Using experiences selected from working with over 100 successful PhDs, this book provides an overview of the graduate school experience for learners. Starting from the initial desire to attend graduate school, this book covers multiple topics, including:• Defining the uncertainty in the graduate school experience,• Interpreting analysis, professionalism, and writing as a graduate learner,• Integrating laughing, crying, and learning into the graduate school experience, and• Constructing an exit strategy from their experience as a learner.Using a marathon and runner as analogies for the graduate school experience and learner, the authors explain the life of a graduate learner in the modern US graduate school environment. This book reflects an essential resource for learners wishing to begin their own marathon.Dr. Bozeman is the co-founder and CEO of GradCapFinder. He finished his marathon in 2009. Dakota Brown is the co-founder of GradCapFinder. He is preparing to begin his own marathon.Dr. Bozeman effectually and accurately illuminates the planning, process, and pain associated with “prying knowledge from the unknown.” In his own unique and empathetical manner, Dr. Bozeman carefully describes the graduate learner’s individual path to creating knowledge about oneself, as well developing and researching questions to vital societal problems. Of any single read I might prescribe to my own university students, pondering the path of a graduate learner and seeking an experiential perspective of that path, this book would be a required read.”-Paul T. Baumgardner, Ph.D. (Advanced BioGenetics & Life Sciences, LLC; Columbia Southern University)