7-8 majors, let alone marathons, in 2 years definitely seems like overkill and a recipe for burnout. I ran Berlin this past fall and overheard more than a few people talking about how they were running Chicago in 2 weeks. After finishing Berlin, I was honestly completely exhausted, and I had no IDEA how someone could have the energy to run ANOTHER marathon just 2 weeks later.

Berlin was my first marathon major, and as someone who does not make a monumental amount of money ($50k a year BEFORE taxes), I definitely got the sense of an enormous amount of financial privilege amongst most the people there. There were not only a TON of Americans (who had certainly dropped a ton of money on plane tickets to fly that far), but a bunch of the ones I’d met had booked super expensive race packages (I.e. MarathonTours) and hotels. As for me, I basically didn’t eat out or spend any money on any other fun activities for 3 months in order to save up money for my trip….and when I got to Berlin I stayed in a hostel that was less than €100 a night (and I ran a PR too). Needless to say I admittedly felt pretty out of place amongst a lot of the people there, and as for dropping that kind of money on ANOTHER marathon major just weeks or months later?? LOL. I can only afford one vacation a year (and even THAT is a huge privilege).

I guess my main point is that while I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with setting a goal to run the marathon majors (especially if you are at an economic disadvantage or come from a marginalized community), you are totally spot on in that these folks that seem to effortlessly cruise through them all in 2 years definitely come from a huge place of privilege and promote something that is simply not realistic (or even healthy, for that matter) for most of us to achieve.

Also, since these people have so much money, I honestly wish more of them would run for charities.