A Marathon Isn’t 42.195 KMs. It's 1 KM

“So what one tip you would like to give to all the runners today?”, She asked the organizer on the stage today morning. It was a running event here in Ahmedabad, India organized by Vishnu Kamaliya, an ultra marathon runner. I was running 10K and I was pumped since I haven’t run 10K for a while. The question was very interesting since everyone was looking forward to the run.

“The way we think while running an Ultra Marathon is that we don’t consider it as a 42.195 KM event. Instead, we focus on 1 KM at a time. Eventually, you end up running 42.195 KM.”, he said.

This just blew my mind away. It was simple, yet thoughtful and practical. Infact, this is pretty easily replicable in life. It’s a marathon and we should only think about 1 KM at a time. That will increase the probability of finishing the marathon.

I pretty much used his trick and finished my 10K in 56:50. My own personal record.

Thank you, Vishnu.