Looking Over the Battlefield

Later that day, which was the day before the marathon, I took a cab and went to the marathon starting point. I was disappointed, frightened, to say the least, when I saw the whole course.
 
I said, "Since I came all the way, best thing is to die on the battlefield."But when you are in the car, the battlefield is not a real battlefield. Only when you start running, when you are on the ground, is it a real battlefield.
 
When I saw it in the car, I still had a little hope that I would be able to manage it. Secretly I had a little hope that I would be able to finish it. O God, the actual day was something else!
 
-7 October 1979 
 

 
[Source: "Looking Over The Battlefield" in Sri Chinmoy,  Run and Become, Become and Run, Part 2, Agni Press/Aum Publications, Jamaica, New York, 1979.]