Hang in until the end in Olympics Trials and Super Bowl

It otherwise counts as a long training run:  I was watching the Olympic Marathon trials a few weeks ago and some interesting things came to mind.  I seem to recall they use to hold the trials for men and women on separate days.  Now it seems they hold them on the same day with a 15 minute delay between waves.This makes sense from a televising point of view because it's easier and more cost effective for a crew to shoot for an extra hour than to set up and break down twice.  It could also be a benefit to the crew because they might prefer an extra day off with family.  It also benefits the athletes too because they get the same weather so there's no "oh you had better conditions than we did".

What I did notice about the race that I never realized before is that many of the runners bow out after 20 miles.  To take a DNF (Did Not Finish) It makes sense if you think about it.  Only the top 3 make the team (i don't know if they have an "alternate" system) and the difference between the front runners and the rest of the pack is somewhat insurmountable by the final miles.

I did notice that the fourth place person didn't quit even when it was obvious that he wasn't going to be able to overtake the runner in front of him.  That makes sense too.  He and she, respectively, have an additional incentive to stick with it.  While slim, one of the first three runners might have an injury that takes them out of the race.  By sticking with it, the fourth place person keeps hope alive.
 
What about the 5th, 6th and 10th place person?  Shouldn't they stick in just in case #3 goes down and they can edge out #4?  Sure, but that scenario is infinitely slimmer than the previous one.
It's also more of a character builder because the distance between qualifying and 4th is less than the distance between qualifying and DNF.

I was reminded of this 4th place runner the other day when I posted about how tough it was to increase my readership.  I was beginning to feel like the runners in the DNF group.  It would be easier to just quit trying to get anyone to read my blog on a consistent basis. 

DZ from Crib Chatter was giving me grief about a few of last week's posts.  Apparently I'm cutting and pasting too much.  Pretty easy for an anonymous person who doesn't even log a comment on this site to say.  Yet he/she is right.  I do need to get back to what this blog is about: writing about my adventures navigating the Mysteries of Life and if I happen to be witty or informative that's a bonus.  [increasing readership and revenue wouldn't hurt -- Nightingale does want a new house.]

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We use to watch it just for the commercials.  During the Super Bowl I checked my Facebook account and wasn't surprised to see all the real time updates and status comments.  What did surprise me was that in between the dozens of Super Bowl related posts, one or two friends would actually post about something unrelated to football.

It's perfectly understandable that not everyone is into the big game though I've always thought that the SB was an equalizer.  If you aren't into football or sports, you can certainly appreciate the commercials. 

 While this has occurred ever year that I've been on Facebook, this year it seemed more noticable. I think that's because the few non-Super Bowl posts had something in common: these friends weren't choosing to post about something besides the SB; these people had no clue that something else was consuming everyone's attention because they were just too caught up in their own world, just like any other day.