Lee Hoedl's Disney World Goofy / Dopey Challenge

On Sunday, October 13, 2013, I will toe the line of the 36th annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon with 45,000 of my fellow runners as the capstone to my 2013 adventure of 31*4*31*4*HOPE. It is already shaping up to be a memorable experience as it will be mark my 60th marathon of my distance running career. And of the previous 59 marathons, I believe there have only been two where I have not witnessed the following scenario:

The runners are deep into their race (beyond Mile 15) and the crowd of spectators along the route remains strong. Words of support are being yelled and tourist runners are being welcomed to the marathon's home city. Signs and poster boards of support are everywhere. And then it occurs: There are those lively spectators along the route who honestly try to motivate you by yelling, "Come one, runner! You can catch and pass that runner in front of you!"

It always brings a smile to my face. You see, most spectators don't realize the process of staggered wave send-offs or race time vs. chip time - so many of them believe that even these large races are simply "shotgun" starts (everyone starting at once) and it's a deadheat race. In a nutshell, most marathons, if not all, have implemented timing chips or runner bibs whereby when you personally run across the actual starting line, your timing chip is activated. It continues to run until you cross the finish line and your overall time is recorded and the chip is deactivated. With this implemented, you then can extend your race field to tens of thousands of runners and everyone's time is accurate and fair as they come across the starting line in various spaced waves. For example, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon will host Corrals A-M (45,000 total runners) and the race itself will have two massive waves taking off one-half hour apart.

In all actuality, once you are deep into your personal marathon, it is difficult to know if the runner next to you or in front of you crossed the starting line ten minutes before you OR twenty minutes after you. Therefore burning up your energy to pass him/her might simply be foolhardy as he/she might already be either 30 minutes behind your race time or 30 minutes ahead of your race time. I share all of this race information with you because so many spectators want you to do well and see each of these distance races as highly competitive. And to some degree, they are correct.

However, unless you are in the Elite Corral (the very first corral of each marathon) or in the top 2% of all finishers, the other 98% of my fellow marathoners and I are not necessarily competing against each other. We are running, jogging or walking for so many different reasons. We spend our time mentally measuring ourselves against a previous course record we set at an earlier marathon or an earlier time in our life. We occupy ourselves with how we think we should finish, based on our present training, our hopes or our dreams. We come together to run because of loved ones. And personal challenges. And difficult hardships. And glorious dreams. And we run to face them head-on; to apply the seed of our accomplishment that germinates in the the present race to so many other areas of our life. We run in spite our personal challenges and despite our difficult hardships. We run to ignite our glorious dreams and loved ones. We run to again redeem that youthful spirit that remains nestled in each of us. For those of us who seek the marathon experience, it is our adventure, our gauntlet, our cause and our legacy. For all these reasons and so many more, perhaps as I've said so many times before, along any particular race we were simply seeking a small morsel of personal redemption.

I have been asked on numerous occasions to serve as an ad-hoc coach for first-time runners of the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. And when I am able to work with a particular runner, I want him/her to remember this prime directive: what you bring to the race - the marathon race and the human race - is your own uniqueness and rarity. This uniqueness and rarity is what I refer as a runner's "pace."

You see, my friend, marathoning has so many parallels to our journey in this Life. Life itself is one massive race (or journey) of varied staggered starts. With all the rarity and uniqueness of countless individuals in our country and our world, what could we possibly accomplish by trying to "pass" as many fellow sorjourners as we can? And what does it accomplish to defeat anyone? Allow me to lay the marathon paradigm over our lives and pose these questions to you:

Where have we attempted to obstruct others in our race - belittle them, cheat them, or bear false witness against them - so as to get ahead of them?

Do we notice those in need along our race and continue on so as to not interfere with our overall race?

Where have we felt anxious in our race because others were passing us and we were afraid we'd fall behind?

My friend, the concept of "winning" a marathon is a huge impossibility. There can only be one actual winner in a marathon, which the overwhelming majority of us will never accomplish. But to me, in marathoning as in Life, the winner is expanded to include the one who gives all that he/she has in the noblest and most caring fashion straight to their finish line. So should you ever find yourself attempting a marathon and a naive soul asks you, "Did you win?," you can confidently answer, "Yes."

For each of us, Life is one long marathon/journey that has a starting line and an assured finish line for each of us. The miles from start to finish, their meaning and depth along these miles, is for each of us to uniquely determine and define with our own singular signature. My friend, Life is a marathon and please remember that it is ultimately YOUR race and is uniquely and singularly YOUR pace. Enjoy the journey, my friend, for the manner in which you run, jog or walk your race will determine the reception at the finish line.