The Last Mile

Before I began training for this marathon, I had done one run longer than 13 miles in my life. Probably it would have made most sense to run a half-marathon, since most of my runs in recent years have been 6-8 miles. In order to be ready for October 21, I knew I needed to start doing a weekly run of at least 12 miles in order to accustom my body to running long distances. I have made runs of 13, 14 and 16 miles in recent weeks, and today I did a 20 miler. Boy am I sore!

One of the things I have observed in these longer runs is that no matter how long it is, getting within one mile of my goal is not that hard, but once I am in the final mile, the physical and psychological discomfort gets much more severe. The interesting thing is, that has been a consistent pattern whether I was doing a 12-miler or 16, or 20. I’ve learned that it is important to stretch oneself with aggressive goals, since the mind and spirit begin to align themselves with the goal, whatever it is. Why else can I get within one mile of my goal each time – regardless of what the goal is – without major difficulty?

Four years ago Grameen Foundation staff debated vigorously whether we should aspire to increase our partners’ outreach by three million or five million. Many felt that three million was achievable and adopting five million was tantamount to setting ourselves up for failure. In the end, the five million goal won out. Today, less than two years from our end-date, we are on course to exceed our five-year goal of five million new microfinance clients. As I ice my knees at home here tonight, I am glad that we did not opt for three million. If we had done so, perhaps our creativity and effort would have been set at that lower level. And maybe two million poor families would lack access to the lifeline of microfinance in early 2009 as a result of limiting ourselves to more “realistic” goals.