Going beyond

 So last week I went off about how awesome timed races are, despite a few disadvantages.

One of which I'm going to explore a little more deeply.

A friend recently posed the question to me: if you have a certain goal you'd like to reach in a timed race, and you achieve that goal with time to spare, is it considered quitting if you don't keep going?

If you feel like I'm gonna go off into the weeds here, you may very well be right.

Obviously we all have our own ideas about what constitutes an "acceptable" outcome for a race, so what follows are just my own opinions. There's no use in getting bent out of shape about what some idiot on the internet thinks, and I guarantee I will be just as friendly and goofy toward you as I've always been even if you vehemently disagree with me. 

That said, I think there are only three situations in which it's acceptable to stop while there's still time on the clock:

Let's pick our way through them, shall we?

1. You are gravely injured or it is otherwise medically inadvisable to continue.

This one really ought to go without saying, but I am exactly the kind of knob who will just carry on regardless. See: multiple Horror Hill 6-hours, and definitely the inaugural Tally in the Valley 12-hour night race. I definitely don't advocate for people to continue running when they could do long-term damage - I'm just too dumb to stop. Follow the example of other people who are way brighter (and more talented) than I will ever be, and shut'er down if things go fruit-shaped. No shade here.

Darkness here, but no shade.

2. It's not possible to complete another reasonable unit of distance before time elapses.

This only really applies in the last hour or so of a long race. If partial laps don't count and you don't figure you'll be able to complete another full one, I'm not going to fault you for deciding against a fool's errand. Same goes if you don't think you can make it to the next checkpoint on a course; I've come through the start/finish with ~20mins to make 2km, and known there was no way I'd actually get it done in time for it to count. Even if partial laps count and you might have time to make the next checkpoint, if it'll put you far from the finish area I am 100% fine with saying "screw it" and stopping somewhere convenient; I'm sure I could have make another kilometer (which would have counted) at Sunburn Solstice last year, but then I'd just have had to limp my worn-out, possibly-broken-foot'ed way that whole kilometer back again, and after 15hrs of pretty much constant forward motion that was a hearty nope.

The river might keep flowin', but I wasn't goin'

3. You're using it as a training run and continuing might jeopardize your goal race.

This one might sort of seem like it overlaps with having a goal distance and stopping once you've achieved it, but the mentality is different: if you go into (let's say) a 12-hour race thinking you hope you can run 50mi before the time elapses, that - to me, anyway - is distinct from going into a 12-hour race with the idea that you'll run for 8 hours or 40mi and then call it a day because you have a 100km race in 6 weeks and this is your long training run. I have seen friends do almost exactly that: run precisely 4 hours out of a 6-hour because that's what their training plan calls for, or stop after a prescribed number of laps. I partly include this as a legitimate reason because I don't think I'd ever personally have the discipline to stop myself if there was still time left on the clock.

I'm really just a bit of a puppy dog at heart, and will run as long as I'm able.

The whole concept of setting a goal for a non-distance-specific race can be dicey: once you have made it to your goal, the motivation to continue (particularly if you've pushed hard, or for many hours, or both) can be tough to maintain. It's something that has been highlighted recently with the explosion in popularity of backyard-style ultras: 2018 winner of Big's Backyard Ultra (the grandaddy of them all) Guillame Calmettes is reported as saying "You should never set a goal for yourself at this race. Because if you do, when you hit that goal, you feel successful and stop." That's obviously a problem in a last-man-standing event, but also applies to timed racing. 

My take on the whole thing is that achieving your goal is awesome, but if there's still time remaining on the clock and you're reasonably able to continue, why wouldn't you go for it to see how much you're really capable of accomplishing? You registered for an event that takes place over a set number of hours, so why not take advantage of the time you've been given, even if you just end up walking it in? 

You might get to appreciate the scenery a little more, as well as giving your body a welcome cool-down.

Perhaps that's just my own version of self-flagellation: I don't permit myself to end my day until I've done the thing I set out to do. Or perhaps it's something to do with the practice of setting A, B, and C goals for races that started back in my triathlon years; the C goal might be just "finish upright without hurting myself", the B goal might be "finish faster than last year", and the A goal might be "finish under 2 hours if all goes right"...but there's always the possibility that I surprise myself, and if I'm 2mins away from running through the finish and it's only been 1h50m, I'm definitely not going to drop to a walk and try to run the clock out to 1h59m before crossing the line! So the A+ goal is always out there, and since most of my endurance sport career has been an attempt to find out what I'm capable of, I will never shy away from the opportunity to surpass my own expectations and aspirations. Goals should be set to help you push yourself along; they shouldn't hold you back from discovering your true limits.

But then again, what do I know?

I'm just some idiot on the internet.
(With amazing taste in coffee, as evidenced by my snazzy new hat. 
Go try some of Monigram's magic for yourself!
They don't sponsor me or anything - they're just awesome!)

Really, though, just get out there and have fun - as long as you're not hurting anyone else, I'll cheer you on just the same for setting a goal and going for it!