Tuesday, March 30, 2010

marathon is not a synonym for race

Nothing frustrates me more in life, than speaking to someone about a marathon and having them ask, "How long is this marathon?" I understand that it would be akin to me making a mistake about anything they take interest in and I do not.

But let me just clear something up in case there is any lingering confusion. The word "marathon" is not a synonym for the word "race". If I say I ran, signed up for or am training for, a marathon, the distance will always be the same.
Marathon = 26.2 miles. Always. It will be the same distance tomorrow, next week, ten years from now. A ten mile race is not a marathon, it is a 10 mile race. A half marathon is exactly that, it's half a marathon, 13.1 miles. An ultra marathon is anything that exceeds the length of a marathon, such as 30, 50, and 100 miles.

Although because I do not want to be mean, if you DO ask, I will probably just answer with a smile, shaking my head inside that you do not remember from the last time we talked about it. Just please, PLEASE for my sake try to remember? I put in all this hard work and dedication and I don't have a whole lot of energy left at the end of the day so can't you please do this one thing for me and remember these distances?

It would please me so very much

xx Sara

1 comment:

Denise said...

oh i had someone at work the other day refer to a 5k as a marathon...i almost dropped dead. no, no, no...there's a very big (long) difference!