Someone, somewhere holds the distinction of having run the slowest marathon of all time. At some point in history, at an official marathon, there was a finisher who took longer to complete the race than any other finisher at any other official race ever held. There was no award nor recognition of this feat. I doubt anyone, including the individual, even knows about it. But, he or she exists. That is a fact.

This person is out there somewhere. For this writing’s sake, we’ll assume this person is a male. At some point in this guy’s life, he decided to run a marathon. Maybe he was a runner, maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was doing it to lose weight, maybe he did it as a dare. He could have been a 20-something who threw up all over the course. Maybe he was in his 50s and walked the entire thing on bad knees. Whatever the case though, he finished the race. He completed a marathon. He was given a medal at the finish line, sipped some Gatorade, and limped off into the crowd.

I doubt this guy made note of his time. I doubt anyone did. But, unbeknownst to him or the race officials, his time that day was the longest ever recorded by a marathon finisher. Yet, despite having the slowest time ever measured, he is a marathon finisher. He did it. He completed the entire thing and for the rest of his life he can say he finished a marathon. No matter what anyone says, that trumps every other person in the world who’s thought about running a marathon, but came up with an excuse not to.

I fall into this category. I’m athletic and have always been active. I work out five or six times a week and have run several half marathons. But, I’ve never run the full thing. I’ve thought about it, talked about it, and have almost committed to it, yet I’ve never pulled the trigger. There was always some excuse. I’d tell myself it wasn’t worth all those Saturday mornings of long runs. Or, I’d convince myself that it just wasn’t that important to me. Whatever the case, I just never did it.

This man, whoever he is, faced the same challenges and he created similar excuses. But, he fought through them. He realized that it was important to him, so he did it. He trained for it. He gave up those Saturday mornings. He ran the marathon, and he’ll forever be proud of himself for doing it.

Maybe a marathon isn’t your thing. Maybe you could care less about running 26 miles. Fair enough. But, I bet there’s something. I bet there is something else you want to do but have never attempted. Maybe it’s performing stand-up, or writing a book, or playing a sport. Whatever it is, someone has been the worst at it. Someone holds the distinction of having performed the worst set in stand up history. Another person has written the worst novel of all time. Someone else has played the worst game. But all of them, each one of these “failures” has done more than all the armchair quarterbacks, critics, and naysayers. They have each done more than all those who didn’t have the stones to try.

So, join them. Prove to yourself that you’ve got the grit to try. Show that your drive is stronger than your aversion to embarrassment. Because on the other side you’ll see that the honor in your accomplishment outweighs whatever ridicule could have come your way. You can’t understand this disparity from the sideline. It only becomes clear once you step onto the stage, run into the game, or put your thoughts onto the page. You’ll learn that on the other side of that fear is strength and you’ll see just how strong you can be.