✅ My Sister's Problem

113. The Last Challenge

Ten minutes later, we crossed the main bridge by the river. And as I looked over the edge, I could see all the traffic going into the town. Waterfront Road wasn't designed to handle that much traffic; but a lot of people were having to take a detour because we were running on their usual route. The marathon didn't stop for traffic, and so cars could only cross the route where there was a bridge. I was sure a few drivers hated the congestion, but that was the downside of having everyone in the county descending on two coastal towns for a huge day of sports and tourism. The boost it gave the local economy would justify the inconvenience; and it made everybody here feel special that they were part of an event that had stopped traffic.

About halfway between the two towns, there was a massive, complex intersection. I vaguely remembered Dad yelling at the traffic there when I was too young to know the words he was using. It was always bad, and in subsequent years my parents had been wise enough to avoid it. But now it was worse than ever, because a bunch of the slip roads had been cordoned off to make a path for those crazy pedestrians who wanted to run around both towns. It was also the first place that I could get a good view of the road ahead. The number of people ahead of me had decreased dramatically, and I could see the first big group of people sitting on the ground because they'd worn themselves out by trying to sprint. Now, I could start to pick up the pace, sure that all of my muscles had warmed up sufficiently to handle it. I still didn't push myself too hard, but accelerated to a speed that I was confident I could hold for ten minutes at least. After that I would slow to an easy jog, and recover a little before running again.

As we came to the clifftop path, I slowed to grab a bottle of water from one of the refreshment stands arranged along the route. I knew that I would need it. And then I could admire the spectacular views as I ran on, the sea to my right and the town to my left. We were off the road again now, running on the scrubby grass that tried to survive the wind on the clifftops. The path was marked out with coloured stakes in the ground now, but we would be coming back into civilisation soon enough. There was an old cathedral on the clifftop, overlooking the bay. As well as photographers eager to catch a glimpse of some athlete falling, this was the point where a lot of first-time runners would stop to use the bathroom. It was also the point where we would start the descent into the town. A long path zigzagged down towards the promenade. The route took the highest of the town's three bridges, to minimise the distance we had to climb to return to the cliffs on the other side, but there was still a lot of down and up as we passed through the centre of a busy fishing port.

Five minutes after the bridge, my legs still protesting from the ascent, I slowed down to let my body recover. There were fewer people ahead now; and everybody dumb enough to sprint was long gone. The people ahead of me now were all serious, and had their own plans to maintain their speed.

And then, we turned away from the coast on a gravel path. Signs said it was part of some cross-country national trail, but the only people on it today were us. I tossed my empty water bottle into a big recycling bin as we left the coast, and that was when I realised that I should have taken care to finish it a little more slowly. I hadn't found time to pee before the marathon, because I'd been distracted by seeing Lindy. I wasn't at the halfway point yet, and I was already feeling the need to pee. It was probably about ten minutes of hard running until the next bathroom, where the course rejoined the main road to cross the river again. But the facilities there were small, at the back of a roadside diner, and there would be a dozen runners standing in line.

Could I hold it until the next one? Probably. But before then I would be uncomfortable enough for it to have a real impact on my running speed. I couldn't afford to be bent over, struggling with discomfort from my bladder, if I was going to manage a good speed in this race. I didn't know what to do; which option would cost me the most time. But before I had reached anything like a decision, I had already passed the point to turn off for the diner.

I was also feeling less fatigued than I had expected. Was I fitter than the last time I had tried this? It seemed so. I'd grown up a bit more, and maybe trying my hardest at two different sports over this summer had built up my endurance. I knew it was a dumb thing to do, but I still wanted to beat my previous best time, and so I picked up my pace by just a tiny fraction, pushing myself to take bigger strides. Would I get to the next rest point before I was too desperate? I didn't know.

The landscape wasn't too dramatic here. It was just fields in every direction. But I could see another town coming into view on the horizon ahead; our starting and finishing point. It would be a long time before I reached it, but I knew I could do it. And then, as the jolt of stepping in an unnoticed pothole sent a jolt straight to my bladder, I started to wonder why I had worried.

I was wearing a diaper. Sure, it was only a pull-up. And it was one of the thin ones designed to be discreet. But if I got too desperate, there was no reason to step out of the race to relieve myself. I'd had so many accidents over the week so far that one more would barely make a difference, and I even started to wonder if it would be possible to pee while I was running.

My legs were on autopilot now, aching but easily capable of continuing the same gait for an hour. I just had to focus on my bladder, on letting it release. But I couldn't do it; the embarrassment was still there to stop me. I slowed to a quick walk, while nobody was there to see, and tried again. But even if I knew it wasn't a problem, my long-ago potty training had stuck too deep in my mind. I couldn't convince my body that it was okay. But then I tried to remember how it had felt when I didn't have the choice. I visualised Mum saying those words. "Pee for Mommy." And that was all I needed.