Marathon runners are better at setting goals than business owners
- Lucy
- Apr 28
- 7 min read
Updated: May 22
I’ve been talking a lot about intersections lately: a combination of different topics that create your own unique space. And the crossover of running a marathon and running a business is one of mine. So it’s only fitting that I am writing this whilst watching the highlights of the 2026 London Marathon, ready to break down how they’re not too dissimilar (stay with me for that).
Running a marathon is, of course, not easy. There are months of preparation involved, likely plenty of sacrifice and a lot of grit and determination needed to get you across the line in that goal time. Be that a goal of simply finishing, a PB, or anything in between.
So I found it especially interesting when I came across this graph of marathon finishing times.
Anyone who has run a running race involving pacers (people marked to be running at the required pace in order to achieve a certain time, usually in 15-minute time intervals for a half or full marathon), or spectated one, knows about the big cluster of people you’ll get around each pacer. This is because, naturally, when writing out a goal time, most of us like a round number. And plan to stick with the person (the pacer) whose job it is to get us there.
This graph, whilst technically depicting actual finish times, represents goal finish times.
There’s a steep drop-off in the number of finishers very slightly after each half-hour mark: specifically, 3 hours, 3 hours 30, 4 hours, and 4 hours 30. With a steep incline in finishes right before. Because people were aiming for, and subsequently achieved, their big goal time.
If you look closer, there’s also a slightly smaller, but still significant, spike and drop off of finish times just after most 5-minute increments: most notably in times between 3 hours and 4 hours. Again, reflecting a clear chart of what people’s goal finish times would have been.
Coming from a family and friendship group of runners, this makes complete sense. Over the last few weeks, I know numerous people who’ve run Brighton, Newport, Boston (UK), Manchester, and London marathons, and they’ve all set a target goal of a time ending with a 5 or a 0. Very few people are setting a goal of 3 hours 52, you’re setting a goal of.3 hours 50 or 3 hours 55.
So what an excellent example this is of how people have set a very clear goal and gone on to achieve or exceed that.
I think there are very few instances outside of sporting competitions where such clear goals are set. Whilst we talk about setting SMART goals and all understand that goals need to be measurable, it’s easy to get lost in the world of goal setting.
But in events like the marathon, your goal is simply a time. You can’t really make it more complicated than that. It’s the perfect measurable goal opportunity.
Marathon finish times are clearly further proof that goal setting works.
And I have experienced this first-hand.
For my first marathon, I wanted to run it in under 4 hours.
Having the advantage of naivety, not having completed one before, I was open about this being my goal. And happily told my friends, family, and colleagues that that’s what I wanted.
Thankfully, the stars aligned, everything went as smoothly as possible, and I got 3hrs 55. Smashed it.
In my most recent fourth marathon, I undersold myself. I had trained incredibly hard. I told people I “wanted a PB”, which at the time was 3hrs 46mins. But secretly, so secretly, I didn’t really realise until after the race, I knew I had wanted sub 3hrs 30. That was the level I had trained to and worked for.
I crossed the line in 3 hours and 33 minutes. Still an amazing time and massive PB. But if I’d really spoken about it and acknowledged to myself that I wanted sub 3hrs 30, could I have got that? Did I really need that wee break and that extra walk break? Could I have pushed a bit more in that second half? We’ll never know.
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Coach Kelvin talks about exactly this when he encourages people to “feel free to set big scary goals”. His advice is, if you don’t tell people your big goal, at least write it down on a piece of paper to make it real to yourself.
And I think this really applies with business too. If you aren’t clear on what your goal is, you’re not going to achieve it because you don’t have something to aim for.
So what else can apply to both running marathons and running a business?
My 6 top tips for both.
1. Keep it interesting.
Marathon training can be really boring. Especially if you do most of your training alone like me. There really is only so long you can be left to your own thoughts, and even listening to your favourite audiobook or playlist can become extremely monotonous. So I mix it up with different types of sessions and different routes.
It’s the same with work. If it gets boring, you risk being unmotivated, not giving it your full effort, or even just giving up entirely. So what can you do to keep it interesting?
2. If it’s your number 1 priority, it has to be what you say yes to.
I am a big fan of balance. I’m the first to advocate for a Saturday night out with perhaps one too many wines, shaken off by a 10k ‘recovery’ run on a Sunday. This just about works when my priority is to have fun and balance social and fitness (a tricky feat). But if you're in marathon training and that run has to be 20 miles, I can say from experience that you do not want to do that on 4 hours of sleep.
Work is the same. You avoid burnout by, at relevant times, making work your number 1 priority and saying no to everything that doesn’t align with that.
If you have a tough month ahead or a big project you want to nail, you have to make sacrifices to hit that goal. Be that other work projects that aren’t relevant or things outside of work, like social or fitness.
Knowing that you can then have future times where work isn’t your number one priority and reverse that accordingly.
3. Set a realistic timeline.
There’s a reason why you won’t get a marathon plan for less than 12 weeks, and why most are around the 16-week mark. It’s because that’s how long it realistically takes to train for a marathon. If you tried to run a marathon with 4 weeks of training, you’d likely end up injured, ill, and/ or dropping out of the race. It’s not advised.
Your work goals are the same. Think about how long it will realistically take you to achieve that thing.
I’m one of the worst culprits for deciding on a new direction and wanting to achieve that within 3 months, but sadly, that often isn’t realistic.
As you would for a running race, I plan the work needed in reverse. Starting with the goal being achieved and working back through all the tasks or sessions I’d need to complete to get there. Turning that into my timeline and plan.
4. Set yourself one goal.
When I’m marathon training, I am only training for a marathon. As a side effect, marathon training will likely make you fit for a half-marathon too. But I accept that I am not going to be setting my PB at the 100m in the same time period. That’s a completely different type of plan I would need to follow.
Often, with work, we want to achieve everything all at once. 10+ different goals, each requiring a different focus. But you wouldn’t train for a sprint and a marathon at the same time; you’d pick one. And that is the same attitude that needs to be applied for work goals.
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5. There are no shortcuts
Contrary to what any fitness influencer or business course seller will try to sell you, there is no secret ticket to success in either. It’s as impossible to wake up with a 6-pack of abs tomorrow as it is to wake up with a 1 million pound business formed overnight.
There are good and bad sides to this. Crossing that finish line is emotional because of all the hard work you’ve put in to get there. It’s such a big accomplishment because it’s not easy. And that’s the same with business. Having a successful business is, of course, hard work. But it will be much more satisfying when you can look back on all the lessons and late nights you’ve spent to finally achieve that goal.
6. It’s never too late
The average age of UK entrepreneurs is 42 (source). The average age of a marathon runner is “around 40 years old” (source).
I am by no means saying 40 is old, but when the internet is filled with the recent Forbes 30 under 30 announcements and an endless list of successful 20-something-year-olds, it’s easy to think the average would be much younger.
The oldest person to complete a marathon is the late Fauja Singh, founder member of the East London running club ‘Sikhs in the City’, who is believed to have been 100 years old when he ran the Toronto Waterfront Marathon on 16 October 2011 in 8 hours, 25 minutes (source).
You probably won’t want to start a business when you’re 100, but it’s never too late.
So if you’ve been thinking of running a marathon or a business (or both), there really is no time like the present.
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