Are You Trying Hard Enough?

I’ve heard this a lot over the years:

“If you’re not DNFing every once in a while, you’re not trying.”

But it isn’t true.

There are three ways to DNF: get pulled, drop, or be in a race that gets cancelled partway through.

If you’re trying, you’ll get pulled as little as possible and minimize those DNFs.

If you’re trying, you won’t drop unless injured or a similar emergency.

And trying has nothing whatsoever to do with a race being cancelled partway through.

The truth is - trying minimizes DNFs instead of ensuring they happen.

Not only that, but this saying works against you.

I heard this saying as a new ultrarunner. It made DNFs ok…and also inevitable.

As my races added up, I became so self-conscious that I hadn’t DNFed like my friends, that I started.

Besides, if I’d eventually DNF, I might as well get it over with.

And being able to talk about a DNF would make me more of a real ultrarunner - it seemed like a badge of honor.

Once I started down that road, DNFing got easier and became a habit. I DNFed every other 100 until I finally had to either get honest with myself and stop, or give up 100s.

I knew I could do better and passing my drops off as “trying” was a big, fat excuse.

DNFing wasn’t a measure of how hard I was trying - it was the opposite. It was a measure of how often I was quitting on myself.

DNFing also isn’t a measure of a race’s difficulty. You can DNF ‘easy’ courses as easily as you can hard ones. I DNF’d flat, easy Umstead 100 twice before I finished it.

It isn’t a measure of how much you’re challenging yourself. I dropped out of Massanutten 100 once because I didn’t take responsibility for my own race, ran slower than I wanted, and gave up.

It isn’t a measure of how often you race. I’ve run 140 100-mile races, somewhere above 300 ultras total, and only DNF’d 10 times, 3 of which were ‘stopped’ races.

It isn’t a measure of the effort you’re putting into it. My voluntary DNFs all happened when I WASN’T trying.

And it certainly isn’t a measure of your worth as an ultrarunner. My 5 voluntary, ‘quit’ drops happened in my first 21 100s. That’s 119 100-mile finishes without a voluntary drop (3 other DNFs from race cancellations, 1 from injury).

So don’t equate DNFs with trying - equate the risk of a DNF with trying.

The moment you start a race, you risk a DNF.

They happen. I’ve been pulled for time, dropped with severe injury, and had more than one race cancelled partway through.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t DNF or should be ashamed of it.

But don’t mistake DNFing as something you have to do to belong or prove how hard you’re trying.

Don’t use that saying as an excuse.

Like me, you’re better than that.

Show up to give your best.

Show up to finish.

And if this post helped you, forward to someone else it can help.

The more ultrarunners that hear this, the more successful we all get.