The Midnight Training Run

[...]

The day before, of all days, I decided I would run seven miles during the day, although I knew that I would try to run a training marathon at night. Who asked me to run five or six miles? I did one mile of hill work up 150th Street in the morning. Then I ran two miles. Later I did one mile of speed work and one mile at an eight-minute pace. Then how I suffered during my long training run!

Was it my mental hallucination that it was so cold? Usually I go out at five in the morning, but it is not as cold as it was that night. At times I felt as if a bullet were passing through my chest. Then I stepped in a puddle and my left foot started burning. Inwardly I was screaming because my sock and shoe were burning with the absolutely icy cold! I always wear long underwear under my trousers, but that night I wore only a nylon running suit. Right from the beginning, the muscles in my legs were so cold. I wasn't wearing enough on my hands either, although I had on two pairs of gloves.

I said, "If I finish 20 miles, then I will be satisfied." I had already given up the idea of doing a whole marathon.

[...]

-1 April 1983



[Source: "The Midnight Training Run" in Sri Chinmoy, Run and Become, Become and Run, Part 14, Agni Press/Aum Publications, Jamaica, New York, 1985.]