I’m trying to find a way to refute this, but I cannot.

It doesn’t need to be fully watertight. The rate of water passing into the dry area only needs to be lower than the rate you can pump it out.

I’m a distance runner, and I don’t know if you’ve captured running all that well tbh. I certainly don’t go out for my Sunday long run looking forward to the finish. It’s pretty enjoyable when you’re training, but I concede that racing is difficult and can turn into prolonged suffering.