Starting too fast⁴

In today’s three-mile race in Flushing Meadow Park I saw Snigdha after one hundred metres. I couldn’t believe it, but she was falling behind me. For eight hundred metres she ran with me and then she finally went ahead.

After the first four hundred metres I was still with the boys. What was I doing there? Mukunda and others were behind me. My time for the first mile was 6:39. Had it been only a one-mile race, for the last three hundred metres I could have gone faster, and my time for the mile would have been better.

Nirjhari caught me when I started walking. She passed me and left a large gap between us. I said, “Go ahead, go ahead!” Then Subala passed me, then Linda. Nayana passed me after a mile and a half. I said, “Go!”