Hey, at least I enjoy my useless and pointless hobbies. The runners were just suffering.
Talk to a competitive runner. The suffering is a deep part of the enjoyment.
I think that carries through in the story: "Unexpected joy." And the emotional reaction to the clock, and the moment of silence. The way I read the story, King's happiness and fulfillment at the end are as absolute as his determination. They would not be possible without it. King is happier at winning than Steve would have been, because King put his entire being into it and paid a higher price for it.
That's not exclusive to athletics. I have several activities and passions which sometimes cause me a significant amount of pain. Podcasting is occasionally one of them. Lack of sleep, locked knees... I'm not going to whine about it. Some weeks are simply harder than others. I never made that a factor in
whether I should do it.
My recent exercise kick is another. I don't push myself close to any breaking points, but I do try to keep it from being
easy. If I didn't feel my outro rant was already going on too long, one thing I would have said was: "Oh, and yes, it
is really hard for me to do this. That's a point in its favor. It makes the endorphin high that much better. And I really feel we should do things that are hard. If we don't, we'll eventually get worse and worse at the easy things."
I have more direct examples, but they're out of scope and probably TMI. (Some of you who've really paid attention can probably guess.) Point is: pain and enjoyment are not opposed. Within the right context, they can complement each other, or even be mutually essential.