The True Romance

A few years ago, a guy worked with me, despite the age of a little over fifty, he is still a guy.
He is a real adult man, but in terms of energy a young man, and in terms of feeling and appearance a 30-year-old guy.
I had an exacerbated “zož” phase (healthy lifestyle) and we started running together once or twice a week after work.
It turned out that Stefan, which is how he is called, Ironman (Iron Man). This means that he swam, ran, cycled a lot of kilometers in a very short time and won this title. At the time of our approximation, he was preparing for a “running” of 160 kilometers in less than 24 hours. Now, dear reader or listener, Stefan has already done this and probably now has the title "Titanman". Even if he doesn’t have that title, he deserves it.

One day we talked about who spent the weekend. There was a marathon in Berlin and I asked him if Stefan participated in it. The answer surprised me, Stefan said no and smiled, which caused my sincere surprise. I thought he was participating in all marathons, which is true. But then I understood his smile.
Stefan's wife enrolled in this marathon, but for some reason did not receive standard support: water bottles or isotonic, tonic drinks at certain stages of the race, checkpoints.
Without this support, it is harder to escape. I did not run a marathon (42,195 km).But I think so much!
As an option, you can run constantly with a supply of water, and this is a tangible gain in weight, which does not add clutter and ease to the runner.

Stefan solved the problem.
But how...
He ran parallel to the official route, because as a non-marathon participant he had no right to run the marathon route. He had a bag with drinks for his wife. He had to run around spectators, sometimes to make large runs, as the nearest streets were blocked by police, and these guys did not miss a guy running around a marathon and also with a bag weighing several kilograms.
Plus, he had to be on checkpoints at least faster than his wife, to explain to the organizers every time why he is here, encourage his wife, give her a drink and run on.

In the end, she ran the whole marathon.
This was her first marathon.

Stefan ran a half time longer.

Opening the door of the car, passing forward, moving the chair and other manifestations of care for a woman, of course, is good and in my eyes important, but what Stefan did stands at a very different level of care for his partner.
I was upset when I heard his story about how he spent those weekends.
Happy and long years together, Stefan!