From Finish Line to Financial Security: Grandma’s Marathon Lessons for Your Retirement

My son and I ran the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon this past weekend. For those that don’t know, Grandma’s half and full marathons run point-to-point along Scenic Route 61 and Lake Superior. A truly beautiful race. Given the circumstances, I was very injured, and my son literally went the entire night without sleep; we both had a decent race and a wonderful time — you never know what you can do until you try!

Marathons and money management might seem worlds apart, but after years of pounding the pavement and crunching numbers, I’ve realized they share surprisingly similar principles. The discipline, strategy, and adaptability required to conquer 26.2 (or 13.1) miles are powerful lessons we can apply directly to investing and retirement planning.

Let’s lace up and explore!

The Training Ground: 3 Tips For Discipline and Smart Planning

Just like you wouldn’t wake up one day and decide to run a marathon without preparation, your retirement demands thoughtful groundwork.

1. Work Smart, Not Just Hard: Every successful runner has a training plan. It’s not about aimless miles; it’s about targeted workouts, proper nutrition, and recovery. In investing, this translates to having a clear financial plan. Are you optimizing your savings, diversifying appropriately, and utilizing tax-efficient strategies? Don’t just save blindly; save with purpose.
2. Be Realistic About Your Starting Line: When you begin marathon training, you assess your current fitness, your available time, and your resources. You don’t expect to run a sub-three-hour marathon if you’ve never run more than a 5K and have some extra weight. The same applies to your financial life. Be honest about your current income, expenses, risk tolerance, existing savings, and the time you have until retirement. Overly ambitious expectations without a realistic assessment of your capacity to save or invest can lead to burnout and disappointment.
3. Flexibility is Your Pace Partner: Life is the ultimate unpredictable course. You might start training 20 hours a week, but then a new job demands more time. A spouse gets laid off. Kids get sick. Aging parents need support. Suddenly, your rigorous training schedule needs a complete overhaul. Financial planning is no different. Unexpected medical bills, job changes, or new family responsibilities all require you to adjust your expectations and your financial strategy. The best plans aren’t rigid; they’re adaptable.

Race Day Reality: Trust Your Plan, Not the Crowd

The starting gun fires, and adrenaline surges. This is where your true training is tested.

1. Trust Your Training, Not Others’ Pace: On race day, it’s tempting to get caught up in the excitement, to chase that super-fast runner next to you, even if they’re clearly out of your league. Starting too fast is a rookie mistake that can jeopardize your entire race, leading to hitting “the wall” much earlier than expected. Even though my son has done dozens of races, he got caught up in this type of thing, too. He started off too fast and ran out of steam late in the race, just missing his goal of sub-8-minute miles. This outcome was more predictable since he knew he had been up for over 16 hours and was vulnerable to fatigue. This directly mirrors the allure of the “shiny new investment.” Chasing hot stocks, succumbing to market FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), or taking on excessive risk because others seem to be getting rich fast is a sure path to jeopardizing your long-term financial race. Don’t get greedy with your desired investment returns or your projected retirement date if it means sacrificing your long-term security. Stick to your diversified strategy and risk tolerance.
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2. Adapt to Conditions, Don’t Fight Them: Imagine training for months in cool, low-humidity 50-degree weather, only to wake up on race day to a humid, 95-degree scorcher. Trying to maintain your normal 7-minute mile pace in those conditions would be foolish, even dangerous. The smart, adaptable move is to drop to a 9-minute mile, or even slower. You make an educated guess, adjust your effort, and live with the result, knowing you’ve preserved your ability to finish. This mirrors how you should handle unexpected adversity in retirement. Whether it’s extreme unforeseen expenses or your spouse needing long-term care, acknowledge your new reality and make tactical adjustments to your financial plan. Your overall “race” toward financial security remains the same, and your core strategy holds, but you make small, flexible adjustments in response to extreme, unexpected events.

The Support Crew: Communication and Shared Goals

Behind every successful marathoner is often a dedicated support system.

1. Communicate and Coordinate: Your spouse, family, and even close friends need to understand your training commitment, your race day plan, and your goals. This minimizes friction and increases support. Financial planning thrives on open communication, especially with your spouse or partner. If you’re envisioning monthly spending of $5,000 and a move to the quiet Brainerd Lakes area, but your spouse dreams of $10,000 a month and world travel, you have a significant disconnect. Similarly, a wide divergence in risk tolerance can cause immense stress. To increase the probability of financial success, ensure everyone knows what to expect and that your core goals are aligned.

An Often Overlooked Lesson From Running A Marathon: The Diversification Lesson

One of the most overlooked, yet powerful, lessons marathon training taught me came from joining a run club nine years ago. I initially joined for the social connection and, more importantly, so my 12-year-old son, who quickly outpaced me, had training partners.

I found an incredible group of fast, kind people. Following some on social media and tracking their race times became a pastime – some might call it “race stalking,” I called it “race admiring.” One charismatic runner, in particular, was a joy to follow, both on social media and in his races.

During one Boston Marathon, I was tracking him in real-time. But what unfolded was far from what I – and certainly he – expected. Instead of his typical 3-hour-ish pace, his expected times ballooned to 4 hours, then 4.5, 5, and beyond. I later learned he’d had a terrible bout of food poisoning (bad clam chowder, apparently) and spent much of the race in port-a-potties. Not a good race day at all.

As I saw other race times come in, I also started looking at historical data for Boston. What struck me was the remarkable predictability of overall race times year after year. For years that deviated, it was usually due to unusually hot weather.

What did this teach me about investing and retirement planning?

• Individual Performance vs. Collective Predictability: Trying to predict the performance of one individual runner (or one individual stock or sector) is incredibly difficult and fraught with risk. My friend’s Boston experience was a stark reminder. This holds true even for a highly consistent race like Grandma’s Marathon; while it has a reputation for fast times (like Dominic Ondoro’s 2:09:06 course record in 2014 or Volha Mazuronak’s 2:23:52 in 2024), predicting any single runner’s performance on a given day is far more challenging than looking at the collective trend of thousands of finishers.
• The Power of Diversification: In contrast, the collective performance of thousands of runners was far more predictable. This is the essence of diversification. Putting too much faith (or capital) into one individual stock, one sector, or even one single investment strategy carries immense, often unnecessary, risk.
• Predictability is better than “Super Fast”: For retirement planning, predictability and reliability matter far more than achieving a “super-fast” portfolio return that exposes you to devastating setbacks. Diversification, coupled with smart planning, creates a more stable, predictable path to your financial finish line, reducing the odds of your financial race ending up in a port-a-potty.

So, whether you’re training for your next race or spending your retirement nest egg, remember: discipline, adaptability, communication, and, crucially, diversification are your best allies on the long marathon road to success.

What marathon lessons have you applied to your financial life? Share your thoughts on how discipline has impacted your financial journey in the comments below!

If you don’t have a retirement training schedule and would like to get one or to learn more about Gaurdrails, schedule an Introductory Meeting:

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Here are some photos from my son’s and my 2025 Grandma’s Half Marathon race:

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To health and wealth!

Mark Struthers, CFA, CFP®, CRC®, RMA®

For current clients looking for a meeting:

This commentary is provided for general information purposes only, should not be construed as investment, tax, or legal advice, and does not constitute an attorney/client relationship. Past performance of any market results is no assurance of future performance. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed.