Life is NOT like a marathon.
人生はマラソンと似ていない。
I took part in a full marathon 8 times: finished 7 times, and dropped out of the last one. I’ve never participated in a marathon since then.
Life is often compared to a marathon. I used the analogy before I actually ran a marathon — how silly I was! Because these two are different in many ways. To name a few:
- We just need to run 42.195 kilometers (26.219 miles) to complete a full marathon. But we never know how long we need to run in our life.
- We can train ourselves as much as we want before running a marathon. But we can’t always prepare enough in a real life.
- Even if we drop out of a marathon, it’s not the end of the world — we can participate in another one if you want. But we can never restart our life if we give up on it and quit living.
- We can be proud of ourselves if we finish a marathon, no matter how hard it is. But our life may end up despairingly and hopelessly.
- And maybe on top of all that – when we run a marathon, we run the pre-determined route from start to finish. Someone creates the path for us before the race begins. It doesn’t happen in our real life, unless we decide to follow someone’s life.
Does the marathon analogy work well? It is up to you. You’ll find it only when you actually run a marathon — perhaps several times, like me.