What makes them run?

What makes them run a marathon?

This was an article that I read in today's The Star under the FitForLife section. The article touches on a few aspects .

People run a gruelling marathon because of:

- Physical challenge
- Want a shiny medal
- Lose weight
- Draw kudos from their peer
- Better quality of life

But besides wanting to achieve such challenges, the big question here where I think is very subjective and difficult to answer is what are all these people's motivation level when going after their goals. Some will definitely have high percentage to succeed ie they will continue to excel and make thier goals. Others will eventually dropout citing different kind of excuses. But to me running can be done alone and even more effective when in a group. This is when encouragemnet will come in, pacing with the right running buddy so that the slow runners will not be left behind and the faster runner can run at their faster pace than to wait for the slower ones. Thats so much for taking to first step into having an interest in RUNNING and then participating in a Marathon. The next X-factor questions are what is the motivation level of these people who have gone thru the above cycle and are at the starting line of a marathon race.

Most runners will asked themselves why am I doing this for. I believe there are some motivation factors to this:

- Weight lose (by this time, one will probably have lost easily 5kg)
- Improve self esteem
- Social interactions
- Recognition from others
- Achieve personal goals
- Better quality of life

And the lists goes on. We all know the attrition rates in exercise are very high, and we as seasoned runners do not want to set someone up for failure when introducing them to running. The first month is always fun. It takes a lot more to get it thru. We have to see them thru until they achieved what they have set to do and start to enjoy running. Then we know we have successfully gotten someone interested into running, otherwise it is a failure.

So do you know what makes them run?
Strive on........