Quotation Mark Mondays: I feel the need for speed.

"Dad, I am built for speed."
- Mark Hanley, prior to his first race

Mark competed in his first race last week, a 100-meter-dash in Geneva. It took him more than three minutes to run a relatively short distance. But there's actually a pretty good reason.
Prior to the race, Matt tried to explain to Mark how it might work. Matt gave him the basics: you'll all line up, the man will say go and then you run all the way to the finish line.
Matt added in that he might have to run in a certain lane and he should be careful to stay in the lane so he doesn't crash into other runners. Mark had some questions about this lane issue (mainly, 'What is a lane?') and then seemed ready to run.
Mark was super excited for the race. He lined up in the second row and stared down at the finish line.
Matt saw the start of the race (pictured below) where Mark took off with his super speed and a look of grim determination. There was about 40 kids in the race, all heading to a big red arch, that covered about half the finish line. Matt lost track of Mark near the end but he seemed to be doing pretty well. Matt headed to the finish line, but Mark was nowhere to be found. There were dozens of kids and Matt searched everywhere. Matt started to feel that panic of a missing a child. Did he wander off? Was he hurt?
Nope, nope.
Mark wasn't lost.
He was still on the track, running.
Sort of.
Because the finish line arch didn't cover all the lanes, the organizers had placed cones in the other four lanes to funnel the kids toward the arch. So when Mark was about 87 meters through the race, he came up to the cone.
And then he stopped.
To be fair, his legs and arms kept moving, like a video game character that has hit a wall, but continues to run. Mark just ran in place, right in front of this cone.
Why? Well, he later explained that his dad told him to stay in his lane. But this cone was in his way. So he just stayed in his lane, awaiting further instruction. Once, Lynne and Matt found him, they pointed Mark to the finish line and he ran through.
He's a great kid.