"Now the alert runner takes note as he runs his course because all along the way there are markers that tell him where he is in the race"
Yeah right...if the years were the miles you had to run and the markers written signs.. the markers would say this:
it's 1874 miles of running, no wait it's 1878, no waith it's 1914 miles, no waith it's 1915 miles, no wait1925, or no 1920 or no 1918 or no 1925 was right, no wait 1975 miles, sorry did I say 1975 miles I meant no more than 80 years counted from 1914 so that's 1994 miles
and the last marker would say: you already ran 2009 miles, you've got realy close to the finishline, sorry you died along the way. But don't worry we will ful the next generation!