DNF – An honourable withdrawal or just plain quitting?

DNF stands for ‘Did Not Finish’ although that will require no explanation for any runner who has seen those dreaded letters alongside their name on a results sheet.

Personally, I think a DNF is still a bit of a thorny subject, hence the question I have posed above.

In the world of running and ultrarunning, we are still surrounded by the repetition of phrases such as “never give up “, “relentless forward progress”, and “just keep putting one foot in front of the other”. David Goggins, endurance athlete, writer, speaker and social media personality is rightly known and admired for his commitment and uncompromising dedication to achieving physical and mental goals. Amongst other things, he is quoted as saying “Don’t stop when you are tired. Stop when you are done”.

I am sure that this kind of bullish mental approach is motivational and inspirational to many but I still think that every athlete of any ability has to reflect on and understand their own individual motivations and goals in the context of their wider life experience and aspirations. Besides, what does it mean to be “done” anyway?

There is no better recent example in the public domain than Hannah Rickman’s reflections online and on her own social media following her decision to withdraw from the 2025 winter Spine Race. With time, Hannah’s thinking may yet evolve but what she has demonstrated is the bravery to put a frank and honest face on her decision to stop without resorting to excuses. In essence, she said that her body was able and willing to go to the finish, but her mind was not.

It is all very well to say that the body can go much further than the mind believes it can and that one can always go that bit further when we think we cannot. I accept all of that, but the mind will always call the shots. It is after all at the very core of our consciousness. The best we can do is train or trick the mind into allowing the body to do its thing because the mind will almost always want the body to stop at some stage, often at the earliest signs of discomfort. This is where clear goals are important as they give the mind a stronger reason to allow the body to continue when it will otherwise find a myriad of reasons to stop.

If you are a runner who races to finish at all costs, regardless of your time and place in the race or whatever physical pain or injury arises, then maybe you are better able to discipline your mind to allow you to continue forward, or you can short-circuit your mind from forcing you to stop. I think you can only do that if your determination and commitment to the goal are both clear and strong and you have succeeded in disciplining your mind accordingly. I hope it also comes with an appropriate sense of achievement or accomplishment once the goal is attained. If not, what was it all for?

I can only relate in terms of the first ultra I ever ran. I jumped from a half marathon distance to a 55-mile trail ultra, the Cateran 55. It is the only ultra I have ever entered where my only clear goal was to finish because I had never done one before and I really didn’t know if I could. That provided me with sufficient motivation to finish and I was incredibly satisfied that I had done so, but it wasn’t long before I looked at my time and decided I should be able to do better. I have never since entered a race just to finish, not even as a B, C or D goal.

The Cateran 55 has also been a race that I have DNF’d twice. On both occasions I wanted to finish in the top 50% but I also wanted to finish in under 12 hours. By coincidence, I stopped around mile 39 on each of these races, once due to acute and persistent cramp and the second time due to a partially healed calf injury that I should never have run on in the first place.

Both times, the excellent marshalls at the checkpoint encouraged me to continue as I could still finish even if I walked the rest of the distance. I didn’t start the race to walk most of the way and just finishing was never part of my agenda. Therefore, I was naturally disappointed that I did not achieve my race goals but I am thoroughly comfortable with my decision to stop. I haven’t gone back a fourth time though and I don’t think I will. There are too many other things out there and I no longer consider it unfinished business.

In my race history I have briefly provided the reasons for my other DNFs. In each case, a lot had been invested in each race, both financially and in terms of training effort. In all of those races, could I have staggered on to the finish in whatever time it might have taken? Probably, but I would have derived no enjoyment or satisfaction from doing so and although disappointed at each of these outcomes, my decision each and every time was considered and rational.

Quick hint – when you choose to run an ultra despite significant GI issues, as I did in Chianti, white shorts are a high-risk outfit choice. Just saying…I think I got away with it though!

Joking aside, I don’t like to DNF and I do regard each one as a failure but I can live with it when I do because it was my decision and it is never a decision I reach on a whim. I learn from every instance and come back fighting the next time planning and hoping to avoid the circumstances that led me to fail before.

Am I a quitter? By most definitions I may be just that, but I just don’t think life and running are that simple. Besides, I think quitting is a word that brings with it a level of emotive negativity, judgment and stigma that just simply isn’t helpful. The words quitting and loser are bandied about too much in sport, most certainly at the amateur or leisure levels.

My successes and failures are entirely self-defined and yours should be too. Define your own goals, decide what success means for you and accept that things do not always go the way you have envisioned or trained for. That doesn’t mean that you don’t strive to learn and to improve but equally, don’t allow anyone else to tell you what achievement looks like or who you should be. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks and at the end of the day, it’s just running!