encouragement

let me ask you something
when you're on mile five
of a half-marathon
and you can feel the sun beating down
and the road punishing your joints
does a bystander ever say to you

"run through the pain"?

no
no man
shit no man
i believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin something like that man

at the end of the race
as suz and i tried to make our way to go fetch our dad
we found someone clinging to a barricade and were confused
'cause running for over two hours can make you a bit dumber
it turns out though that he was in deep shit
ourselves and others waved over the emts
who needed help
because the dude had a death grip on the barricade
i pried his fingers off forcibly
one hand then the other and then helped lower him to the ground
scary scary stuff

hope you're okay dude