06/08/2026
I finished the London Marathon in April. People always ask why I keep signing up for these, and the honest answer is that running has taught me more about investing than almost anything else.
A marathon punishes the same instinct that wrecks portfolios: the urge to sprint early. Every first-time runner feels it. The gun goes off, the adrenaline's high, and you go out far too fast because it feels great in the moment. You pay for it at kilometre 30, when the legs are gone, and there's still a long way to the finish.
Investing is the same race. The market gives you constant reasons to sprint: the hot sector, the can't-miss trade, the fear of being left behind. It feels productive. But the people who burn out are almost always the ones who went out too hard, too early, with no base underneath them.
What actually gets you to the finish in both is unglamorous: a steady, consistent base built slowly over time. You don't win a marathon in the first kilometre, and you don't build real wealth in a single great quarter. You build the engine first, you hold your pace when everyone around you is surging, and you let consistency do the work that intensity can't.
Twenty-some years in this business and a few marathons later, the lesson keeps repeating itself. Slow and steady doesn't feel exciting. It just tends to be the thing still standing at the finish line.
London's in the books. Already thinking about the next one, in running and in the markets.
Follow for more on markets, discipline, and the occasional running metaphor. Always happy to talk long-term planning with anyone who's in it for the distance.
