My one and only goal at TMB was to finish, which I happily did. But I, like most of you I imagine, also want to know how I did in the event, even though just finishing is a huge victory. I’m not sure if this is a competitive strain in me or whether I want to do this thing again to see if I can improve. Maybe a bit of both. Anyhoo, here are some stats, not easily acquired because the organizers don’t rank you. A little copy/paste to Excel fixed that one up.

Registered riders: 500. This is actually only based on what the woman told me when I got my race package on Friday.

Starters: 428. This is a lot of riders who decided that it ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’, I guess. The Etape du Tour also has a huge number of no-shows, so maybe it’s par for the course.

DNFs: 65. I find this number quite low. It’s only 15% of starters. I’ve read and heard that this number can be as high as 40% in years when the weather is bad. 363 riders finished the event.

My place: 276 out of the starters. 65% finished before me and 35% finished after or didn’t finish.

One stat that I couldn’t get and would love to know is the age of each rider. I think I had to give this info when I signed up, but they don’t publish it on the results page. At 56 I was probably in the oldest quintile, although who knows? Maybe all the old guys started and finished before me and I just didn’t see them!

All this doesn’t tell me much except that I wasn’t the last to cross the line. I have to say that I am starting to get tempted to try TMB again to see what I could do at a lighter weight and with the knowledge a little experience brings. The extra 4kg I need to shed would probably bring me another 30min for starters.

If anyone wants to join, I’m taking names!