The fun run⁵⁰

Around me, people who were running were enjoying the half-marathon like anything. They would go over to shake hands with people standing on the sidewalk. Or if their parents had come to watch, children would say hello to their parents as they ran by. One girl shouted, “I am running thirteen miles, Mom, Dad! What are you going to give me to eat, Mom?” The mother was telling the daughter what she was going to make for her to eat, and the father was begging her to run faster.

So many people were talking as they ran. Somebody said that once he had run five miles in Central Park and afterwards he lay down and wouldn’t get up. His girl-friend said, “Yes, it took you five hours to get up.”

There were young people who started walking; they didn’t run all the way. After seven miles, during each and every mile I walked for several metres. I could have managed without walking, but walking was a great relief.