The Financial Marathon

Have you ever noticed how many marathon running analogies, metaphors and similes are used in the personal finance, financial independence and FIRE communities? And please don’t ask me to differentiate between analogies, metaphors and similes because its complicated and I’m an engineer and not an English major. Perhaps it is the unique place marathons hold in the running universe, the most common long distance race. Or maybe it is the fact that while running is a fast sport, marathons still take a long time to complete. But almost certainly they are a popular model of life because they require endurance and a sustainable pace as opposed to the instantaneous all out effort of a 100 meter sprint.

My financial journey to FI and slightly early retirement certainly occurred at a pace very much like my marathon gait. Slow and steady. While world class marathoners run 26.2 miles in just over two hours my goal in marathons was to finish in under four hours. That sounds ridiculously slow I know to non-runners and to elite runners alike but since I ran most of my marathons in my fifties I still finished in the top fourth of my age group most of the time so it is all relative. But fittingly it does parallel my FI finish time pretty closely. I achieved a seven figure net worth at fifty, the same year I ran my lifetime fastest marathon and 5K. Compared to Mr. Money Mustache, the Frugalwoods and FireCracker who hit FI in their early 30’s me getting there at fifty is almost an exact match to how I compared to elite marathoners. They are world class, me, well I’m in the top 25% of my age group.

That inability to finish with the best could be cause for envy or shame but it never hit me that way. I realized I do not have the genetic makeup to be a great long distance runner, because I trained as long and as hard as many elite runners just to achieve mediocrity. But I’m still proud of the effort, which at times took every ounce of will power in my aching body. I ran through illness and injury and never, ever, withdrew from a single one of the 15 marathons I entered. Sometimes it wasn’t pretty when I was so cramped up I literally had to drag an unresponsive leg behind me across the finish line, but I just could not quit something I had started. Certainly that is a trait that is necessary in the run to FI as well.

When I look at the advantages I had of being a high earner with a frugal spouse living in an area of the country were housing was inexpensive and commuting was unheard of I had no excuse for not succeeding. Excuses, that brings to mind the most vivid example I’ve personally seen of refusing to have one. It was the marine corps marathon in Washington DC. I wasn’t well trained and I was feeling the beginnings of the creeping desperation that sets in during the opening miles of a race when I saw a cluster of guys running up ahead of me. They were soldiers, marines, in uniform with heavy battle packs on their backs and the four of them were at each corner of a fifth marine in the middle of the formation. Two of them had odd objects on their backs that I couldn’t make out until I got closer. Then in shock and awe I realized they were prosthetic legs belonging to the uniformed man in the middle who was in a racing wheelchair. He had lost his legs in the explosion of an improvised explosive device in Iraq. I was overwhelmed with emotion for this marine who was committed to powering through 26 miles with just his hands to move him and for his brothers running with him in fatigues and heavy packs on that hot day. I think I cried for at least a mile, it affects me even now when I think about it. I never felt sorry for myself or thought about quitting again that day. How could I? Examples of living life courageously with purpose inspire us all to be better than we are, and in this community, we have an abundance of great examples. Running marathons alone is tough, running with friends, with brothers and sisters, is so much easier. The FI race is no different and the bloggers and podcasters and authors that have committed themselves to helping the rest of us, lift us up with their examples of endurance and success.

Sitting here composing this I just had an epiphany! One of the reasons I did not achieve FI sooner was that I did not start as early as I could have. I was buying new cars and making some of the common money mistakes in my twenties and there were no 401k plans available yet at my company so I wasn’t investing aggressively. While I ultimately was still fine that delay put FI off by about ten years. In my case I actually loved my job and would not have retired any earlier but getting that late start did cost me at least a million dollars. And what I realized just now was that while I never would have been an elite runner I almost certainly would have been much faster had I started earlier with my running. I didn’t run in high school or college and only began short runs in my mid-thirties. I started real endurance distance running in my mid-forties which meant by the time I was at my technical best my body was already well past its peak performance years. Physical strength and speed are a lot like compound interest in that if you want to achieve your max performance you have to start early.

Pacing matters. I ran twelve marathons as fast as I could and they were extremely painful. There was very little pleasure involved except for crossing the finish line. And that was OK because my goal was all about my finish time. I ran three marathons with another person, two with my wife, where I was the faster runner and was able to run coach them through the race. Just slowing down my overall race time by twenty minutes or so made the whole race a lot of fun. There is a lesson there for the FI journey as well. It may be that living like a hermit in a refrigerator box on saltines and ketchup packets from McDonalds would get you to FI at the age of 29, or 39 or 49 but that is going to be a life of mostly pain. Perhaps the optimum course is for you and your running mate to slow the pace only slightly, to where you can actually talk as you run and enjoy the beautiful landscape you are traversing and still get to the finish line at 32, or 42 or 52. Is winning the race three years faster worth suffering through the run or can you have your cake and eat it? Can you run hard but not so hard that life hurts? I think you can and I think you should.

I still run 18 miles a week but a decided lack of cartilage in one knee has made marathons a bad idea for me so like I did with my 9 to 5 job I have retired from long races. Do I miss them? No! But did they teach me a lot about living life? They did. They taught me that pain is OK for three hours and forty-eight minutes if you are shooting for your personal best finish at 50 years of age. They also taught me that running painfully flat out on the edge of collapse might work for a race but it is no way to live your life. Have you learned something about the FI journey from one of your sports or hobbies you would like to comment on?