Attrite and Rewrite? (Navy)?

I joined the Navy DEP in pursuit of a Challenge contract. The only way to get a challenge contract is to DEP into the Navy and choose a rate and then you meet with a Motivator/Mentor who will administer the PST and evaluate you to determine whether or not to grant you a Challenge contract. To this point, I have been unsuccessful in meeting the requirements on the running portion of the PST due to shin splints caused by my own lack of running knowledge. I tried pushing too far/too quickly and have payed the price but am recovering and feel I have learned a valuable lesson. My recruiter told me I do not have enough time left in DEP to get a Challenge contract anymore and that my best option to get into the training pipeline of the rate I am after would be to just go to RTC with the rate I signed up for and go to A school and eventually try and request orders to my desired ratings pipeline. If thats my only option, then so be it. But an alternative has been mentioned to me by a few others to try and Attrite and Re-write due to the fact that I don't want to do the rating I am signed up for (the only reason I signed for the rate was because the system in place calls for a recruit to sign for any rate and DEP in before an opportunity to get a challenge contract). They said the chances of getting into the pipeline I want once I am already doing another job is very slim because there are so many people joining the Navy now. So i guess my question is, before I bring this up to my recruiter, is an attrite and re-write something they actually do to buy more time? Especially nowadays with recruiting numbers the way they are? Thanks for any help or knowledge yall can share.