8The metaphor of the runner is much less than perfect. Plato improves it by likening each individual action to a different race. This gives each action its own reward, so that life is the sum of many small races. In his next turn at speaking he slips back into the argument of the second author of Job, but here for the evil doer. The end of the race comes near the end of life when the effects of a dissipated youth come back to haunt the outpaced athlete.