Subject: RE: Am I going to be dead last In my experience, a lot of pretty experienced/fast people come out to do Olys, moreso than other races, at least around here. I can finish somewhere in the middle of a sprint but I'm BOP in an Oly. That said....if you're DFL, is it a big deal? True story: I was cheering on some of my friends doing a mini tri (their first ever!) this past weekend. I was so distracted that I missed the start of the Oly an hour later. (I also thought someone would get on the mike and announce it. They didn't!) They actually let me start, but I started 30 minutes behind everyone. I just got over the flu and have been running for only a month following an injury and a three month hiatus. I KNEW I wouldn't be fast and did it purely for training purposes, and no way was I catching up to anyone who had a 30 minute head start. So, I finished the race all by myself, with nobody around except a few race volunteers, my friend who stuck around to cheer for me, and 2 or 3 people who were still there after finishing their race. I actually wasn't DFL; I was 67/71, but of course I was behind everyone for the whole race. And the world didn't end, and I wasn't totally miserable...and I'm actually glad I did the race, glitches and all, because it definitely made me a stronger triathlete. The only thing that really sucked is that at the water stop at mile 4/5 (that part of the course was out and back) they had dumped all the water out because they thought they were done. It was 85 degrees and super ridiculously high humidity. THAT sucked!! |