage restaurant with a live band playing jazz. I’m the only Jew and vegan. At the long table of runners anxiously preparing for the moment they’ve been training for their whole lives.
The Berlin Marathon.
It hits me.
My hunger, for more food.
The envy, of what they are about to do.
And.
The clarity, that I will too.
Later that night, unable to control my excitement I called my girlfriend. Supportive as always, she didn’t think me running a marathon was mad. But asking her to…
Bat s$%t cray-cray.
You see I’m built for running, by then a seasoned runner. She however was neither. Equally overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge, we made a pact.
And goal.
To cross the line.
Together.
On my return, choosing the most culturally rich, low-profile race we could find we started training. Experiencing the simultaneous extremes of physical, mental, emotional elation.
And agony.
6 months later, on 20 September 2015 we completed,
The Moscow Marathon.
42.2 km.
In 5 hours. 48 minutes. 38 seconds.
The last handful of kilometers were the hardest. The torture of 10-minute kilometers. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes when in immense pain asking if she needed to stop, gasping she replied:
“The only way I’m stopping is if I collapse.”
A rabid refusal.
To not. Give. Up.
We cried as we crossed the finish line. Wrapped up in foil blankets by non-English speaking volunteers in awe of the handful of foreigners who chose Russia to run. We received our medals, coupled with a wisdom only the extremist of experience brings:
It’s harder to go slow than speed up.
And.
Learning to stay is more painful than running away.
Roughly 0.014% of the global population complete a marathon. Most runners would be ashamed of my time, yet I've never been more proud.
Of being so slow.
Research shows 80% higher completion rates for couples training together versus alone. In leadership, the parallels are striking - executives who slow down to bring others with them experience 64% higher team loyalty than those who race ahead.
The neuroscience is clear: shared victories activate reward centers that solo wins never reach.
I’m often asked by serious runners when I’ll do my “proper marathon.” That I must want to know what I can really do. To achieve a time, I am proud of.
I answer the same way every time.
No.
You see, it was never about me. Or the time.
Sadly, most CEOs set their own pace. The majority of leaders finish first. And almost every achievement stands alone.
That's why we crossed together. To prove something else entirely. To ourselves and each other. Discovering love really is a marathon, not a sprint.
And.
Leadership is no different.
But.
What winning really is.
Is learning to walk. So someone else can run.
H2BH 049/365
