Lost the Race

     I have never been skinny.  Now I run, I work out, I try to watch my weight, but I have never had that thin, runner's physic.  However, one night, I was on a stakeout with someone who did. 

 

     We had been getting reports of car prowls in a particular area, so Officer Tom and I decided that we would stake out the area, to catch some of these criminals.  We walked into a bin lot, where large fruit bins were stacked about ten feet high, intending to use the bins as a vantage point.  As soon as we walked between two rows of bins, we noticed a stack of stolen booty.  The crooks had evidently already been busy, and had been stashing their ill-gotten gains between the bins.  Knowing that the bad guys would be back for the stash, Tom and I climbed up onto the bins and waited. 

 

     Within 15 minutes, two guys walked into the narrow aisle and started picking up the stolen goods.  Tom and I leapt down off the bins, screaming like we were marauding Huns.  The two crooks took off running, with Tom and me in pursuit.  Now these crooks were somewhat of a reflection of Tom and me- one was stocky and slow, the other thin and fast.  Tom quickly outpaced me, being able to run much faster than I.  And who did he catch and take to the ground?  That's right, the slow fat one.  And who did I get to chase?  Correct again, the skinny fast guy. 

 

     After four blocks, the guy gave up, when a backup officer in a patrol car drove in front of him.  The final indignity is that the skinny-fast bad guy gets a ride in the patrol car (albeit in handcuffs), while I have to walk the entire four blocks back to Tom, who was resting comfortably on an apple box.  I wanted to say something witty and insulting to him for making me do all the running, but I just couldn't catch my breath.