[dakiol]

And running the marathon is just running the marathon? I disagree. Big part of running the marathon is in the preparation. Weeks after weeks of training and not skipping a single session. The marathon itself is the tip of the iceberg; important but not the whole "thing".

[recursive]

There are some things that you just can't do without preparation. But never mistake the preparation for doing the thing. You can be "getting in shape for a marathon" forever without ever running a marathon.

[olliepro]

It depends on your thing. If the marathon was just the motivation, your thing is running... if the marathon was the bucketlist item, it is the thing.

[asukachikaru]

No matter how much preparation and training one does, if they haven’t run the marathon, they haven’t run the marathon.

[cortesoft]

Right, but conversely you can’t run the marathon unless you train. You can’t skip straight to doing the thing.