Is there a reason I don’t know about for why so many individuals, especially pro’s will DNF if they are having a “bad race.”
.
If they have a bad race and going to finish out of the money it’s wise for them
to cut their losses and focus on the next race.
It’s not always popular with the average Joes but it’s how things are.
I don’t blame them, they have to do what’s best for them.
Yep. If it’s a bad day, bag the race and try again in a week or two.
Pros race a different race than AG’ers. They’re racing for money and not some bucket list moment of glory kind of thing. It’s a smart business decision for them to bag the race if they know there’s zero upside to continuing. Why put yourself in a recovery hole when you can DNF and race again a week or two later and maybe make some $$$?
I’ve had one DNF in my tri career and that happened at Ironman Canada this year. I got a wicked leg cramp the last 30 miles or so of the bike. The cramp only got worse once I started running and there was nothing I could do to make the cramp go away with the exception of not running. So I waved the white flag at mile 6 of the run and went and had a nice afternoon with my family. Could I have walked 20 more miles and finished? Absolutely but there was no fucking way I was going to walk for 20 miles. I had nothing to prove. I did half a dozen IM races already, to include Whistler the year before. I might have sucked it up and walked for another six hours if it were my first one but it wasn’t.
For pros, there’s no financial value in finishing outside of the prize money (barring primes or unusual sponsor bonuses/contracts). Such a finish also doesn’t provide significant qualifying points (if that’s a goal), can’t really be leveraged with sponsors, and doesn’t provide much, if any, exposure. Therefore, once a pro realizes that he/she isn’t going to finish in the money, there’s little reason to push on besides personal pride, development experience, training or appeasing fans/sponsors. A pro who drops out has judged that these benefits are outweighed by the opportunity cost of recovering from the full race. In the case of long course racing, especially IM, the physical and psychological cost of finishing is high, even if it’s less than an all out effort. Finishing might compromise their training and racing for days to weeks. A pro’s interests may be better served by rebounding as quickly as possible by getting back to training and future opportunities to generate revenue.
In other cases, a DNF isn’t by choice. Because only the top spots are valuable, most of the pro field is racing to get paid and may take calculated or just plain stupid risks as a result. There probably aren’t many pros at Kona thinking “I’m going to race conservatively so that I can guarantee a sub-X:XX finish”. No, most of the field is racing for a podium/paying position, if not the win. With this all-or-nothing mentality, some pros are rolling the dice and pushing beyond their abilities in the hope that they’ll have a perfect day. This inevitably leads to blow ups which are exacerbated by a naturally brutal course like Kona.
Finally, I would add that most pros are mentally tough, but they aren’t immune to mental failure. Who hasn’t fantasized about dropping out during a race? If it gets tough enough, maybe some guys just crack.
yea, that’s what I thought after really thinking on it a while. Makes sense. Though, on the run at Kona, many of them started out of T2 and dropped early in the run. I suppose just to shake the legs out?
yea, that’s what I thought after really thinking on it a while. Makes sense. Though, on the run at Kona, many of them started out of T2 and dropped early in the run. I suppose just to shake the legs out?
They start the run to see how they are going. If they are on pace to run through the field they may hang tough (someone like Rana/Crowie might be way off the back at T2, but a 2:4X run could still get them a top10)… If things just don’t come around (or get worse) they’ll often pull the plug and target another late season race for some pay/points.
Some pros have cred.
I remember a bunch of years ago. Cameron Brown had podiumed at Kona several years in a row. Then he had a bad year and was about 25th place or so. The smart money said to pull out and race another day. Cam’s solution however was to run beside the womans leader and essentially jog it in. Why do that? Because he knew the cameras would be on her and he could get more TV exposure for his sponsors. It worked a treat, except it was Nina Kraft and she got busted for EPO so none of that footage got broadcast. Bummer
There was also the famed Pauli Kiuri race. He was one of the first to be guided by a HRM. On race day, he had a bad day, but followed his HRM until he blew up in a big way. He eventually threw his HRM into the ditch and walked it in. I forget how far he walked, but even as a top pro at the time, he decided to man up and finish. He earned lotsa love from fans that day.
yea, that’s what I thought after really thinking on it a while. Makes sense. Though, on the run at Kona, many of them started out of T2 and dropped early in the run. I suppose just to shake the legs out?
Imagine you showed up for work and your boss pulled you aside at lunch. He said that it really didn’t matter what happened the rest of the day, you weren’t getting paid for the day’s work. How motivated would you be to finish the shift? That 1st mile on the run is the boss talking.
yea, that’s what I thought after really thinking on it a while. Makes sense. Though, on the run at Kona, many of them started out of T2 and dropped early in the run. I suppose just to shake the legs out?
Imagine you showed up for work and your boss pulled you aside at lunch. He said that it really didn’t matter what happened the rest of the day, you weren’t getting paid for the day’s work. How motivated would you be to finish the shift? That 1st mile on the run is the boss talking.
Awesome analogy. To make things worse, if you slave through the work day, you get so burnt out that you have to take a three week unpaid leave of absence.
yea, that’s what I thought after really thinking on it a while. Makes sense. Though, on the run at Kona, many of them started out of T2 and dropped early in the run. I suppose just to shake the legs out?
Imagine you showed up for work and your boss pulled you aside at lunch. He said that it really didn’t matter what happened the rest of the day, you weren’t getting paid for the day’s work. How motivated would you be to finish the shift? That 1st mile on the run is the boss talking.
Right on. It is a drastically different situation compared to AG’s. I guess I have just always been a purist, so it bums me out when ppl DNF for something other than injury or mechanicals.