The embarrassing run¹⁷

Today I ran four miles with Pahar in Flushing Meadow Park. So many silly and embarrassing things happened! Before I started, I put on heavy clothes — shorts, trousers, plus the thick rubber belt I use to support my back. The first mile, as usual, was at my bullock-cart speed: 9:25. My timing for the next two miles was 8:18 and 7:40.

After the third mile I said, “Now I want to run a fast mile — seven minutes or under.” I took off the rubber belt so that I could breathe more deeply. After two hundred metres, what happened? My trousers began falling off on my right side.

First I tried holding them up with my right hand, while I was still pumping with my left hand. Then they started falling down on my left side also. So I had to hold my trousers up with both hands. Whenever I let go, for a few seconds they would stay up and then they would fall down again. Because of this I could not run fast, so my timing was 7:50. Easily I could have gone faster! I forgot that I had on shorts underneath. I should have stopped and taken off my trousers.