[LM24] Broken Run - How Does it Feel?

[Aysedasi]

OK, so a bit of philosophical musing coming up. Humour me....

First things first, I know I'm lucky. I've been to Le Mans for 34 straight years. I live in the UK so hopping over to France has been easy. I feel for those for whom the journey is far more arduous (and expensive) and so they can't do it every year.

As I (and others) have posted elsewhere, right now I should be in France, in Le Mans, probably just setting off to the second day of scrutineering right now as I write this. I know I'm not actually missing anything and I'm still hanging on to what may be a highly optimistic hope that I will be there in three months time, but I do feel as though I am missing it. Because I document my trips as you know, and have been updating some of my stories from 20+ years ago, I'm perhaps feeling the 'loss' more as a result. But I was wondering how it actually feels to have a run of attendances 'broken' or even come to an end? There are hundreds of years worth of attendances at Le Mans between those who 'inhabit' this subforum and many of you will have experienced the inability to go after many years of attending.

My friend Peter ('Pierre' as he is called in my stories) came to Le Mans with us for a number of years, starting in 1992 and ending around 2000, but he missed one year - 1996 when he went on holiday elsewhere. When we came back and met with his partner, she told my wife, 'Don't ever make him stay at home and miss it. All I've heard all weekend of the race is where he would have been, what he would have been doing, eating and who he would have been with!'

Having never missed a year since I first went in 1986, I struggle to come to terms even with the idea of not going. It's bad enough not being there when I should be, even though there is nothing happening there, but not going when the event is on is something that just doesn't seem to compute...

I appreciate that with everything that's going on right now, the sentiment expressed is pretty shallow, but I feel it none the same...

So, how did you deal with it when it happened?