I can't help wondering whether this incident is similar to what happened to me at the 1979 Goat Fell race, when on the descent I was very grateful that the heather beside the path was deep enough for me to squat down without being seen - twice. I also kept running beyond the finish line until I had reached the toilets.
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges