My friends, cramps³⁰

At around seventeen miles my friends, cramps, came. At the end of seventeen miles my left calf cramped up. Then later my right leg cramped, and then again my left. At least two or three times every mile Nirvik had to massage me. So what kind of time could I expect? Nirvik and Doug were behind me on bicycles. I would run a few hundred metres, and then Nirvik would massage me. When I ran, it was a nine-minute pace, but I would lose three or four minutes each mile when he massaged me.

A little boy ten or eleven years old also had cramp problems. His hamstrings were bothering him. He felt miserable. He finally said to me, “How I wish somebody could massage me.”

Then he and I became good friends. When I ran, he walked. When he ran, I walked. When I was getting massaged, at that time he would run two or three hundred metres ahead of me. Then he would stop and walk. In this way we were together until twenty-three miles. Then my dying spirit got new inspiration and the poor boy fell behind. I didn’t see him anymore.