I am six weeks into training for my second marathon. For those who do not know the distance of a full marathon, it is 26.2 miles.

As I write, I am confounded about how I have been talked into running a full marathon again. After my first marathon, I toasted everyone at the celebration dinner and said, “Here’s to never running any distance that starts with the word “20” ever again.” Yet here I am signed up, paid up, and committed to running another one.

Since I have hours of running built into my schedule these days, I have lots of time for thinking. One of my thoughts has been the similarities between marathon training and managing money. The feelings are so similar.

Marathon training is like budgeting. I really do not enjoy looking at my training schedule and seeing how many miles I am supposed to run today. It was the same with budgeting. I really did not want to budget. I am a spender, and I felt that a budget would be too controlling, restricting and constricting on my life. I did not want the budget to tell me how to spend my money today.

Yet, something amazing happens when I start running. I am energized. I feel great! The health benefits are noticeable in maintaining an excellent weight, low heart rate and increased energy levels.

The same thing happened when we began budgeting our money. The financial benefits were noticeable. We have an emergency fund. We became debt-free (except for the house) in just 14 months, and we have been able to live without incurring any new debt for nearly five years now. We are able to invest every single month. We are able to fund some of our dreams.

Marathon training is also like pursuing debt freedom. It is so exciting to embark on a mission with a big goal like running 26.2 miles, and the first week of training is really manageable. I only had to run three miles the first run. Cakewalk. Now I am in week six, and I had to run 12 miles today. That will test a person’s commitment to a goal!

Marathon training is definitely like the pursuit of debt freedom. It is so exciting to start out on the journey to debt freedom. You get a big tax refund, and off it goes to hammer debt. You see the balance drop in a big way. Then one goes for six months with no extra income to attack the debt with and only minimum payments are made. The debt still goes down, but much slower. This is when the commitment is tested.

Is the goal worth it? Absolutely. Is it tough getting from here to there? Absolutely.

Marathon training feels a lot like managing money, and the benefits far outweigh the challenges.