Staying in It at the JFK 50

PC: Dan Green

If you’ve ever stood on a start line knowing you probably shouldn’t be there, this one is worth watching.

This is Dan Green at the JFK 50 Mile, a race close to home on a course he knows well.

He almost didn’t put this out. Not because anything dramatic happened, but because nothing really did. No crash. No injury. No blow up you could point to. He just didn’t have it.

He hadn’t felt good for weeks. Training felt flat. Race morning felt the same. He stood on the line anyway, hoping the switch would flip once the gun went off. It didn’t.

There is a long stretch of gravel in that race where you cannot hide from how you feel. The pace that should settle does not. The effort feels wrong. You start doing math you do not want to do. He kept moving. He thought about dropping. He did not.

He finished more than an hour off what he planned and later admitted he probably should not have started.

He made the film anyway.

Because staying in it, even when it is not your day, still counts.