People are usually impressed whenever you tell them you’re running a marathon. They don’t care what time you run or if you’re faster than most runners. They’re usually more impressed by the final outcome: you running a 26.2 mile race.

To the average person that seems impossible. It seems overwhelming. They usually say something like, “I could never do that.” or “I’m just not built to run a mile let alone 26.2 miles.” or “You’re crazy. Why would you ever want to do that?”

I agree. The 26.2 mile distance does seem like a lot. It seems really hard to do – which it is. But it’s not impossible. Your first step towards running a marathon is not to actually run a marathon. It’s to train – slowly – for a 1 or 2 mile run and then go from there.

It’s like any large undertaking or project you’ve ever accomplished in your life. You don’t just get a job or start a company and that’s it. You’re done. You still have to be good at what you do and that takes practice. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to improving your craft.

Don’t think about the final outcome to start. Break it up into digestable chunks.

Focus on running one mile at a time. Don’t focus on how far away you are or how insane it may seem to run 26.2 miles when you’re running 2 miles a day. Slowly build up until you start to feel comfortable. Soon you’ll hit 5 miles a day. Then you’ll run a long run of 10 miles. That’s when you start to see the progress and start believing you can do it.

If you just think about how far the distance is and how much time/effort you’ll have to devote to the marathon, you’ll never run. You won’t be able to keep up the motivation and dedication it takes to train.

Instead, focus on the small wins. Small wins are crucial to consistently training.

Keep track of your pace and your distance. It’s a huge victory to go from 1 mile to 2 miles of sustained running or to run a faster mile or to run a 5k. Focus on THAT. That’s a huge accomplishment.

It won’t be easy but it’s not impossible. You can run a marathon. Take it one step at a time.