The fourteen-mile adventure1
The other night, Sudhir, Scott, Casey, Peter and I ran fourteen miles. After four or five miles I said, “You go ahead and clear the snow.”Scott and Casey are “excellent” runners, so it was Sudhir and Peter who went ahead. After one hundred metres, Peter could not keep up with Sudhir, so like a gentleman he started running with Scott, Casey and me.
After five miles Casey was tired; he didn’t want to run anymore. While I was barking at him to keep running, I entered into a puddle. For five or six steps, it was so cold. Such agony!
Then we went on and completed seven miles. Casey said, “How can we get back?” I said, “We will take a taxi,” but in the back of my mind I knew we would run back — another seven miles.
Scott is wise. He saw a diner and he said he was wondering if they had hot chocolate. Secretly he was hoping I would say to stop.
We turned back. Only Scott, Casey and Sudhir were still with me. Casey was behind us. All of a sudden he got inspiration and he wanted to go ahead. I started barking at him, “Either be at least fifty metres ahead, or stay behind.” While barking at him, again I entered into the same puddle which I had run through going the other way.
Sudhir was very nice, always running far ahead of us. After two or three miles, I saw Casey and Sudhir putting on their jackets. They had taken them off on the way and left them by the side of the street. Luckily, people didn’t care for their jackets, so Casey and Sudhir got them on the way back.
RB 128. 11 February 1979↩
