The name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon, which took place in August or September, 490 BC. It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming “We have won” before collapsing and dying.

Every year millions around the world participate in marathon. Every one has a single goal; goal to complete the marathon; because completing marathon is a quest with oneself.

It is a full scale project management as planning and execution need to be accurate or the person can even die.

Marathon is in itself a venture involving all the phases of any venture management namely idea inception, research, planning, proper resources, training, mental health, execution and reaping the benefits.

Objective & Research: Once the person has decided to run marathon, then the next step will be to do adequate research and gather enough information from different forums and websites. Learn from the past experience of people and try not to repeat the same mistakes, while leveraging the tips provided.

Based on the research you need to find out the type of body and fitness level you have and how much training needs to be done.

Planning: Facts collected during the research should be used during planning phase. The plan should outlay how the training, execution and recovery will be done. One has to be aware that the plan will be very specific to ones need.

Proper resources: No risk can be taken when it comes to marathon. Proper attire that does not rub against the body should be kept. Proper running shoes that can keep the feet safe should be bought and you need to train with those shoes. Proper sweat bands, electrolytes, hydrants and Vaseline, etc should be procured.

Training: As always hard work and training are the key to success. Nothing can be achieved without proper training and hard work. One has to stick with the training schedule and ramp up the difficulty level as laid out in the training plan. Training is necessary because it not only builds the body for the marathon but also prepares the mind of what is going to come.

Mental Health: Marathon tests the grit of the person. During training our mind develops patience and learns how to remain focused during long runs.

Execution: On the day of marathon, it is the test of all the hard work, training and mental strength that we have developed. It’s a competition with one self. The aim is to keep the pace steady and not to try any thing unusual, as it will burn out the body fast and one might collapse. You will see lot of people following their pace leader, to keep up a constant pace and burn out less as it is a long way. There are refueling pit stops, but one has to take an instant decision if the body needs to be refueled; more water intake can reduce the salt level of the body and person can collapse. Energy shots can be taken at some intervals to keep the energy level maintained. Once with all proper care, proper steering and management the person has covered 25+ miles then the person can think of doing some heroic acts of running faster, but again the risk reward ratio is high as it will consume the left over body fuel faster. All these calculations have to be made by the runner during the marathon.

Proper planning, calculation and execution will guarantee success.

Rewards: The sense of achievement is great after completing the marathon. Mentally the person is more relaxed. During the whole process of planning, training and execution, one learns how to be patient focused and work towards the goals. The gruel some training keeps the critical body chemistry at normal and of course the like minded friends that you make during the entire run.

It is such a great experience but to have this experience, person has to step out of the comfort zone and take risk. The best rewards are always achieved by taking risks and proper planning.