What if I come in last: First time runners

So I was reading an article about the first time runners and 8 common questions.  My favorite was:

What if I Come in Last?
You probably won't, but if you do, the crowd often cheers loudest for the last person. Congratulate yourself for beating the thousands in your community who are still in bed.


Click here for the whole article

Scott

 Scott, that's not my fear....that's my expectation and I don't mind.  I'll be honored to be the last person doing the half marathon.  I figure I can't ever do any worse other than not finishing.  For me, the "victory" is doing it in the first place, especially getting to the point of being able to do it in six months.  I've never been built like a runner.  I was a lineman in football, heavyweight wrestler, and threw shot and discus in track.  Running is just not my forte.  I am noticing however that when I'm on my mountain bike that I call  "The Tank" I leave a lot of other riders far behind on the trail.  I'm just glad that I'm healthy enough to be able to do all of this physical activity again.

Duane

Yeah I pretty much expect to come in near the back of the pack.  
At leas that is what my results so far have shown.  However, last might be temporarily devestating to my ego. 

I do have a fear of being last, it means I didn't train hard enough, or everyone else trained harder.  I feel like I bust my ass every time I go out and run.  Running has never been fun or easy for me.  I am always a sweaty, messy beast when I finish my run.  If I still come in last after that, I'm not sure what I can do to improve it. 


But the original post wasn't really about being worried about the race, it was just a few answers from Active about the most common questions they hear.

Scott

Scott,

You won't be last.  You won't be first.  You won't be the fattest, skinniest, tallest or shortest.

BUT  what you will be is feeling great about yourself when you finish.  What an accomplishment!! Remember how far you have come and don't worry about anybody or anything else.

Good luck and keep up the training.

Darrell

 I'll check the article out.  I bet it will be interesting.

Duane

Guys, it's not my question, but one of the questions from the article.
It just happens to be my favorite one in the article, and I like their answer.

You probably won't, but if you do, the crowd often cheers loudest for the last person. Congratulate yourself for beating the thousands in your community who are still in bed.


If it was my question, it would be something like what's the minimum amount of training I have to do to win?????

Scott

I thought about this. It used to be one of my big fears, now I am actually starting to train. A victory in my book is finishing the race. Who cares what place, if I can do something I never thought I could do, I can do anything! Now if  only it wasn't so damn cold and snowy in Buffalo I could train outside for a race in the spring

 Scott, your question is hilarious.  Sounds like something I'd ask too.

Duane

I never though what if I come in last.  I just new there had to be someone out there in the world slower than I was.
Luckily that has been the case so far.

I have been last in my age group, but not in the race.
And yes it does matter to my ego.  I can't help it.  Yeah finishing is first, but coming in dead last would probably be close to a death sentence to my workout regime.

I hope to never find out.

Scott

I figure someone has to come in last. If the race is only for elites, the last place finisher might actually be pretty good!

When I figure skated, I competed. I wasn't very good and I often came in last. But sometimes someone would be even worse than me and I'd come in 2nd to last. I learned from that that you can't control your placement -- it really does depend on who shows up that day.

So the only times I worry about being last is when I know being last means I had a really crappy, horrible race and didn't perform up to my ability. Heck, I'd be unhappy about that even if I didn't come in last!