In The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life, Amby Burfoot tells the story of Oprah Winfrey’s marathon. I had known that Oprah ran a marathon in the 1990s in a time of about 4:30, but beyond that I hadn’t given it much thought.
Sure, I had heard she stirred up quite a controversy. I mean, it’s Oprah. Love her or hate her, you have to know that for anything she does there will be critics who lament that it is ruined because it was touched by Oprah. Did she have an easier time of it because she’s Oprah? Of course not. I mean sure, it crossed my mind that she likely had a full support-crew with her during the race, not to mention a trainer, nutritionist and chef who helped get her there. But she’s not magic. Let’s give the distance its full due: to get through it, you must put in the work; if you don’t, none of those advantages will make a lick of difference.
Let’s look at this from the flip side: when Burfoot tells the story of running the marathon behind Oprah, he does so in his chapter on Courage. He points out that she was surrounded by photographers from publications such as the National Enquirer the whole way. They sure weren’t there to put her picture on the front page because she’d run a marathon. There would be no headlines reading “Oprah finishes marathon, meets personal time goal!” Nope, they were there waiting for her to screw up. They were waiting for some colossal failure for the front page.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like some serious pressure to me.
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