For the last few years I've done an jingle jog in a tiny country town about an hour away. It usually attracts a small but competitive crowd. The race was last weekend and I spent the first couple of miles running just ahead of a man who was probably old enough to be my dad. About two miles into the five-miler, I heard him howl and I looked over my shoulder in time to see him drop to ground. He had a charlie horse, so I helped him massage it and get back on his feet. When it was clear he could walk the rest of the course on his own, I jumped back into the race. Here's the rub: I finished the race and managed to place in my age group despite the delay. (Truthfully, that probably says more about the lack of competitors in my age group than it does about my performance.) But I couldn't help being disappointed that no one else seemed to notice or care when this guy went down.
With no prize money at stake, is meeting a time goal so important that you can't stop and help someone who is obviously in trouble? What's the proper race etiquette in this situation? What do you do when you see someone in trouble on the course?
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