You Were Inspired by the Boston Marathon. Now What? |
Pick someone you admire.
Name the excellence in question.
Practice the excellence.
Marathon Monday is held annually on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday of April in Massachusetts. On that day, the Boston Marathon, which stretches 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers) from Hopkinton to Boston, takes place.
The Boston Marathon is as much of a celebration as it is a race, yet it brings together some of the best athletes in the world to compete. In 2026, these included previous Boston champions, and eventual winners, Sharon Lokedi and John Korir. In the wheelchair division, perennial champions, Marcel Hug and Eden Rainbow-Cooper, were victorious.
More than 30,000 people competed on Monday, and because of moderate temperatures and a slight tailwind on the point-to-point course, times were fast. In total, an astounding 5,849 runners, including 609 women, completed the marathon in under 3 hours. It was a great day to be a running fan.
The race is over. Now what?
Big sporting events like the Boston Marathon are exciting. A lot of attention is drawn to the event. We see excellence on display and admire it. But then the day passes. The enthusiasm fades, and we carry on with our lives unchanged. This is a missed opportunity to grow.
Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard describes the tendency to be mere admirers instead of imitators. We see someone excellent and appreciably perceive them, but remain unaffected. We carry on unchanged. By contrast, an imitator is compelled by the excellent other and acts on what he appreciably perceives.
Kierkegaard writes, “An imitator is or strives to be what he admires, and an admirer keeps himself personally detached [and] does not discover that what is admired involves a claim upon him to be or at least to strive to be what is admired.”[1]
Following Marathon Monday, we should not keep ourselves “personally detached” from the excellence we observed. We should imitate it. Admiration should transform us for good.
Here is some guidance on how to do that.
1. Pick someone you admire.
There were many compelling storylines and inspiring performances in the 2026 Boston Marathon. Among them was an American course record performance by Jess McClain.
In 2018, McClain walked away from professional running following a period of dissatisfaction and injuries. She returned to the sport on her own terms a few years later, competing alongside a full-time job. She has since become an ascendant figure in the American running scene. This was her second straight top-American honors at the Boston marathon.[2]
I admire Jess McClain for many reasons. One reason is her resilience in returning to high-level athletics. Another is her integrity in deciding to compete on her own terms while pursuing a career that is meaningful to her. A final reason is her joy. She displays buoyancy and lightness even when things don’t go her way.[3]
There are many others from the race who merit admiration—parents balancing busy lives with consistent running, those who fundraised for great causes, and people who overcame setbacks to compete at the event.
Interestingly, we are more likely to imitate exemplars who are relatable and attainable to us.[4] This means we do not need to select the fastest runners to serve as exemplars. We can choose someone we find excellent and share something in common with. Relatable exemplars seem more accessible, and therefore more imitable, than those whose lives are distant from our own.
2. Name the excellence in question.
It can be beneficial to name what you admire about someone. This helps us distinguish what is truly excellent from confounding features like popularity or charisma.
Naming excellences can also help us to figure out which of an exemplar’s good qualities are imitable. For example, I may never be able to emulate the smooth stride of Sharon Lokedi over the final miles of a marathon or the raw speed of Zouhair Talbi, but I can emulate their perseverance, humility, resilience, or courage. These qualities are imitable, or open to me. I can improve in these respects.[5]
3. Practice the excellence.
As Kierkegaard observed, it is one thing to notice an excellent trait in an admirable person. It is something else entirely to act in terms of that trait, or to imitate the excellent person. Imitation means someone’s excellence makes a claim on us to be likewise.
Here is an example. I admire the courage of a runner, so I challenge myself to undertake small risks in my training. I may do so by starting runs slightly faster than usual, developing a fitting fear, confronting the possibility that things might go awry.
Alternatively, I might practice courage in areas of life outside of running, such as at work or in other hobbies, such as chess, music, or painting. I appropriate the excellence in my own context, practicing being better in ways that make sense of my own life.[6]
Marathon Monday was exciting. But after Monday came Tuesday, then Wednesday. Our collective enthusiasm fizzled. Following a big race, it can be easy to walk away unchanged. Or we can recognize that excellence makes a claim on us and decide to become better.
[1] Soren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity. Translated by H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 241.
[2] Brooks Athlete: Jess McClain. Brooks. Web