If you’re familiar with marathons, you know the Honolulu Marathon is a big event.

You might expect I would share my experience running this Hawaii-based marathon as someone over 60.

However, here’s the thing: you can also participate in a 10K run at the event.

Did you know that walking is an option too?

Or that you could walk it?

If that hasn’t captured your attention yet, there’s more: high school students cheerfully offer scrumptious malasadas (Portuguese donuts) as a reward for completing the event.

While I didn’t formally train for my 10K walk, I seized the opportunity to experience the Honolulu Marathon in my way.

“With a little harder work, a more organized training plan, I could …”

That is true, but I did not formally prepare for my 10K walk; I embraced the chance to experience the Honolulu Marathon.

Today, I’ll share why I prize experiences over things.

(Or, you might think, use an essay to share some recent photos from my recent Oahu adventures.)

Borges on Life

First, a bit from Borges:

Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone. Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is. — Jorge Luis Borges.

Why Borges?

The Argentinian writer was a “literature man.”

But mathematicians, philosophers, and philologists all admire him.

Is it his perfect language?

Extraordinarily broad knowledge?

The universality of his ideas or originality of his fiction?

No matter. Just read him.

Consider exploring Ficciones, a collection of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, chance, labyrinths, infinity, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, and mythology.

Doing the Honolulu Marathon

Last week, I did the Honolulu marathon.

It’s the fourth largest even in the United States (after New York, Chicago, and Boston).

There is no time limit, and everyone is allowed to finish.

Fireworks preceded sunrise, and the race began at 5 a.m.

Diverse Experiences Promote Happiness

There is a link between new and diverse experiences, enhanced happiness, and increased brain activity.

Writing in Nature Neuroscience, researchers note this:

We feel happier when we have more variety in our daily routines.

Going to novel places and having many activities in my daily routine facilitates joy.

The reverse is also true: I am much more likely to seek out rewarding experiences when I am positive.

Study Details

This study examined whether having various experiences in your day-to-day life makes you feel more positive.

Researchers tracked people’s locations in New York and Miami for a few months and asked them about their feelings.

They found that people who visited more places and spent time in different locations reported feeling happier and more positive overall.

Then, they imaged (with MRI) the brains of some participants and found something interesting.

The people who seemed to benefit from this variety had more activity in certain brain areas (the hippocampus and striatum) linked to experiencing new things and feeling rewarded.

Final Thoughts

I finished my 10K, received a participation medal, and joined my fellow runners and walkers in the festival area in Kapiolani Park.

Not everyone can travel to Hawaii, but we can stretch to do diverse activities.