Why are you working so hard?

Interesting story in the NY Times on people that do marathons.  To quote one of the comments on this story, “the race is simply a celebration of your training (a party) so enjoy it.”  Okay, so archery is a different sport with practical origins, martial arts, keeping the Celts out of your marsh, and feeding your tribe.  Not everyone competes and you obviously don’t have to in order to have a great time. If you are a competitive person and you like to win, ok. Why else do you work so hard at what you do?