Some Dead Guys

Years ago, I was driving to work at about 5am, I was doing what I usually do when I drive to work, that is I was sleeping with one eye open to watch the road, listening to Robin and Maynerd on the radio, and trying to list all the things I wasn't going to get done at work.  It was winter in Seattle, so it was dark and raining.  Its always dark and raining in the winter in Seattle.  Then I saw a dead guy.

I didn't know he was dead when I saw him, I had to hear it on the news that night when I got home.  I mean,  he seemed dead, and he looked dead, but I didn't jump out of the car to give him a shake and wake him up, so I didn't really know for sure.  When I saw him, he was laying on the ground, under one of those green half covered shelters that are suppose to be used by the bus riders waiting for the bus.  There were two cop cars there,with their red and blue lights flashing, blinding all the drivers that were trying to grab a peek at the dead guy.  An ambulance or a fire department medivac truck was there, and the guy was covered up with some blanket or sheet, except for his feet.  The thing I remember most was his feet.  He had huge feet and the sheet wasn't big enough to cover the whole guy, so his feet stuck out of the sheet, toes pointing to heaven.  Maybe he was going there.

I think about that guy once in a while.  I don't know anything about him except for he died at a bus stop and he had big feet.  I told my wife he had clown feet, but it seems disrespectful now.  I feel bad about saying that he had clown feet pointed at heaven.

Last Saturday, my wife and I went to my daughter's graduation ceremony in Pullman and we thought we might as well make a big weekend of it so we spent an extra night in Spokane and ran in Bloomsday on Sunday.  If you don't know, Bloomsday is a 12k run, 49 thousand runners and walkers, 25 or 30 bands lined the streets to entertain the runners.  It was a great time.  I run slow like a turtle but I was flying by those walkers and maybe one or two of the runners.

So I hadn't thought about that dead guy with the clown feet until I was running along with other Bloomsday runners and we see this guy laying part in the road, part on the curb and some volunteers are holding up a sheet, I guess trying to keep the runners from seeing the guy.  His shirt was up, exposing a fairly large belly, and he wasn't moving.  It was hard to see all of him, but I didn't stop to gawk. I wanted to, but I was too self absorbed in keeping my incredible running pace up to stop.  The guy's legs were sticking into the road below  the knees.  The paramedics must have hit the shocker button because his feet sort of jumped up while I was running by.  I don't know what happened to that guy, but I fear the worst.  I ran on, trying to put it out of my mind.  I felt guilty about it, but not guilty enough to stop.  I didn't see a newspaper story about him, but I bet he died.  He wasn't moving.

A mile later, there is ANOTHER guy on the side of the road.  This time, the volunteers didn't have a sheet, so you could see the paramedics giving this guy chest compressions.  I wanted to scream 'What is with all the dead guys!'  If I was a good person, I would have stopped, kneeled and said a prayer.  I didn't.  I was trying to get a good time in a 12k.  I am such a heel.

So, if you are a triathlete, or not, just be happy you don't have any of the problems these guys had.