The Psyche Of A Quitter

After crossing the finish line in each of the three New York City Marathons I have completed, I have slowly but surely made my way back to my abode. Because of all the road closures, it is too costly and time consuming to take a taxi home and walking is pretty much the only way to get home without having to take a detour that ends up forcing you to travel marathon distances just to get five blocks east. By the time I reach first avenue (living on the upper east side, I must cross the very road I was running on not two hours ago), I am always surprised to see that there are some runners who are then just reaching 84th and 1st. For those who have not done a NYC Marathon, upon finishing, you can't simply leave the park. Rather, you are forced to walk from 57th Street to 86th Street before barriers on both sides end and you can then veer right or left. That slow movement of the weary is quite possibly the most annoying aspect of the NYC Marathon and usually takes upwards of an hour. Knowing this, I'm sure you can imagine where my surprise at the runners still on first avenue comes from. With an average finishing time hovering in the mid-4 hour range, I usually get to 1st Avenue about 6-7 hours after the marathon began. 84th Street is about 18.5 miles into the marathon and the finish line is just under 6 miles away. By the quick calculations I do in my head, these runners are on pace to finish the marathon in about 8-9 hours. I cannot imagine staying on course for that length of time and always wonder to myself and aloud to others (who think me crazy for talking to myself) why these runners don't simply quit. Is it pride? Is it practiced patience? Is it dementia? Since I can't ask them myself (as that would not only be rude but would also interrupt their snails-like pace), my question inevitably remains unanswered as I walk the last few blocks home.

As luck would have it, on Wednesday, an article in the New York Times finally provided me with the answer to my question that I have asked 3 separate times in 3 different years. Based on the official results of the NYC Marathon for the last few years, only 2% of the over 35,000 runners who begin the race end up not finishing it. In analyzing the composition of this 2% (amounting to 416 runners based on last year's results) Andrew Lehren's article, First The Marathon Lottery, Then The Pressure To Finish, provides a somewhat surprising and definitely interesting conclusion as to what type of runner is more easily swayed to quit a marathon and who is more likely to keep going no matter what. According to Lehren, "Elite runners seem more inclined to drop out rather than simply complete the race, and runners visiting from abroad seem more inclined to push themselves to the finish line no matter their time". As opposed to a recreational runner who runs a marathon for any reason other than pecuniary gain, elite runners confronting bad races might decide that finishing is simply not worth it, "For elites who run just half a race, they not only reduce the chance of injury, but increase the odds that they could be in shape to compete again within weeks. Some elite runners are paid appearance fees and receive a paycheck even if they do not finish. Recreational runners have no such consolation". On the other hand, runners who have traveled a great distance to run a great distance tend to push themselves beyond their limits and won't quit no matter how much pain they find themselves in. Because of the time and money spent just getting to the start line, these international runners don't understand the word quit (most likely because they don't speak English but, for purposes of the article, I think it was more of a figurative meaning). In last year's marathon, of the 7 finishers who ran the second half in twice the time it took them to run the first half, all were European. Another group of runners who are likely to push themselves past their limits is men in their 20s. According to the article, marathon split times from last year’s race show that among United States men, those in their 20s were more likely than older men to post a second-half time that was far worse than their first half. About 2.4 percent of the younger men posted second-half times that were at least 50 percent longer than their first-half times. For the older United States men, the proportion fell to 1.6 percent. Finally, Lehren's points to the recreational runners who run a marathon as some sort of symbolic gesture, including dedicating a race to a loved one, raising money for charity or battling a disease. This category of marathoner tends to push themselves past their proverbial breaking point out of a sense of duty, out of fear of embarrassment if they didn't or any other similar external pressure.

I guess that explains why those runners will still be running the marathon more than 8 hours after it began. Despite my usual tendency at mockery and cynicism, I have to give them credit. While I consider myself a very dedicated runner, I'll be the first to admit that dedication can last only so many hours. I have little doubt that, should I still be on a marathon course after more than 6 hours had elapsed since the gun went off, I would quickly decide that running any further simply wasn't worth it. As a New Yorker, I just hope that, for those international runners who don't finish the marathon until the sun has begun to leave the East, their experience doesn't influence how they feel about the Big Apple!