On what a victory costs

This is Epictetus talking to a student who wanted the crown without the training. The line sits inside a longer warning: anyone can say "I would conquer at the Olympic Games," but the wish is not the work. Before the crown comes the diet, the drills in heat and cold, the surrendered wine, the trainer's orders obeyed whether you feel like it or not. Epictetus refused to let ambition skip its bill. Look at the whole account first, he says, then decide if you still want it, because the day the hard part arrives is the worst possible day to discover you never counted the cost.

This week in Sydney, Manuela Schär won the women's wheelchair race and became the first athlete to win all eight Abbott World Marathon Majors, having already won the six original Majors before adding the inaugural Cape Town Marathon earlier this year. Sydney was the last piece of a set assembled over many seasons. The finish line photograph is the part we see. The years of consideration before it, the precedes and follows Epictetus names, are the part that actually earned it.