Cary Hyden, chairman of law firm Latham & Watkins LLP’s corporate department, had been working around the clock for 18 days on an initial public offering when he paused to travel to the New Orleans Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon.
Hyden hadn’t planned to run the full marathon.
“I hadn’t had a chance to train,” he recalled. “Then, four days before the race, my son offered to come cheer me on.”
So Hyden, bearing high humidity and pain that set in around mile eight, veered off to the marathon side when the 13.1-mile half-marathon and the 26.2-mile marathon routes diverged.
His lack of training was evident, starting with knee pain and followed by cramping, his feet aching with every step. But he maintained his eight-minute pace, realizing at mile 24 that he could qualify for the Boston Marathon and set a new personal marathon record. He crossed the finish line at 3:33:30, besting his personal record by 15 seconds and running on little but dogged determination. He’ll compete in Boston on April 21.
The same persistence that helped Hyden go twice as far as he’d planned has also helped in his work.
“I’ve had my share of setbacks,” he said.
Hyden uses those experiences to isolate lessons and move toward the goal ahead.
Special Breed
Business leaders like Hyden tend to tap the same resources to run marathons as they leverage to run companies.
Dr. Jon Gunlach, a neuromuscular specialist who works with high-achieving athletes, said his clientele at Stark Sports Performance Training in Irvine includes several executives who train for marathons and triathlons.
Many of his executive clients come for help to improve their overall performance instead of for treatment of injuries.
“These people are typically overachievers,” he said.
The number of U.S. marathon finishers surged from 350,000 in 2000 to nearly 500,000 in 2012, according to Running USA. That’s still less than 2% of the population.
Marathoners, like business heads, are incredibly competitive and look for ways to control variables that can affect their performance. Mental toughness, determination and focus are also part of the winning package.
Eyes on the Road
Greg Keyes, a marathoner and chief executive of Irvine-based IT solutions company Affant Communications, said he urges fellow runners to remember they have control over their success.
“In running, there are variables that you can’t always control. The wind kicks up. It starts to rain. You get a cramp,” he said. “But you can control how you react to variables—and you can anticipate them.”
Keyes points to the example of a trail runner who injures himself by landing on a rock in the trail.
“That person isn’t paying attention. They’re going too fast or are out of control. If they are aware of their surroundings, they could have shortened their stride, anticipated that, ‘Hey, there may be a rock in the road; I better be careful.’ ”
The same analogy holds true in business, he said.
He founded Affant in 1997 and has navigated the company through an ever-changing technological landscape.
“In business, you can’t control all the variables.”
But when you know your product, your market, and your customer, he said, you can have a plan of action for anything.
Keyes, a veteran of 22 races ranging from 10Ks to marathons, aims to log at least 2,400 miles this year.
Achievable Goals
James Doti, president of Chapman University in Orange, started marathoning later in life—he didn’t run his first until 12 years ago when he was 56. He made up for the lost time, finishing 50 in just over a decade.
Doti was inspired to start running when his assistant completed her first marathon. She was glowing with the accomplishment when she came into the office the following Monday, he recalled.
Intrigued, he looked into what it took to complete one and realized that with the right plan in place, he could do it, too.
“Marathoning is a microcosm of life,” he said. “You set a goal, work towards it, and achieve it.”
It’s the same straightforward philosophy he’s followed through his career at Chapman University. The school ranked among the lowest on the U.S. News & World Report list of the best colleges in America when he arrived there in 1991 as its 12th president.
Doti said he set out to reverse that.
“But you don’t set that big goal right away,” he said. “You set more manageable goals—from 90th to 80th, from 80th to 70th to 60th and so on. Eventually, you will reach your goal.”
Chapman ranked sixth among master’s-level universities in the western United States in U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 rankings.
Marathoning allows runners to see success in a relatively short period of time, Doti said.
A person can go from never having run at all to finishing a marathon in less than six months, if they plan, take the time to prepare, and stick with it.
“There are some sacrifices to make,” he said. “You have to follow a good diet, you have to hydrate and be well rested.”
Team Players
Doug Ingram, president of Irvine-based Allergan Inc., approaches marathons the same way he helps run the drug maker, by celebrating the “people component.”
Both require the right people to offer support, solutions and, Ingram joked, “make me look good.”
Ingram started running 19 years ago. He’d read an article about marathoning and was captivated by the idea of the challenge.
He wasn’t a natural runner. So he assembled about a dozen other runners—including Hyden at Latham & Watkins, whom Ingram introduced to the sport in 2007—and formed a loose group. They met four times a week to train, gave each other feedback, and challenged each other to run farther and faster.
Ingram has completed 24 marathons in the nearly 20 years he’s been an avid runner. One of his favorite running memories is his experience at the Chicago Marathon, not because he qualified for the Boston Marathon—which he did, with a time of 3:15—but because he traveled there with his running group.
He said running a marathon, like running a business, is less about discipline than dedication. Runners must be committed to the long-term goal and have the ability to see it through despite the pain of injury and physical exhaustion. Some of his most memorable marathons have been his slowest ones, Ingram said.
At his first Boston Marathon, he was 30 minutes off his projected finish time, and after he crossed the finish line, he collapsed.
“It was my proudest marathon moment.”
“The Wall”
Say the words “hit the wall” to a marathoner, and he or she immediately nods. All runners have heard of it, even if they haven’t experienced it. Around mile 22, many—especially first timers—experience something close to a complete physical and emotional breakdown.
“The worst experience,” said Mingo Lee, cofounder and chief executive of Wahoo’s Fish Taco, “is finding out ‘the wall’ actually happens.”
He said he made it through the wall during his first marathon by drawing on his naturally competitive nature and his iPod. He finished strong, at 3:58, but later, a back injury sidelined him for months.
It was another kind of wall.
Marathoning had been Lee’s way to challenge himself: now what?
Barefoot Running
Then he discovered barefoot running, whose advocates argue the practice corrects a runner’s form and fosters a forefoot strike that results in fewer injuries. For Lee, it means he’s back in the game. He’s now training for the Orange County Half Marathon on May 4, for which Wahoo’s is a major sponsor, and also plans a full marathon in the fall.
Walls of varying sizes are also common in all businesses, he said.
It’s up to the company’s leaders to determine how to tackle them.
“The first step is to realize you have hit the wall,” Lee said. “Now you need to figure out if you should go over it, under it, or around it.”
