The Full 26 (And Staying Off the Bus)

A full marathon is 26.2 miles. 

Or is it?

This year, for the first time, the organizers of a very prominent marathon announced that participants who finish at least 18 miles of the course will still get their medal for finishing. ...a full 8.2 miles short of the actual marathon distance. ...for completing less than 70% of the full distance. There was, of course, an outcry against this. 

We have a local race coming up, one that I have run a couple of times before. Because of street closures and security protocols, like most races, there is a maximum finishing time. A bus drives behind the runners and walkers and anyone who is not maintaining the minimum pace necessary to finish before the time runs out has to get on the bus. 

You don't want to end up on the bus. 

But...once the finish line is in sight, the bus stops and lets everyone off so they can walk across the finish line and get their medal. 

These kinds of things diminish what the medal, what the finish, means for those who have put in the work to go the distance and actually finish the whole race. 

"Oh, you were at that race? Did you do the whole race or did you quit at mile 18? Did you cross the finish line or did you ride the bus?" 

It simply doesn't mean anything if it means everything. 

This is where we are right now as a society, and frankly, it scares me. It makes me concerned for the future. We have an entire generation coming of age who have, largely, been taught that it's good to try hard things, but it's not necessary to finish them. If something is too hard, it's okay to quit. It's "good" to know your limitations. It's "noble" to laugh off your failures and walk away. 

And...you can get a medal just for showing up, just for trying. Just for saying you were going to do the thing, without having to put in any of the work to actually do it. 

If you're paying attention, you will notice a tension between the generations on this point. The older generations really struggle with the attitude of the younger generation that was raised (by the middle generation) to believe stuff like this and encouraged by the same to actually live it. 

Here's what I think the rub is: when you get to justify quitting and pretend that you're just as competent and capable and accomplished as someone who didn't quit, you diminish what it means for everyone who pushed through. 

You diminish the valuable life experience of the previous generations who didn't have "quit" in their vocabulary. The older generations start to talk about the challenges they've faced, the strength they've had to find, the training they put in, the growth they experienced, the way they created the kind of good life that they've handed down...to an ungrateful generation who just looks and them and shrugs and says, "I wouldn't have done it. I'd have just quit. You should have just quit." 

But quitting life is not an option. Quitting work, quitting responsibility, quitting growth, quitting accountability, quitting...is not an option. You can't just "quit" because this life - the life that generations like mine and before mine struggled to achieve - isn't just handed to you...except this generation expects it to be handed to them. 

They changed the rules of the entire marathon, something that's been established for tons of generations. It's always been 26.2. That's the accomplishment. That's what it means. And now, somehow, all of a sudden, 18 is enough. To finish has always meant to take every single step. Now, riding the bus is fine. Hey, however you get to the finish line, right? 

It's frustrating. It's frustrating for me as someone who has put in the work, put in the time, fought the good fight, to hear an entire generation declare that none of that is important and they can just change the rules to meet them where they're at instead of changing themselves to rise to the occasion. 

It concerns me. For real. And not, by the way, just in running.