People at the end³⁷

From eleven to thirteen miles, I practically walked the whole way because I saw that walking was far better than running. At twenty miles I said, “I am not going on. I am not running one more mile!”

Then Saraswati came, and for the last six miles she walked in front of me. While I was walking, I saw that people who were running were going slower than I was. I was walking, but I was passing people who were running! Some of them looked like real athletes — very strong. Some were getting cramps, and some were lying under the trees, giving up.

After nine miles, at least four or five hundred people went ahead of me. But after twenty-two or twenty-three miles, I was doing the passing. I passed at least twenty people that way. I knew that I was not going to get a cramp if I ran, but my speed was so bad that it was faster to walk.