DFL > DNF > DNS > DNT

I’m a fan of Seth Godin. I envy both his clarity of thinking, and his ability to articulate his thinking clearly and concisely. He writes:

The worst golfer in town came in last in the club tournament. Actually, that’s not true. The worst golfer didn’t even enter. Well, that’s not true either. The worst golfer doesn’t even play.

As I said, admirable clarity and concision. And yet, in the parlance of ultrarunning, it’s even more concise and even more clear - DFL > DNF > DNS > DNT:

• DFL > DNF (dead fucking last is better than did not finish)
• DNF > DNS (did not finish is better than did not start)
• DNS > DNT (did not start is better than did not train)

Do the training. Show up at the start line ready to hurl yourself into the abyss that is running an ultramarathon. Run the race as well as you can on the day. Those three acts put you ahead of virtually everyone on the planet, no matter what the outcome of your race is.

The startling thing isn’t that ultrarunning is chock full of lessons. The startling thing is how the lessons of ultrarunning are pretty much all applicable to life in general.