To compete or complete - what is the question?

One of the questions that seems to keep cropping up in relation to the MdS was 'Competer or Completer?'I must admit its not a phrase I particularly like as it seems too much like one of those glib pieces of 'management-speak' that actually has very little meaning when you break it down. After all I think it would be fair to assume that everyone that enters the MdS would like to complete it, so does that make us all 'completers'?

The more interesting part of the question relates to how we define a 'competer'. For a very elite few the answer is simple, they are the ones trying to win the MdS. For the rest of us we know we can't win and we know it would be stupid to try. If I tried to run at the pace of 2013 winner Mohamad Ahansal I wouldn't last the first day. However...

This is where I say something slightly controversial - most people could complete the MdS. There, I've said it - can I justify it? Obviously I think I can, the average pace of the slowest competitor on the MdS is about 3km/hour or slightly under 2mph for those of us that haven't gone decimal yet. 10% of the entrants walk the whole course. I believe that most people in reasonably good physical health could get to a standard where they could carry an 8kg rucksack 150 miles over 6 days even in 50+ degree temperatures - with some training. Whether most people would want to is a different matter...

I should stress here that I'm not trying to belittle the achievement of those that walk the event - although I believe it is within most peoples physical capability, the mental strength required is enormous, to keep getting up day after day and trudge across the desert in searing temperatures requires much more than physical ability and I believe that every single person that has done that has accomplished something amazing and something I haven't yet!

Having rambled on for a bit I'll try and get back to the point just in case anyone is still reading. My view of 'competing' is not to aim to win but to set myself a target and to try and meet it. for some simply finishing will be a sufficiently challenging target, others may try for top 50, top half, first person from their country, whatever. So yes, I obviously want to be a 'completer' but I'm competing as well. The target I've always set myself as my 'minimum standard' for previous events has been to take less than twice as long as the winner. Last year that would have put me 367th. Rory Coleman reckoned that for me top a top 300 finish would be mean I'd had a 'bloody good MdS'. So at the moment my competers target is a time of less than twice the winners with a 'stretch' target of 'inside the top 300'. However I reserve the right to reassess this as my knowledge of the MdS and my likely performance increases over the next few months!