Walk the dog. Eat breakfast. drive to work. Work eight hours. Drive home. Change clothes. Run 20 miles. Shower. Eat dinner. Walk the dog. Go to bed.

Everything about last Monday seemed typical, just another long day in a calendar full of endless working and running activities.

Just like many others, I was mindlessly treading through the daily nine to five grind, and it wasn’t until the following day that I was able to take a step back to truly consider the outrageous schedule I was maintaining.

While engaging in the usual early morning water cooler discussion with coworkers, I casually said I had run 20 miles after getting home from work the previous evening.

It wasn’t long after the words came out of my mouth I realized the magnitude of how crazy that statement really was. In fact, I had become the very person I looked at puzzlingly only several years ago, wondering what would drive someone to do something so completely and utterly crazy.

Initially I started training for a marathon last summer as an exciting new experience to undertake. Despite limping through the final six miles on race day, I found myself only weeks later signing up for another marathon.

So here I am now, at the peak of training for a second marathon trying to fit in long runs amidst a hurried life and busy work schedule.

Therein lies the very paradox of novice marathon runners such as myself. We endure months of painstaking training, cursing our way through each and every long run. Numb to the seemingly crazy realities of running distances that to many are considered long even by car.

All the aches and pains are quickly forgotten, however, when we cross the finish line on race day and join the growing numbers of marathon finishers all across the world.

Maybe it isn’t so far-fetched or crazy. Some of the best things in life come with a downside. Consider a medical student who labors in intense schooling for seven years before becoming a Physician, or a middle-aged woman who struggles through nine months of pregnancy and 14 hours of labor before finally becoming a mother.

So what are the benefits of running a marathon when the rewards don’t include a high paying career or the joys of motherhood?

At the risk of sounding cliché, training for and completing a marathon enables someone to realize they can truly achieve anything in life. Principles like discipline, hard work, and persistence are further developed and made stronger

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have benefited from the rigors and rewards of participating in endurance events, myself included.

But despite these rationalizations, I remain shocked every time I hear myself speak of completing training runs that can be counted in mileage multiples of 10.

People may think I’m crazy, but there are always others out there who are even crazier. In the world of endurance events, that includes those who participate in Ironmans or an assortment of Ultramarathons, with racing distances sometimes exceeding 100 miles.

At the end of the day, everyone has his or her hobby or addiction. This year mine happens to be running.