I just got back from San Francisco where I was supporting my wife and her fellow Team in Training members who were running a marathon on the hills of San Francisco. I am a big advocate of exposing yourself to new things (who else will we learn). Here are some things I learned from this marathon.
Small Groups of Ordinary People Can Make a Big Difference
The New York City chapter of Team in Training sent about 200 ordinary people to run the San Francisco marathon to raise almost $1 million dollars to fight cancer. These people are like you and me. They didn’t start as athletes but after five months of dedication and training classes they were able to run a marathon and get their shocked friends to donate almost $1 million dollars.
Long Distance Runners Do Shots of Salt Instead of Tequila
Heavy drinkers pay attention. The next time you go to a pub to watch your favorite game and dont want to miss any action do what marathon runners do. Take a packet of salt and eat it. For marathon runners it is essential because they dont want to dehydrate and the salt will help retain water. If you want to avoid having to get off your ass to visit the little boys room do a salt shot.
One Person Can Make a Difference
The NYC chapter sent 6 coaches to accompany the runners along the course. These coaches are freaks of nature. They look normal but have crazy endurance levels. As the coaches ran the 26.2 mile course they would run along side a runner to make sure they were ok and encourage them for, then they would run back and find another runner to do the same thing. ***Remember there were about 200 runners.*** Conservatively each coach probably ran over 100 miles.
Watching a Marathon is Exhausting
It’s hard to get any sympathy from my wife who ran 26.2 miles on the lovely hills of San Francisco but I was exhausted after running from location to location to cheer her on. I probably ran 6 miles myself. If you plan to cheer for someone at a marathon accept the fact you are only going to see them once or like me you will be running your own race course while doing math in your head to figure out if you can run a 1 mile shortcut before the runners cover 3 miles of the official course so you can arrive in time to see your special someone again.
Charity Causes Are a Great Way to Meet Women
Maybe this might not be always the case but Team in Training has alot of women (my guess is 75%). The marathon I was at was crazier than that. It was targeted to women and only about 3% of runners were men. This is a great way to find a woman that is in shape. Also they do long training runs on Saturdays which means you can sleep in and watch college football during Saturdays while your lady is busy training and not around yelling at you to do work around the house.
Running Supplies Have Crazy Profit Margins
Besides helping charity, getting your body in shape and seeing ordinary people achieve extraordinary goals you can also learn how to make money from marathons. The runners consume a lot of stuff like expensive sport drinks, bottles to hold the sport drinks, belts to hold those bottles etc. This looks like a good industry to build a few niche sites for.
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I did the Marine Corps Marathon in ’03. I’d recommend it to anyone. And you’re right about the watching thing.
I was a race marshall for the 94 Honolulu Marathon. I only had to watch the first 2 miles and then I went home (on the other side of the island). I watched a movie, took a shower, got dressed, ate some breakfast – and then headed out to Honolulu for shopping. It was 5 hours later and the marathon was still going on!
I was amazed there were still spectators on the sidelines – they had been out there all that time – just watching.
It was amazing.
When I ran the Marine Corps – I told friends and family to stay away. I didn’t want them out there all that time and had only a rough idea of when I would finish.
As it turns out – they knew better than I did – and all of the people closest to me were there at the last few miles cheering me on. It was awesome.
Congratulations to your wife – and to you!