luck on the day

[Sweder]

I agree whole heartedly with EG & Antonio. So many of the hardened Brightonians blew up this year, mostly due to the warm conditions. We train through winter foulness for spring races often bathed in glorious sunshine. On sober reflection it does seem like utter madness, yet it's part of who we are. We know the odds, yet we take our chances anyway.

Your story reminds me of my own Marathonium Horribilus on the heartless mountain roads of Cape Town. It's your ability, when others might opt to quit or walk it in, to keep on to the bitter end that sets you apart and makes you a marathon runner.

The late, great, sun-dried raisin of a golf instructor Harvey Pennick published the following verse in his Little Red Book. It applies equally to those of us who've stared down the greasy barrel on the unforgiving road and, with nothing left in the tank, chosen to battle on to the finish.

It's easy to cry that you're beaten, and die;
It's easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope's out of sight
Why, that's the best game of all