The Fun Run

Today I ran three short races in New Jersey. At the beginning of the first race, a mile-and-a-half fun run, some children were in front of me. Children don't run; they dance. One child absolutely wouldn't move out of my way. Very politely I touched his shoulder and passed him.
 
Then, one black man and I were fighting and fighting to go ahead of each other. Finally I went three or four metres ahead of him. That was the time I had to make a wrong turn. Three girls who were just ahead of me made a wrong turn, and I followed them. These three girls and others who took the "shortcut" didn't go back the right way. But the race director happened to come at the very moment that I made the wrong turn. So he shouted at me that I had gone the wrong way. I was the only one who went back the right way. By that time the black man was four or five metres ahead of me. After some time I caught him again. But in the end he finally defeated me. We had a very good competition. The girls who took the shortcut also defeated me.
 
-18 October 1981  
   
 
 
[Source: "The Fun Run" in Sri Chinmoy,  Run and Become, Become and Run, Part 8, Agni Press/Aum Publications, Jamaica, New York, 1982.]