Monday, December 30, 2013

2013 -- The Year of Failure

In this time of looking back on the year that's ending and the new year on the horizon I always like to find trends going on in the sport.  And, I must admit, scanning the reports from 2013 makes one thing clear to me, 2013 was the "Year of Failure."  Sure, I bet that there have been other years with as many failures but have there been any other years like this one where so many people have written so eloquently, and often exhaustively, about those failures?  I don't think so.

So, here is a short annotated list of some of the failure reports from 2013 in ultrarunning and here's hoping all these athletes turn these failures into purposeful successes in 2014:

Dakota Jones report from Japan

Adam Campbell hanging it up as a professional runner
http://cdamaampbell.blogspot.com/2013/07/raw-honesty-decision.html

Anton Krupicka succumbing to injury at UTMB

Anton Krupicka calling it a day in his record attempt at Nolans

Jen Benna at Western States

Jacob Rydman at Western States

Joe Uhan at Western States

Jeremy Humphrey at Western States (and anything in the spring and early summer)

Rod Bien at the San Diego 100

Ian Sharman at the Javelina 100

Anna Frost

Happy New Year everyone!

AJW


6 comments:

Bryon Powell said...

Dang. I didn't even get nominated. I need to work harder at failing next year! ;-)

sharmanian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sharmanian said...

AJW, isn't success defined by failure? Without one the other is meaningless so the bad races make the good ones more special and without risks it's not possible to reach the peaks. 2013 was an overwhelmingly successful year with so many incredible performances across the board for very many runners at the top end of the sport, so I'd hardly call it the year of failure.

Unknown said...

Hi AJW,

my names Drew and I would like to ask you a few questions. How can I get a hold of you? E-mail is fine. I'm an aspiring Ultra runner at age 40 and have some training questions for you. My e-mail is
drewboat@hotmail.com

Thanks for your time,

Drew

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