Marathon Revelations

Do you want to know who a person really is? What makes him tick? Have him sign up for a marathon and his true self will be revealed.

After observing hundreds of runners toil away for months on end while training for their first marathon, I have enjoyed what marathon training offers: a glimpse into a person’s psychology and psyche.

If running is a metaphor for life, then marathon training is a window into the runner’s soul.

How a runner trains for a marathon uncovers vital information about her life beyond running. It speaks volumes of who the person truly is: her character, beliefs, values, and even taste—in running and in the real world.

Note: The personalities detailed below are fictitious. If you feel you are being described below, you are completely paranoid.

A leader will always find himself in front of the training group, perhaps set the pace or plan the course for each run. He knows his stuff about running and shares this with the newbies. After a run, he rushes home to lead his business enterprise which he set up at the tender age of 20.

A follower will intentionally lag behind and ask questions: What distance do we run today? Where do we run? Are we joining the race next week? Do you think I should wear the white or black underwear on race day? A follower always has a coach, a leader, or anyone who can give him decent answers during a run.

The cheater signed up for TBR Dream Marathon knowing full well that it is only for first or second timers. No worries, no one will ever know that she finished QC Int’l Marathon last year and is registered for Condura 42k on Feb. She doesn’t care if she took the slot of a first-time marathoner who deserves the experience more than she does. She HAS to run TBR Dream because her boyfriend will be there to cheer her on! Just don’t tell her husband about it.

A planner will have her marathon training program printed out and displayed on every nook and cranny of the house. It is followed to a tee. Marathon day is two months away but she knows her food, hydration, supplements, and outfit already. She even has a post marathon training program ready. All this has been neatly encoded into her ipad, a reward she bought for herself after her 3rd promotion this year.

The faker signed up for the marathon and posted about it on his blog. He says he’s training seriously, but barely finds time to train since he’s too busy tending to his farm on facebook. He’s deeply worried about marathon day, but finds comfort in knowing that he can quit at 21k and simply tell his clueless friends that he finished the full.

This happy-go-lucky runner got lucky! He heard about the race, impulsively registered, and found out he got the last slot. Everyone is training heavily for the race, but he has no worries. After all, he finished a 21k last year—note: half drunk and without any sleep—without collapsing.

A complainer always finds something wrong with herself and everything else: her yaya didn’t boil the eggs properly, her running shoe lacks cushioning, the pacer at the clinic ran too fast while her running buddies were too slow, the road had potholes, and the weather! Oh boy, she asked God to make it cloudy that morning, but the sun appeared! Arrgh!

The optimist is injured but knows that with some massage and cross training, the doctor will allow him to continue training next week. He joins the running talks and observes at clinics eager to learn more about his newfound love for running. He can’t believe he can run for 2 hours already, to think he only started running last year after he was declared cancer-free!

I could go on and on, but you get the point. Each runner who signs up for a marathon will have his own tale to tell—not just after the marathon, but while training for it, not just through his words, but by his actions, and not just about his run, but his life and how he lives it. Make sure YOUR story is a GOOD one.

Posted on 01.24.11 to 01 Bullish Insights. Tags: 05 Training, Marathon. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. 40 comments. Add your thoughts or trackback from your own site.

« Running McKinley

Reminder: No Bull Circle Tonight (Jan 26) »

40 Responses to “Marathon Revelations”

nice article jaymie. running, as a sport, is life itself. in one way or another, a leader, a follower, a cheater etc. in running is also the same person in life.

mark terrado said on Jan 24 11 at 10:51 AM Reply
this is hilarious!! i think i can see who i am in a few of those personalities. hubby and i are training for our first full (Condura), and boy no one could be more different. i get stressed if i don’t follow my training plan to the last km, while he easily moves around his plan if his schedule can’t allow him to run. i obsess about my pace, while he can run for hours comfortably without having to use a distance tracker. but come race day, i know we’ll both be out there focused on our goals.

khun said on Jan 24 11 at 10:52 AM Reply
Bullseye! Bullrunner

Ian said on Jan 24 11 at 11:48 AM Reply
as a tbr dream alumnus, i feel for those runners deprived of the chance to participate in tbr dream 2 just because some cheaters have decided to make a complete sweep of the full mary’s from qcim, condura and the tbr dream 2.

tbr dream marathon in May last year, as my first full mary, will always remain special. it won’t be special anymore for someone running a full mary the 3rd time. they should be disqualified.

rickyg said on Jan 24 11 at 12:49 PM Reply
muwaahhahaha I am so a planner! wala nga lang ipad. hahahaha

Gail said on Jan 24 11 at 12:53 PM Reply
hilarious!hope the second or Nth timers would be able to read this…

E said on Jan 24 11 at 12:53 PM Reply
I call that a nice read cum subtle backhand slap.:) Blast the cheats!:)

Marc Castrodes said on Jan 24 11 at 12:55 PM Reply
LOL! Great observation. I guess I belong to the happy go lucky type. Running with my camera!

runwitme said on Jan 24 11 at 1:21 PM Reply
Or hopefully will get to know ones self during the process. Good one Jaymie.

Alex/Laketi said on Jan 24 11 at 1:28 PM Reply
got me thinking… so what was YOUR story (or classification in this whole observation of yours)?

EB said on Jan 24 11 at 1:44 PM Reply
that was a very interesting read.

highlight of the whole thing, imo, is this: “Note: The personalities detailed below are fictitious. If you feel you are being described below, you are completely paranoid.” lol

maRídoL said on Jan 24 11 at 1:49 PM Reply
I started out as a Planner but now due to training injury in December I’m an Optimist. A depressed, moody Optimist!

Still hoping I can recover in time and not have to pull out of the TBR marathon (or even worse, wind up as a Faker)

Good article.

Vic said on Jan 24 11 at 3:08 PM Reply
- Im also a planner turned optimist after qcim 21k injury. I would like to be a follower to especially of the bull sessions but i miss all of it due to work..
  
  TBR: Pls post higlights of the bull sessions for Dreamers like me.. I really envy the attendees of the sessions for nutrition and hydration, and gears
  
  majo said on Jan 26 11 at 12:36 PM Reply
LIKE, LIKE, LIKE!

Reylynne said on Jan 24 11 at 8:49 PM Reply
…TBR gets nasty!!!…you can actually meet some of these people in a certain forum….hehehehe, for me personally I get a little ticked of with some would be marathoners actually selling there slot, what were they thinking before signing up?

Haste said on Jan 24 11 at 9:56 PM Reply
- 2 cases Haste:
  
  (1) they are optimist when they signed up and after several trainings, they found out that they are not ready OR they get injured during the speed-up training
  
  (2) in case of selling TBR slots, they upgraded fast (i.e. ran FM in QCIM and also will run a FM in the upcoming Condura). Ergo, giving others the chance to ran a FM thru TBRDM
  
  Zalds said on Jan 26 11 at 11:55 PM Reply
Haha… hilarious as it is, but somehow, it could still throw some stone at me (means I’m not completely paranoid, lol).

Really, the TBRDM is specially designed for first time Marathoners – the Dreamers. It will no longer be a dream marathon if it’s already the nth time.

I’ll be running my 2nd full on Feb., and all these times despite of my lack of training, preparation, and an injury that seemingly won’t disappear until race day, all I could think and all that inspires me to not surrender is my TBR Dream marathon experience last May, 2010. That’s what a dream marathon experience is!

RunningAtom said on Jan 25 11 at 1:01 AM Reply
Nice read! This could be a very good article in a magazine. I will be celebrating my 1st year of running in March but I must say that I learned a lot from it. Hopefully embraced it in my entire life. I started running because of The Bull Runner. I am greatful and privileged to finish my 1st full marathon at the TBR Dream Marathon 2011! Good luck to us!

Lito C said on Jan 25 11 at 8:19 AM Reply
Tumpak, tamang-tama!

sherry said on Jan 25 11 at 8:42 AM Reply
It was too late for me to know that there are programs like yours that now help people get to their 1st marathon. I would sure like to enlist next year (If I have not run a Unilab-sponsored 42k this November at that time. Or if I did, would I qualify still as a second timer?)

And back to your list, hmmmm…. I would be a loner. Not by intent but more of circumstance. The running clinics are mostly Metro Manila based and I live in Laguna, even if I do work in Muntinlupa. I have to rely on the net for tips. It was all too different compared to 7 years ago.

Jerome AM Tan said on Jan 25 11 at 10:37 AM Reply
Ouch!!! ha ha ha

cesar carriedo said on Jan 25 11 at 5:14 PM Reply
Hehehe. Nice observation. Bato bato sa langit… =)

aileen said on Jan 25 11 at 7:35 PM Reply
nice one jayme!..hehehe.. maybe, i belong to the planner,, and hopefully will get serious on running after my 3rd sign up for a marathon.. see you on Sunday guys! at MOA, and on Feb. 6…

faye said on Jan 26 11 at 8:26 AM Reply
+1….haha, nice one TBR

bloodyow said on Jan 26 11 at 8:43 AM Reply
ohhhhMG! that cheater, sucks bigtym!

journeyingjames said on Jan 26 11 at 10:02 AM Reply
fun read.my hubby and i dont belong there yet..marathoners…
but we hope to one day.I always enjoy your insights.learning something always.
keep it up!

aquagirl said on Jan 26 11 at 12:20 PM Reply
Don’t they know that the TBR has a large group of Intelligence Agents? He he he…

runningbeyondair said on Jan 26 11 at 3:43 PM Reply
Wonderful blog Jaymie!

Perhaps you can add to your taxonomy the “cognitively-challenged” (which may be the umbrella term for the cheaters and fakers). These people mistakenly presume that they can get away with it. In this age of high technology where race results can be verified online in a heartbeat, do they really think they can siimply get away with lying about finishing a marathon or the number of marathons that they have done? Or that with FB and other social networking sites, people won’t know about their cheating (in every sense of the word)?
To paraphrase my former college instructor, cheating is for bobo people only, coz if you’re smart enough, you won’t have to cheat.

wickedlyle said on Jan 26 11 at 4:49 PM Reply
great blog! good observations.
the hubby and I are not yet doing marathons, it’s still a dream for us.Your blog is something to think about…what type of runners are we?

luckytoe said on Jan 26 11 at 6:02 PM Reply
Cheating in itself is the punishment for cheaters. Expose them if you have a righteous reason to do so but be careful that you do not sin in your anger. Be diligent with your evidence as not to sin in slander nor bearing false witness. There may be namesakes or falsified registrations and accusations cannot be retracted without leaving a mark.

Nice article Jaymie, I’m glad I experienced TBRDM1

Nell N said on Jan 26 11 at 6:45 PM Reply
hahahaha this is nice jaymie!! esp the cheater part! Is there actually one doin the Dream Marathon?? That’s pretty embarassing if he/she gets busted

Carlos de Guzman said on Jan 26 11 at 8:15 PM Reply
Hah! Nice article.. I think I know a two or three runners that was described above

Question Ms. Jaymie, is there some sort of penalty for cheaters like the one you described? At least, it will give the future TBRDM batches the idea that TBRDM is seriously for 1st & 2nd time marathoners

Zalds said on Jan 27 11 at 12:00 AM Reply
very insightful. ive always considered marathon as a metaphor in life. good article!=)

Margee said on Jan 27 11 at 9:19 AM Reply
aminin hahahaha…

ane said on Jan 27 11 at 11:14 AM Reply
I used to be a planner, then I became a happy-go-lucky runner…a complainer…then an optimist…a complainer and finally a pessimist! LOL!

Gail said on Jan 27 11 at 3:46 PM Reply
sobrang solid!

hector said on Jan 27 11 at 6:15 PM Reply
wow!!! nice article. Nothing about running and life can be truer. Keep up the great job as we admire you from Nigeria…

esther said on Jan 29 11 at 2:22 PM Reply
hi tbr. been a while. miss visiting your site. this one should make the “kill”. tamaan sana sila. i am stil a hopeful for running. havent been in runs since late may last year. short jogs during Sundays was all I ever did from October til November 2010 though. Yeah, yeah. Call me hopeful. At least hindi CHEATER. Kainis lang din yung mga ganun. Tsk!

randommax said on Jan 29 11 at 8:15 PM Reply
hahaha hilarious! we should design a new psychometric profile based on these runner observations!

Paul "The Pageman" Pajo said on Jan 30 11 at 9:23 PM Reply
Nice post! “How a runner trains for a marathon uncovers vital information about her life beyond running.” … true indeed!

Carly said on Feb 02 11 at 12:15 PM Reply