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Musselman (half-Iron distance)
Geneva, New York
July 18, 2011
DNF. Three letters that no runner, cyclist or multisport athlete wants to see by their name. When you factor in three sports and all the gear alone that goes with them, the number of things that can possibly go wrong in a race is huge. Many of these can be anticipated. Some of the things that can’t be anticipated can, nevertheless, be dealt with. Sometimes however, the day will throw something at you that you didn’t expect and can’t cope with, and you end up with a Did Not Finish next to your name.
Much worse, however, is a DNS. Did Not Start. Because, in fact, you almost never see these letters next to your name. A DNF says that you fronted up, gave it a go, but the day just got the better of you. If you DNS it is as if you never existed as far as the race concerned. You didn’t train, you didn’t hope, you didn’t have any goals, you are on a par with the vast majority of the population who have never even heard of a “triath-a-lon” and are still happily abed, slumbering quietly in church, or digging contentedly in their gardens.
Since participating in this event last year I had been looking forward to doing it again. It is a gorgeous location, a wonderfully organized event, and although the run is challenging the bike ride is one where you can really put down a fast time. I’d spent the evening before enjoying the usual pre-race rituals: organizing my nutrition, attaching race numbers, checking tires for embedded debris, etc. I got to bed at a good time (just after nine) and fell asleep pretty quickly.
Then I was awake at somewhere around 2:30. Anxiety? Nerves? No, the unmistakable signs of the onset of a migraine. By the time my alarm went off at 4:30 there was no avoiding it: my race was over before it had even started.
Alchemy 