Finding the Value of Suffering on the Road to Boston

Meaning in life comes from overcoming challenges. Facing challenges means hardship. Is it worth it?

Looking back, I can see the wisdom in what seemed like folly at the time | Picture by Author

I broke my ankle while training to run my first marathon. For two days, I told myself it was just a sprain until my wife forced me to get it looked at. A hairline fracture, a cast, and a stern admonition to stay off my feet.

That was the first time I did myself an injury while training. Oh, but it was far from the last. My journey to the starting line of the Boston Marathon would take me another six years.

The lessons I learned on the way have stayed with me ever since.

The reason people climb mountains and run marathons

Every year, people try to climb mountains and run marathons, alongside many other tough things. The mountain is there, scarcely changing in the face of heroic summit attempts. So too the marathons. No matter who comes and who goes, the marathons in Berlin, New York, and Tokyo carry on regardless.

Although the mountains and the events have a certain permanence, we humans do not. Whether the person succeeds or fails, the individual making the attempts is profoundly shaped by them.