Enjoying the hill³⁷

This morning, a little before four o’clock, I went on my first run for the day. The second time I ran it was around five o’clock. At that time two people saw me as I was running up the 150th Street hill. They started making fun of me. They said, “Now it is your turn to enjoy yourself. Before your ‘deesciples’ died, and you watched. Now you are enjoying the hill.” They were referring to our 150th Street races.

So I said, “Yes, now I am enjoying it. You come every morning at five o’clock to enjoy running with me. You people come!”

They were very surprised. They had thought that I would remain like the silent Brahmin and wouldn’t talk to them. I was on my fifth mile of hill work and I was dying. I was panting and making noise and they were mocking me.

After running five miles, I walked two miles up and down the hill. So I did seven miles of hill work. It is a little different when you run alone with nobody to cheer for you.