The Perfect Gentleman

When I was at nine and a half miles, it started raining so heavily! Everybody was miserable. After I had made the turn and was coming back-at around sixteen miles-I saw a middle-aged man coming from the other direction. He had only run thirteen and a half miles and had not yet made the turn.
 
He was a perfect gentleman, cleanly shaven and nice looking. He said to me, "You are a gentleman and I am a gentleman. So you don't mind." Then he turned around and joined me. He had only run thirteen and a half miles, but now he was running with me at sixteen miles. I said, "Wonderful!"
 
At first he was running with me, but after fifty metres he started walking.
 
-24 January 1983 
 
  
 
[Source: "The Perfect Gentleman" in Sri Chinmoy,  Run and Become, Become and Run, Part 13, Agni Press/Aum Publications, Jamaica, New York, 1983.]