The hero¹

While I was running this morning at 5:23, on the bottom of my mouth I was wearing my mouth retainer, which I use while exercising. Unfortunately, the retainer for the top of my mouth had been eaten by my dogs.

As usual, I was doing my hill work and speed work on 150th Street. First I was running up and down the hill. I would go down 20, 30, 40, 50 and 70 metres. Then, on the flat part, I would run from my starting point to my 500-metre mark. I always run on the side of the street with the cars. Otherwise, the lights blind me. They are so bright, so bright!

A Puerto Rican man was watching me from the top of the hill, where he was waiting for the bus. He was smoking like anything.

This time I ran to my 500-metre mark and kept walking to the 600-metre mark. I saw nobody on the street. But when I reached my 600-metre mark, suddenly I heard a lady 150 metres behind me screaming to me, “Hey Mister, save me, save me!”

So I started running as fast as possible towards the lady to save her. The robber who was bothering her got frightened and ran away.

The lady said, “Thank you, Mister, you saved me. You saved me. This black man tried to take my bags. He had a gun. (Actually it was a toy gun.) I had so much money on me because on Fridays I go to the bank. You saved me! I am so grateful to you. Please take this $20 bill.”

I said, “No, please.” I wouldn’t take her money.

Then I said; “Have you heard of Sri Chinmoy?”

She said, “No, I don’t believe I have.”

I asked, “Have you heard of Guru?”

She said, “Oh yes, of course I've heard of Guru. He is a nice guy, a very nice guy!”

So I smiled at her. But right then the bus came. At that moment she was more interested in catching the bus, so she never knew that it was that “nice guy” who had saved her. Then I ran back to my starting point, next to the bus, and the bus went slowly by me.

The bus drivers are all my friends; they all know me because I run so much on 150th Street. They like me so much!

So this is the kind of thing that happens when I go out to run. Then I went home and did my 100 push-ups for the day.