A Marathon of a Different Kind

Back in October Shannon and I ran our first Marathon. 26.2 miles of pure pain and glory. We had a blast. Running the marathon was not as hard as one would think. The training, on the other hand, was brutal at times. When you run the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, you have several advantages over training. During the Marathon you have thousands of people cheering you on (even if you are near the back), you have a definite destination, a definite time restriction, and people to talk to and get to know while you are running. Training on the other hand you are usually by yourself, you are running the same strip of land many of times, and people who are watching you train have no idea if you are on mile 13 or 3.
Ironically the Steamtown Marathon this year is the same weekend as our baby's entrance into the new world. After watching baby shows, I guess we will be having a marathon of another kind. But this begs the question, what is harder, running a marathon or having a baby? Now I know some of you mothers are probably already getting defensive out there just because I'm asking this question, but can't we at least ask it?
A couple thoughts, just as a man. As we ran with a group of people in the marathon, this question came up. The couple women we were talking to said the marathon was harder physically than giving birth. Now this is just a small poll of a couple of women. Maybe other women would feel differently.
One thing that they noted about the marathon that was harder was the fact that you can drop out of a marathon (I believe about one in five people do), but you can't drop out of birth. It's hard to finish because you know you can stop. On the other hand (before women come to my door and light me on fire) I think giving birth would be harder because there is no working up to it. There is no six plus months of going through more pain every couple days to get ready for the big day. So I guess I would be interested to hear if others have an opinion on this. What is harder, running a marathon or having a baby? Or are there other things that women think would be harder than having a baby?