What caused you to DNF a race?

"I got tired."

"I was pacing teammates"

Being on the verge of heat illness. I was very overheated and felt dizzy and dehydrated. I saw no point in finishing the race if I was going to run a slow time and risk my health doing it.

Had been stuck in traffic for 6 hours going 2 miles the previous day missing my XC race after a motorway closure. Not even just standing still, just so slowly moving forward...

Next day I found a half marathon as was super fit and had tapered. Started well but at 6 miles my back started spasming and ended up lying down on the side of the road in pain. It eased off after about ten minutes but wasn't going to risk it going again.

I've only DNF one race, I had a serious flu in the race week and was still not feeling well but didn't want to disappoint my mates (it was a relay-ish race). Other than that, I've always finished, no matter how harsh the race conditions were or how tired I was. Even for my first marathon, where all my friends were telling me to just finish, I've started it with a goal time in mind and I haven't even thought about not finishing at any point in the race.

I went into the race with my only motivation being a time goal. It was a track 5,000m. I was on pace at 3k but was feeling tired and didn’t think I could hang on at that pace, so I just dropped out. Ran a 10,000m PR two weeks later.

Spontaneous combustion

I DNFed a Shamrock Shuffle because I had to vomit really bad after the mile mark. Had felt sick beforehand I would not have started. I became sick for the next 24-48 hours though. This was my only DNF ever.

I was running a race in Wales (track event, UK Women's League). We shared lifts there, travelling on the morning of the race. Maybe this was a mistake as it was so far away. I was entered in the 3000m. When I got there, the club wanted me to do the 800m and 1500m as well as the 3000m, plus the 400m relay. I think you may not be allowed to do 800m + 1500m + 3000m any more, not sure. I know you used to be able to do five events (four plus relay).

It was unseasonably hot and the hottest day of the year. I was sitting in direct sunlight for the whole journey (hours) in the back seat of a car. The car was tiny and very old and didn't have air conditioning. It was like a greenhouse, it was horrible.

I did the 800m. Can't remember my time. In the 3000m I was running down the back straight and I felt dizzy and terrible. My vision started to go weird. I gave it one more lap but realised I felt so terrible I was at risk of fainting and I didn't want that so I simply stepped off the track when I was as far away as possible from the stands/crowd. I walked off the track over the tartan and over the path and managed to get to a field where I lay down on the floor. Let me tell you, I really felt like shiiiit that day.

The time I should have dropped out was a race as an under-17. It was the national championships. This time, the club put a bus/coach on to travel together to it. We travelled on the morning of the event (again, maybe a mistake but no one wanted to stay overnight). There was hideous traffic and we got stuck and massively delayed. We were so late. We missed some of the earlier races.With my race there was no time to walk the course or to warm up. We literally put our spikes on on the bus! Laced them up, got changed into our racing kit under tracksuits, put numbers on. We ran off the bus to the start line. It was silly really. The start of the race was incredibly fast and with no warm up it was awful. No one ran very well.

My tummy was sore.

You are questioning that you can finish 1500 meters?

I didn't know that track runners are such mental weaklings.

Being hung AF. Being drunk as well. I also pulled out mid race from an 800m due to an injury sustained while hopping a fence drunk.

I DNF'd my first marathon at age 15. I was not properly trained and had no business doing it, but I didn't know any better. I went out way too fast for the first half and then was done shortly after.

I ran a 50k in 12 degree weather as my first trail race.

I got lost and added 5 extra miles to the race and got spat out somewhere along the 7 mile marker and never saw the finish line for my first loop. At mile 25 and finally seeing the finish, I asked the organizers if I could do a 6 mile out and back to at least finish the 31 miles, but gave up the ghost and made it to an aid station and got driven back to the finish.

I got a belt buckle for my troubles.

Not me but someone on my team. He was running the mile at an invitational last year. Came around the final turn, 100+ meters ahead of second place. 50 meters to go, his leg just snapped. Tibia and fibula are gone. He couldn't run for all of summer, and most of cross country. Still qualified for state last fall in a 16:34. He just broke our school's 3200 record in 9:33.75. He's well past the injury, but the doctors still don't have an explanation. It literally just broke.

I was trying to hit a time goal in a marathon and ended up with record high temperatures for that day. At mile 18 I was off my goal pace, and starting to just shuffle, so I bagged it. I just stepped of the course, got into a shuttle and headed to my car.

I had no reason to finish that race. I knew I could run 26 miles, and had I stayed out there the next 8 miles would have been absolutely brutal. I quit with a clear conscious.

At a cross country race I wore some shorts I hadn't worn in years. Turns out I'd grown out of them. At a jog I was fine, but any time I picked up the pace, I couldn't stay in them. I was adjusting myself constantly as I ran through the trees, with no spectators around and the other racers focused on themselves. As I made my way toward the crowds, though, I realized the only way I wouldn't constantly be flopping out was to literally run with my hands down my pants. DNFed instead.

Only one DNF: 2018 Boston Marathon. Hypothermia. I developed a stress fracture 5 weeks out. I mostly rode my bike but got cleared to run.

I was fine through the first half but I developed a little hitch in my hip, probably compensating for the injury. I would have to stop and walk until it felt better. Any other day I just would have been slow but every time I would stop I would spill heat like crazy and get colder and colder. My fault for not bringing a jacket.

By mile 18 I couldn't control my extremities. I went into the med tent and said I was going to warm up and go back out. They took a look at me and said: Probably not. They had a bunch of people wrapped in the Mylar blankets standing by a propane heater in a small room. People were like zombies and not paying attention. Folks would keep setting the Mylar blankets on fire. It was crazy.

Have never DNF'd, but lost 90 seconds in a road 10K due to stopping for a severe side stitch at about mile 5 and finished in 36:00 at age 32.