It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default. As a runner or triathlete, you might train for a marathon or Ironman for months, only to walk or crawl the final 10K or more.  But so what?  It’s better to have given it a shot and failed rather than to have passed on an opportunity for fear of failing. Besides, the great thing about these types of competitions are that there’s always another race, meaning a chance to redeem yourself after a bad one.