Thursday I was taking a running survey and one of the questions was "In the distances you race, what are your most recent times?" The question was followed by a long list of race distances. Can you imagine my surprise when the one hundred mile race was right at the top?! Obviously, the surveyors wanted to honor the monumental feat of this race by placing it in the preeminent lead-off position on the list. How nice to finally give some well deserved recognition to the ultra crowd!
I quickly checked the top box and typed in "19:07" with pride swelling in my chest. But the feeling only lasted a nanosecond as the computer quickly rejected my accomplishment: "Invalid time".
INVALID TIME? Invalid time?!? Do you know how hard I worked for that time? But before I could give the hard drive a good smack, I re-scanned the race possibilities:
100m
200m
400m
800m
The list kept going, with a nearly exhaustive list of race possibilities, covering everything from 100 meters(!) to the marathon. There were no ultra-distances to be found. I had to chuckle, particularly given the computer's response to my entry. Was my time "invalid" or was it the time of an invalid at the 100 meter distance??
Ah, yes. I've got ultra-running on the brain and obviously saw what I wanted to see, but in reality ultra-running wasn't even on the survey's radar!
3 comments:
19 hours is NOT the time of an invalid! You got me beat by 10 hours (though my short races are faster).
No,no - I entered the time of 19 hours in the line for 100 meters, NOT 100 miles! There was no race listing for 100 miles - I just had a one track mind! Indeed, I was pleased as punch with my 19 hour 100 MILE time.
Oops. My mistake. I really should think before I type.
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