x is for xylophone

i know a guy who went to run a marathon today and got a bit over half the distance complete and decided he was done for the day. in the running community there are two schools of thought -- it's not over til it's over, covering the distance is paramount, or it's over when you say it's over. there are those who will quite literally crawl over a finish line in order to finish, and those that will live to fight another day.

most of your bucketlist types will finish the distance at all costs because firstly, they are only doing this once. like hell are they ever getting out there again, so if they're going to have done a marathon, this is it. secondly, they don't need to live to fight another day because there won't be another day. they can injure themselves, wear themselves out, cause an illness, doesn't matter. they don't need to save any gas in the tank. they don't need to preserve health for an overall training regimen.

the ones who are out there to RACE - either race the course, or race their old PR, or race another runner - could call it quits before the distance is up if the race isn't going well. their goal isn't the distance alone. their goal is to cover the distance in a certain amount of time. if the time goal becomes unreachable, there is no point in finishing the distance. it's like trying to buy a lottery ticket after the numbers have been drawn - you can have the money to achieve the transaction but you're too late. it's like knowing the geography but missing the test. it's like buying food for your dead cat.

the community of runners is dichotomously divided into these categories. two groups could not be more separate, more disparate, more vastly unvenn. there is not one thing in common between these groups. they are apples and kayaks. hence the saying: red sky at morning sailors take warning, red sky at night sailors delight.