Old friends

A thin, tall black man came up to me and said, "Guru, don't you remember me? The other day I ran 800 metres with you." Then I recognised him. He was in the Randall's Island race in New York City. I had told Danny to videotape him. I said, "Yes, you ran extremely well. I was far, far behind." He is national champion in his age category. He was so happy to see me. He couldn't believe that I was in Puerto Rico. At Randall's island he ran a 2:10 and my timing was three minutes. But in India in the 800 metres I had stood first.

In half an hour, again he came up to me just to chat. In the Pan American Games he defeated everyone in the 800, but in the 100 he didn't get a place. So, he said nice things and I said nice things.

Then some elderly athletes were showing that they could do the high jump and pole vault. One of them pushed the bar with his shoulder, so everybody laughed. One or two athletes were good when they jumped. I was watching and enjoying. Sometimes when people were throwing the javelin, it did not point. Even world champions have that problem.

One 75-year-old ran very fast. Then, when the race was over, the first, second and third place finishers embraced one another and took pictures. It was most thrilling. Many times the experiences were very, very good.