Countless

It was only a few weeks before the New York Marathon, and I realised that I had not done any serious preparation at all. I did a long run two days in a row, and the next day I wanted to get in another long run. After about an hour, though, a pain flashed through my right knee and I had to walk home. The knee kept hurting and I could not run any more up until the Marathon. Since I already had a plane ticket and a race number, I did not want to cancel and felt I should give it a try. On the day of the Marathon, I was able to run until the ten-mile mark, when my knee hurt again and I had to walk. We had been told that Guru would be giving prasad at the Marathon Team station at mile 13, so I figured I would walk to there and, if nothing changed, drop out. A bit beyond the Team table, I heard Ranjana call my name. She was pointing further down, where Guru was taking video of the runners. When I had passed Guru and became aware of myself again, I suddenly realised that I was running! My knee pain had gone away. I tried to run carefully and with concentration as if to stay free from pain, and managed to finish in 4:40—one of Guru's countless miracles.

Vasanti (Heidelberg)