Blast from the Past

I sometimes feel that I use a lot of cliched expressions but again No Pain No Gain. I know that doesn't fit in this context I just had to use it. So the readers of my blog know that I initiated a diet and exercise program in the beginning of last year and I succeeded in losing a considerable amount of weight in six months. Then due to various reasons I could not continue it for a long time. I started the routine again this month which includes a strict diet and 8km walk in the park. There is a 4km track so i do two rounds of the track.

Last year I almost started jogging and was one of the fastest walkers by the time i stopped it. Now I started walking again and observed that almost everyone overtook me. Fifteen days into the routine and I have picked up enough speed to walk faster than most of the old men and women. Today I finished up my first round and started on the second round minding my business and not minding the people overtaking me.
At 1km mark a lady over took and I thought enough is enough and decided to over take her. So I increased my speed maintaining only a couple of feet distance. When I was comfortable with the speed i increased a bit and started reducing the distance at which point she noticed what i was trying to do and she increased her speed. Now that was a challenge I was willing to take and I increased my speed further and started maintaining a constant distance between me and her. I did not try to over take her since I was an experienced walker and knew that it is more of endurance rather than speeding up that will count by the time we finish the stretch. So I was pushing her all the way to increase her speed until she reached her threshold levels.
At 2.5km mark I observed that she was struggling to maintain her speed but refusing to give in. I decided to go for the kill and started gaining on her. At about 2.75km mark as I was overtaking her I felt someone slapped me right across my face and I could see my teacher from my school standing in front of me and saying "Aren't you ashamed... to compete with a girl!!!". I went into a momentary shock and the sudden turn of events slowed me down to my usual pace. I was blankly staring ahead and walking while those words kept on repeating in my mind.
The distance between me and her started to grow from a  few feet to few meters. By the time I reached 3.25km mark she gained about 50meters. Then my conscience slapped me hard back into reality and shouted  "No you are not ashamed... to compete with a girl, remember men and women are equal although women are more equal than men."I was still hesitant and my mind started reasoning with me, "Come on, you are dragging double her weight and even if you take off the 33% that is reserved for them you still are carrying more weight than her and she already has an advantage of about 60 meters. If you still think its not fair then well life isn't fair"
At that point I reached 3.5 km mark. With both my mind and conscience jolting me back to reality I started gaining speed  and by the time I reached 3.75km mark my walk turned into jogging and then into running with my eyes focused on the target. I overtook her and reached the 4km mark before she realized what was happening and with only couple of yards between us.
Now, I did not do a victory dance nor did I turn around to goad nor did I create a scene over it, I calmly walked away letting my victim silently succumb to her defeat. What can I say!!! When I am good, I am good but when I am bad, I am better!!!