In Pursuit of the 26.2 Marathon Tattoo

There are many a runner that have celebrated their conquest of 26.2 miles or 42.2 km with a tattoo. When you talk about running to a non-runner, one of the questions that will usually come up is “have you done a marathon” and the reason is the marathon has long been the celebrated distance appearing in running journals, magazine covers and the newspaper. Every time there is a marathon it makes the local news, if its the Boston Marathon it makes the world news and its something that all people can understand but only those who have taken the challenge to run the distance can truly appreciate what the marathon means.

I had friends who had run some of the biggest marathons out there including the one we all know in Boston. When I ran my first one in 2011, all I remember was people telling me what I needed to do when I hit the wall. The wall is when your body has given what it can and in the face of fear of not finishing, pain the body won’t let go of, the mind has to convince you to suck it up and push forward.

I think every runner owes it to themselves to run the marathon, the results are not important. Run it, finish it and rejoice. How are you going to celebrate this incredible accomplishment? By having it inked. Just Google the word marathon tattoo or 26.2 tattoos in the image search and you will see quite a number of runners who have inked the 26.2 on their body somewhere. One runner in the Runners World forums long ago had said they were going to have a tattoo of the 26.2 done with their finishing time. Some more experienced runners piped in to ask what happens if you beat  that time are you going to cross it out and ink a new time. Good point.

I wanted to get a 26.2 tattoo having done two marathons but this is where I ended up. The training for the marathon is a commitment of time and I wasn’t sure if I would run another. I wondered if I would look at it in the mirror and be thinking I should be running more of them. I like the half marathon distance and have done 13 in my running lifetime with three more set for this year. I thought about getting the 13.1 but was wondering if people would say, ever think about running a marathon. Silly questions I know but that is why we started to develop temporary tattoos.

#TwitterSpeaks: Marathon Tattoos

We asked a number of runners out in the Twitter Universe who were thinking about a marathon tattoo or have one what their reasons were, here is what we heard: @hejtodd I mark my journey through life with positive scars. Remembrance & achievement. Wings carry me 26.2 miles. Ink will show it.  @RunMoxie How 26.2 makes me feel: free, powerful, flying, ever challenging. @heatha262 Since I can’t wear my medals around every day!

Have you run the marathon and celebrated with a marathon tattoo? Are you thinking about getting a tattoo, what are your marathon tattoo ideas? What did you get, let us know in the comments section below.