I think, in part, we mythologize sacrifice, ennoble it with layer upon layer of redemptive they-did-not-suffer-and-die-in-vain meaning, because it enables us to bear the pain of loss.
The first casualty in pursuit of the record was perhaps the ironically named Englishman Sir Henry Seagrave, who in 1930 set the world record at 99 mph (159 kph).
She was polite, obliging, cheerful, hopeful; but, the more polite, the more obliging, the more cheerful, the more hopeful, the more exemplary altogether, she; the forlorner Sacrifice and Victim, he.
The herbivore bones that were found in the cave show no signs of predation, so this tells us that nothing that went into that cave lived to eat the bodies of the other victims.
The mayor began to undo his watch; the discovery that his rival was safe seemed to confirm his belief that as the owner of time he was bound to be the next victim.
`I might as well have struggled with a bear, or reasoned with a lunatic. The only resource left me was to run to a lattice and warn his intended victim of the fate which awaited him.