Shall I Compare Thee to a Marathon?
Nov. 29, 2024
We watched for over 4 hours and we still missed Mary.
We—my friend Frances—and I were in New York to support and cheer on our dear friend who was gamely running her first marathon in 7 years. For any non-runners out there, that's roughly 42 kilometres or 26 miles. A long way, in other words.
From 10.30, on a bright, beautiful, New York Sunday morning, we stood our ground on Central Park South, 800 meters from the finish line.
For the first time in my own 20-year marathon career, I got to see the super elites fly by, not so much “running” as seeming to bounce off the pavement effortlessly. They were followed by the wheelchair racers, zooming past in their sleek, Formula 1-like racing machines. Then came the upper tier racers, and lots and lots and lots of mid-pack runners, all pushing on towards the finish line.
It was a glorious spectacle of human capacity and determination.
The only problem was, at exactly the moment we were expecting Mary to appear, the signal on our “athlete tracker” konked out.
Up to that point, the app had worked brilliantly. It alerted us the minute Mary started the race. It told us when she crossed the half-way point, just before the Queensboro Bridge. And it showed her making steady progress down 5th Avenue towards Central Park.
And then, just like that, at kilometer 40, the tracker stopped.
At first, we thought Mary herself had stopped. Then we reasoned that, somehow, we must have missed her in the crowds of runners. We had a plan to meet up once Mary had her finisher’s medal and exited Central Park, so we decided we better get a move on. The last thing you want to do is keep a tired, cold marathon runner waiting deliriously on some sidewalk.
Turns out, we hadn’t missed her.
The tracker had stopped, but Mary hadn’t. However, she had slowed down, because she was battling a hamstring injury that had mysteriously—not to mention supremely annoyingly—appeared at kilometer 23.
Talk about determination! For almost half the race, Mary kept going despite having to run tilted over, like Quasimodo (her words, not mine).
We were so proud of her. As Mary said when all was said and done, “It wasn’t my best time, but I had the best time.” (And, by the way, that “not my best time” still put Mary in the top 18 percent of women her age and qualified her for Boston. You go, girl!!)
Being in New York for Mary’s marathon—and following all her preparations leading up to the big day—made me think that the “rules” for a successful marathon can apply equally to writing.
Rule No. 1: Your approach depends on your goal.
How you approach your marathon training is entirely dependent on your goal. Is this your first marathon? Are you going for a personal best? A respectable age-graded finish? Or the win? (Haha—we wish.)
Your goal—and indeed the course—guides and informs your weekly training mileage, your optimum mix of distance, speed and hills, and myriad other things like rest, nutrition and cross training.
Writing is the same. The first question to ask yourself is: Why am I writing? Am I primarily “telling”—sharing, informing, educating—or am I “asking”—aiming, hoping, expecting something in return, be it an answer, an approval, a comment, or a sign up.
If you are clear about what you’re trying to accomplish, and who your audience is, your writing is much more likely to stay clear, concise and cohesive.
As Lewis Carroll wrote in Alice in Wonderland, “If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take.”
Rule No. 2: You need a plan.
When it comes to running a marathon, winging it rarely turns out well. (I speak from experience.) You need a plan—or rather, several plans: A training plan, a race-day plan, and a post-race plan.
You even need a “day-before-the-race” plan.
For example, the day before the marathon should be spent relaxing with your feet up. You definitely don’t want to be walking around, sightseeing—as you might in a buzzy city like New York. To nip any such temptation in the bud, on the Saturday afternoon before this year’s NYC marathon, we took Mary off to Broadway to see the Tony-award winning show Stereophonic. Three hours. Butt firmly in seat. Check.
Your writing will also benefit from having a plan. Think about—and write down—your beginning, middle and end. Draft a rough outline that includes bullet points for each section of your piece. If you’re a bit stuck, consider sketching a “mind map” to explore different ideas and help you get the creative juices flowing.
There is no perfectly right way to plan. I use different methods at different times, depending on how inspired I’m feeling or how much raw material I might already have collected. The important thing is to do it.
It’s pretty obvious but I’ll say it anyway: Having a plan not only helps you organize your thoughts, it keeps you on the straight and narrow until you cross the finish line.
Rule No. 3: Keep it simple.
Running is the simplest, most basic thing a human can do. One foot in front of the other. Over and over and over again. You don’t need any fancy gear other than a decent pair of running shoes—and even that’s debatable, if you listen to the minimalist shoe folks.
But in today’s techno-crazed, data-driven world, it’s easy to overcomplicate things with too much info, too much advice, too much analysis. Does it really make us better runners? Thomas, an old running friend, ran several marathons without wearing a watch. I know! He just went on feel, and not only did he “feel” fast, he was fast!
When it comes to writing, we often fall into the same trap. We think bigger, longer and fancier equals better. We tend to use words like “accordingly”, “eventuate” and “necessitate” when “so”, “occur” and “need” are just as good, if not better. That’s because they’re short, simple and familiar, all qualities which make reading and comprehension faster and easier.
The same goes for sentences. According to Readers’ Degree of Understanding, a 2009 study by the American Press Institute, readers will understand 90-99% of a sentence that is 15 words long. But increase that sentence to just 25 words, and understanding drops to 50-59%. Need I say more?
Rule No. 4: Stay active.
It goes without saying that if you’re training for a marathon, you’re “active.” But even after you’ve finally finished your marathon, it’s better to engage in “active recovery”—low-intensity exercise—than to give in to complete rest. (Although this is more likely what you really feel like doing!) According to the experts, active recovery delivers a host of benefits, including reducing soreness, increasing blood flow, and keeping the muscles flexible.
For writing, the experts (different ones) recommend we use the “active voice” as much as possible. This is an example of a sentence in the active voice: “The team evaluated the various repair options.” If we turn this into a passive voice sentence, it becomes: “The various repair options were evaluated by the team.”
The passive voice sentence isn’t grammatically wrong, but it lacks energy and is longer by two words. In the example, we’re lucky that the actor is identified (“the team”). But all too often in a passive voice sentence, there’s nary a subject in sight, just something being mysteriously acted upon by some unknown, unnamed force – the “zombies”, as many plain language advocates put it.
It’s worth stating that the passive voice does have its place. But it’s generally “not preferred” (to use a passive phrase). In my writing workshops, I encourage clients to, at least, become more aware of the passive voice—in their own and others’ writing. And if they do insist on using the passive, I tell them they should be prepared to justify why they’re doing so.
Rule No 5: Commit to constant improvement.
In marathon running—and pretty much everything in life—the old adage is true: practice makes perfect.
To improve, you have to keep at it—keep doing those long runs, those hills, those track workouts, week in and week out.
And you need to reflect, post-race, on how it all went. Did your plan produce the intended result?
Didn’t go under 4 hours? Or qualify for Boston? There’s always next time. (Which is probably why I ran 20 marathons…always hoping to do better next time!) Marathoners are nothing if not eternally optimistic.
Writing is the same. Writing is largely a skill and a process, something to be learned. To master it, you need to practice. And guess what? Practice makes you competent. Maybe not Ernest Hemingway competent, but certainly good enough to make your daily business writing life and the lives of your colleagues and clients better, easier and more productive.
One whole shelf in my office is filled with books on writing—everything from the Oxford Guide to Plain Language and the HBR Guide to Better Business Writing to Semicolon and Fucking Apostrophes (yes, that’s the actual name). And I keep buying more!
The point is, even though I’ve spent decades now as a communications professional, I’m always trying to get better.
So, go ahead: take a course, buy a grammar guide, be open to feedback from your boss, read good writing to see how the experts do it. Any and all of these things will make your writing better.
As for Mary, I’m pretty sure she’s already planning her next marathon.
Remember this: Writing is a lot like running a marathon. The best results come when you apply these 5 rules: Know your purpose; have a plan; stay “active;” keep it simple; and commit to constant improvement.
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