kween
At mile 2, it's funny. At mile 24, not so much.
Oh, yeah, that's true. I have given spectators that say it late in the race the single finger salute.
Nolite te bastardes carborundum.
When backpacking down Blood Mountain in Georgia (a very popular hike on the AT but a fairly steep climb), I met a woman who was about half-way up, struggling after her family. She asked me, hopefully, "Am I almost there?" All I could say was, "Not quite." I doubt she made it to the top.
Haha, yes. More than once, coming down from an Adirondack peak, someone ascending has asked "how far is the summit?" I've always been tempted to reply "you'll be there when you can't go up any more."
Some of the comments after the story are funny.
Someone once yelled after the start of my second marathon, "only 26 miles to go" which was funnier than shit to me.
Most mean well so that's what I keep in mind but I am so dissociative that I do not even see most of the signs that are posted!
Barking Mad To Run
I usually just laugh off the 'almost there' comments at my events. When someone tells me that, I jokingly tell them..."Nope...when I can SEE the finish time time clock...THEN I'm almost there!"
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt
Are we there, yet?
Never believe a spectator that tells you only a mile to go, especially when another spectator about a mile further along also tells you it's only a mile to go. Happened to me in the early days of my road running back around 1970 before every mile was marked.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.