Marathon

I've decided that a marathon is the ultimate way to discover what is inside of a person.  The sort of "what makes a man" insides, not muscle insides.  And I think that this is why I love working out, too.
(and if this is scatter brained, I wrote it in class so I was distracted)

A marathon takes every ounce of everything from you to complete one.  It is a physical challenge, as well as a huge mental and emotional challenge.  Don't believe me?  Go run one.  Tomorrow.  Your head will give out before your body does.**

Marathon's don't start at the line; they start at the choice.
A guy (because I am one) hears or reads an announcement about a marathon at the end of summer.  For a brief, very brief, fleeting, so on moment, he's interested.  (A blink moment)  He has to decide to take it on and actually do it.  To me, this shows ambition, pride, and self worth.  (to name a few)  He's got lofty goals if he decides to do this, but he also has to think that he can actually do it. He's evaluated his skills and, knowing that he's going to pick a few up along the way, he knows that he can do it.

Now, he has to train for this task.
The first week, he rides the high that he's going to run a marathon.  Cake to train. (hopefully he's not eating cake)  But as time progresses, he may not reach his goals as fast as he expected, or things may pop up and interrupt his training.  Hurdles pop up and he starts to relax his schedule and back down.
This is a crucial part.  This can make or break you.  Self discipline. Determination.  This is what our average joe needs to continue on your task.  A little slack here or there is acceptable.  Physically hitting a hurdle hurts for the moment, but you can make it through.  You have to persevere through the moment of pain in order to make it to the finish line.
He decides to keep telling himself: I can do it.  I can do it.  I can do it. (I think I can I think I can I think I can I think I can)
The other part of this is that training is boring.  Dreadfully boring.  And if you don't make a training goal, it's really depressing.  Be an overcomer.  Don't give up.  Ever.

I'll throw this in here now: if you aren't a runner or any other fanatic, you don't know how fast you are.  Part of training is setting a race goal.  This wouldn't be a big deal ordinarily, but this is a sort of wisdom meets zeal situation.  You have to be wise enough to set a goal you can attain, but zealous enough to challenge yourself.  12hours is not zealous. (or wise, it's lazy) 2hours is not wise. (set up for failure)

Our character is ready.  Week leading up to the race: nervousness.  Can he really do it?  This is the push before the final test.  If you don't have a 'lot' on the line, you may back out.  This week (and the prior ones) is talk vs. action.  Anyone can talk about running a marathon.

Race day.  He's trained hard for this chance.  The final action.  Here there is the test of your ambition, determination, self discipline, perseverance, (list on).  However, this isn't what the race is about.  In my opinion, the race is about your heart.  (literally)
It's going to hurt.  Your mind will shut down.  Your training is tested.  You have to keep motivating yourself.  And again, it hurts.  Most importantly, though, you will be exhausted.  This is the emotional aspect.  (1+1+1=3, i.e. physical+mental+emotional=you, take two away and what do you have)  Whatever happens from the point of emotions to the end of the race, whatever comes out of the your mouth, is real.  It is the real, 100% your thoughts and opinions, you.  Genuine.  Want to know what someone really thinks?  Take every ounce of energy away from them.

He finishes.  He reaches his goal.  But it's not over yet.  Remember how I said the race hurts?  The soreness after the race lingers.  That hurts.  But it's the battle scar; the proof that he made it through.  The point here is that he may remember this pain from training, but he knows that he can't get rid of it.  How he deals with it is a true test.  Whining vs. Rejoicing.
All of that to say a marathon is a judge of a man.

Think about the origin of the marathon.  A soldier runs to shout victory then collapses.  Slightly depressing, but running the whole way to shout victory.  Victory.  It's the end goal.  We all want some victory, but in a way, we have to run marathons to get it.

You have to run through, battle over, climb, metaphorical conquering phrase, your circumstances.  As you do, the true measure of who you are will come out.
So what's your current marathon?

And I'll have you know, that if you can be on your feet for 8 hours, you can run a marathon.

**Note: I read a book talking about this. One of the four f's of basic functions of the body is fleeing.  This means that when your body is put in danger, i.e. lion chasing you, you run.  You run hard, and you run fast.  After a certain point, your conscious mind begins to believe that you aren't ever going to outrun the predator and begins to shut down, preparing to be eaten.  Your physical system is fine.  Your mental and emotional systems are off.