Sri Chinmoy runs the Champlain Valley Marathon in a time of 4:41:16 in Plattsburgh, New York.
Running stories
by Sri Chinmoy
Every day, as soon as I start running, I have the same mantra: “Today let me go slowly.”
But “today” becomes “every day,” and then relaxation starts. Never does the mantra come: “Today let me go fast!”
With tennis, I get such joy while playing, but then afterwards, nothing. But with running or walking, no matter how badly I do, afterwards I get such satisfaction. I am relaxed and I get such a sense of accomplishment.
Whenever I want to lose weight, I start walking. Walking is my salvation. When I run, I don’t lose as much weight. In seven or eight days I have lost thirteen and a half pounds from walking. My body doesn’t register it, but my scale does.
I was walking in front of my house. Two dogs were barking like anything. One of them — a big dog — came running towards me. They came up ten or fifteen metres and then went away.
This morning when I was in front of my house walking, a funny thing happened with the neighbour who is on our right side. He is a young man whom I do not know very well. It is not like the neighbour across the street, whom I know so well.
I thought my right-side neighbour was in his car, so I said, “Good morning, good morning!” Then he said to me, “Good morning!”
Five minutes later the actual neighbour came out of his house and said “Good morning!” to me. Then he entered into the same car. So I said, “Good morning.” The first one was my neighbour’s brother perhaps, but I thought it was him.
His older daughter always looks at me with such respect. When little children are cycling on the street, bothering me like anything, she is always very nice to me.
Everything is contradictory! In the morning I decide to be a sprinter. Then in the afternoon I decide to be a marathon walker — even though I know that sprinters are never supposed to walk because they will develop certain muscles that are not good for sprinting.
Published in Run and Become, Become and Run, part 14