It Is Not the Miles, It Is the Outcome: Lessons from Marathon Training

By Lori Milhaven, EVP, International Institute for Learning, Inc.
August 5, 2026

Somewhere around mile 8 of a training run last week, soaked through and well behind pace, I found myself thinking, this is exactly what a project looks like in the messy middle. Long after the baseline stopped matching reality, and long before anyone remembers how much the plan had to change.

Nobody sees the version of the plan that is surviving contact with execution. They will only see the finish line come November. This is my story of everything before it.

The Charter, Deciding to Run

Every project starts with a charter that looks simple from the outside and is anything but. Mine was deciding to run the 2026 New York City Marathon with Fred’s Team, in support of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. I have had cancer twice in my life. One of those times, MSK did more than treat the illness; they helped me reclaim my body, confidence, and a future that made this possible. Running for them is not a symbolic gesture. It is closer to a debt of gratitude I get to repay one mile at a time. That is the charter, and it is the reason the mission stays fixed even when everything around it moves.

Building the Plan

I approach marathon training the same way I approach any major initiative: start with a baseline, then build a phased delivery plan. First came the base-mileage phase to build an aerobic foundation. Then came the build phase, that layers in tempo runs and hill work, with controlled scope increases against a fixed deadline.

This is followed by a peak phase, with long runs on the critical path that will test my patience as much as my legs. And a taper at the end, where the hardest discipline is doing less, not more, and trusting the work already banked. On paper, it is a clean, linear work breakdown structure. In practice, almost none of it goes untouched. Every week brings its own round of re-baselining.

Where the Plan is Meeting Reality

PMI’s PMBOK® Guide-Eighth Edition moves away from a rigid, sequential view of project delivery in favor of principles, including stewardship, adaptability, collaboration, and a relentless focus on value over output. Marathon training is turning that from theory into daily practice, in real time. Summer heat can push long runs before sunrise. Tight calves, sore hips, and tired feet have become part of the daily risk register, and the plan bends constantly to absorb them. Most days, the hardest part is not the mileage, it is the go/no-go decision at the door. That is where an amazing partner functions like the best kind of project sponsor. Someone who understands commitment, clears space for it, and helps get you out there anyway. Add unpredictable weather, packed workdays, and the ordinary grind of resourcing a project against a full-time job, and it becomes a live case study in adaptive, principle-led execution. The stakes are personal. The deadline is not. November 1, 2026, marathon morning, does not move for anyone. No amount of change management gets that date back.

Stakeholders Showing Up

No plan survives without stakeholder management, and none of that works without people who show up. Mine starts at home, with my husband! 30+ years together and just as many as a basketball coach has given him the perfect blend of encouragement and tough love, even when I argue back!

Our four kids are grown, busy, and still show up for me, their support, along with their partners, mean more than they know. And the rest of my family? Mom, sister, uncle, aunt, in-laws, nieces, nephews have a gift of showing up with the right words at exactly the right time. Close friends and colleagues have shown up too, cheering me on alongside full workdays and real deadlines. They are not on any project plan, but they are all an important part of the delivery team. I appreciate them every day.

What I am Running Toward

I am somewhere in the middle of the execution phase, the hardest long runs still ahead, the taper still weeks away. But I already know what November is really for, crossing that line, making all of my stakeholders and project team proud, and doing it all under the banner of Fred’s Team for the hospital (MSK) that made it possible for me to be there at all.

The Real Outcome

Our new way of working as project professionals is to measure success by value delivered, not just tasks completed. I am living that distinction right now.

The real outcome is not a finisher’s medal, it is the training itself, proof that a body that has been through more than any plan could account for can be rebuilt, mile by mile, toward something worth finishing. No status report captures that. Only the outcome does.

See you at the finish line on November 1, 2026! And beyond that day, I hope you are chasing projects, both professional and personal, that mean something to you and to all the stakeholders in your life.

If you are moved to give, here is where: [donate]. And if not, thank you for reading my story, it means so much.

Lori Milhaven

Executive Vice President at International Institute for Learning (IIL)
Our deepest purpose is to enable growth and success of individuals, teams and organizations with long-lasting, high quality learning in a technology-driven world. Lori is honored to have been with IIL over 30 years, and to make it her mission to focus on continuous improvement, client driven success and to go above and beyond to meet expectations.