The Run of Your Lives
They were extreme athletes from six continents, twenty-one of them, in an obscure corner of Hungary at dusk, listening to a white-haired man calling himself Baron.
From a terrace he looked down on his guests.
“Welcome to my challenge race. This will be the run of your lives, I promise you.” He motioned to three brawny men at his side. “My sons enjoy testing themselves against skillful opponents.”
“And the course?” an ultramarathoner shouted.
The baron pointed to the surrounding forest. “Thirty kilometers of trails in my woods. Follow them—or not. Run among the trees! Return at sunrise and win.”
“Thirty kilometers? That’s hardly a race.”
The moon crested the mountain behind the castle.
“There’s more challenge than that,” the baron said. Beside him, his sons trembled and groaned.
The sun vanished.
“Time to run,” the baron said.
Three wolf-like things leaped from the terrace—and the athletes ran.
