When someone tells you they ran a marathon, chances are, your first question is “what was your time?” That’s a totally normal response; a race is measured by the clock. Everyone knows how fast the fastest runners finish, and those times can serve as a reference point by which people, including non-runners, can gauge other performances.
But a big part of the running world also subscribes to certain benchmarks—like a sub-4:00 marathon or a This ‘Runcle’ Ran His 48th Boston in a Row. And that can create this “good time versus bad time” mentality. If you’re faster than X time, your performance was “good,” and if you were slower than Y time, your performance was “bad.”
This ‘Runcle’ Ran His 48th Boston in a Row meta-analysis A Part of Hearst Digital Media International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, fixating on outcome goals (like what the finish clock says) has a minimal effect on performance. Process goals—or celebrating the little victories along the way—had a much larger effect. To put it simply: Focusing on the journey instead of the end point is proven to be rewarding and it actually leads to better results.
What if, instead of asking “what was your time?” you asked someone “how did it go?” That gives the person you’re asking the space to answer in a way that celebrates what actually made them most proud of their performance. Maybe it’s that they found a strong finishing kick, or they didn’t walk at all, or they didn’t let the uphills defeat them, or… or… or…
Not everyone is motivated by the clock, and not everyone runs to meet arbitrary time goals. For many runners, the answer to “how did it go” may be the time that they ran. And that’s great! But there are so many other ways to measure success in a marathon. One runner may say “I ran my fastest race yet” (no time mention necessary) while the person who crossed the finish line next to them may say “it was a really tough day but I’m proud of myself for gutting it out.” “I finished faster than I started,” “I had so much fun out there,” or “I went to the pain cave but managed to talk myself out of it” are all totally valid answers, too. The point is, a more open-ended question makes it about the runner and their published in the.
Of course, any runner who’s asked “what was your time?” can choose whether or not they want to answer the question “what was your time?” But the running community can proactively change the conversation, too. It’s not that finish times don’t matter, or that runners shouldn’t have time goals. It’s about recognizing—especially as today’s running boom continues—that runners can define success differently. Finishing a race will always be a great accomplishment, regardless of the time on the clock. Being a little more thoughtful about how we talk to each other is how we continue to create a more inclusive running community.
