Fighting Fraud Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

On Sunday, I completed the Louisiana Marathon in Baton Rouge, which was my second marathon and was much more challenging than my first. I trained harder for this one—I ran more miles and focused on enhancing my pace. My primary goal was to beat my personal record, but I really wanted to run it in less than 4 hours. I was on pace to beat the 4 hour mark through the 19^th mile, but then things started to fall apart. After mile 20, I struggled with some physical pain, and mentally, I started to break down—I wanted to quit numerous times. When I ran the first one, I don’t remember ever wanting to quit nor do I remember having the same amount of physical pain. Pushing your body to run 26.2 miles is definitely a test of physical and mental preparedness.

As I reflect and compare my two marathons, the second one should have been easier: I was better prepared, I had more family and friends there to support me, and the weather conditions were better. I believe my biggest problem was the fact that I had already completed a marathon. I know that sounds odd, but the goal of completing a second marathon at a faster pace was not as significant for me as the goal of completing a marathon. This was a huge issue.

What does all this have to do with fraud?

Like running a marathon, fighting fraud isn’t easy. The physical pain may not be an issue, but lacking the mental fortitude to seek out fraud every day can be. We may not have enough training, resources, or time. These are real struggles that we all face daily. It takes mental toughness to stay the course. We can find tons of excuses to ignore fraud—“It will never happen at our company;” “It’s not my job to find fraud;” or “I don’t have enough time to look for fraud.” I have heard all of these and many others.

Fraud is a risk to every organization, and you should never give up. Keep on fighting!

As you probably guessed, I did not quit. I finished the marathon 5 minutes faster than my personal record, but I did not finish in less than 4 hours. I am still upset knowing that I wanted to give up. This disappointment is driving me to train harder for my next race, which is the Equinox 50K (31 miles). When most were resting the day after the marathon, I ran six miles. I will be prepared and keep on fighting!

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