Frazz by Jef Mallett for December 02, 2022

No, Mallett, I will not google “DNF’d”.

DNF is “Did Not Finish” I suspect. And as usual, Frazz is much wiser than he looks.

Did Not Finish

At least the time you did the DNF places you ahead of the athletes that quit before you.

Marathon pacing is similar to homework pacing. In running, you need more Gatorade (or whatever) to make sure you don’t DNF.

In homework, you need coffee.

Putting off doing the report may actually ensure getting a last minute mental cramp.

Runners always say they enjoy running, but they never look like it.

Record heatRecord humidityRecord time.

Choose no more than two of the above.

He could get ’writer’s cramp,’ at the key moment and blow the gig.

To finish first, first you must finish.

Which was said by a Finn, funnily enough.

Did Not Finish

But imagine what time he could have made if he could have done 5 miles/day for four days and only had to run 6.2 miles on race day. That is homework pacing applied to Marathon running.

Yes and no, Frazz. I did some of my best reports the night before they were due, so I tend to lean toward the kid (sorry, never caught his name). C’mon, how many others did, too?

Did Not Finish

From Wikipedia, in case the reference is obscure: “Brazilian Daniel do Nascimento led for much of the race, and at the halfway point in the race, he had a lead of over two minutes on the chasing group. Chebet [eventual winner] broke away from the chasing group as the race first entered into Manhattan. After 18 miles (29 km), do Nascimento had to take an unscheduled toilet break, and he collapsed after 20 miles (32 km), requiring medical attention. In the aftermath of do Nascimento’s collapse, a camera motorbike almost crashed into Evans Chebet as Chebet was overtaking do Nascimento. Chebet finished in a time of 2:08:41, which was a few seconds ahead of Shura Kitata, who finished second.”

I’m quite fond of A.Word.A.Day from Anu Garg. Today’s word — wordsmith.org/words/today.html — is “dromomania: an excessive enthusiasm for running”. It was recycled from an earlier posting 20 years ago when the theme of the week was “pathological behaviors”.

I’d say “darn near fainted.”