Anyone who has known me more than 5 minutes knows I run marathons. I’m not fast, but I like to think I’m resilient. Last month I did something unusual: I ran two marathons on consecutive weekends. The experience reminded me why we should be looking for stretch opportunities.

In case you’re not a distance-runner yourself, know that your body typically needs a month to recover after a marathon; I usually schedule mine 3-4 months apart. In October, though, an unusual set of circumstances came up in Australia, so I ran in Melbourne on Oct 14 and on Rottnest Island on Oct 21. My plan was to go all out in Melbourne, then take it easy the next weekend. As it happened, I finished 13 minutes faster (and also, my fastest in 3 years) on Rottnest Island.

How so? Friends speculated that after Melbourne my body “remembered” it could run a marathon, so the second race was no big deal. The body knew that it could do it, and so it did it, without all the drama of “hitting the wall.” Whatever happened, it made me more confident for my next race in April, the Boston Marathon.

That, I would suggest, is one of the biggest benefits of stretch opportunities: trying a challenge shows you what you can do, and gives you the confidence to take another step, then another, and another. Personal development is a marathon, not a sprint (see what I did there?), so trying something a little different can lead to big differences over time.

Share this with someone who you think should try a stretch opportunity, either at work or in their personal life.