A 75-year-old man beat me in a sprint when I was 17...

Steroids? You think. No no, this guy was literally an emaciated 75-year-old Italian man who just happened to be jogging (or is it yogging?) along the Arno River at the same time as I was. I used to go for a casual jog before class every morning in Florence until an old guy not only stayed with me in a dead sprint for a quarter mile, but then pulled ahead and won! Maybe it was because he was used to the abnormal quantity of dog feces on the sidewalks and streets in that city and I was attempting to dodge them, but I mean, I was like 60 years younger than the guy. And I frequently exercised. I had seen this guy running before several times. At first I just thought he wanted to jog along with me and ask me about where I was from or something, but then he said something in Italian like "Veloce?" Or something. I think he meant, "So when you jog, do you like to sprint? Because I do and I'm wicked fast." I thought he was joking kind of and besides, he wasn't wearing an uncomfortable amount of spandex or a fanny pack with water in it which would suggest he's a marathon runner. I probably said something like "Si. Sometimes fast I run" and then he said something that was the equivalent of "We race now." Back then I knew a tiny amount of Italian and I liked not speaking English. Life is much more spontaneous and fun when you don't quite clearly know what's happening. So I figured, what the heck? We had been jogging along at a nice normal clip for about a mile or so talking, and I told him I lived near the Ponte Vecchio (the famous bridge, complete with a secret tunnel that you can go into and then look at art on a day trip with a tour guide) that was coming up in about a half a mile. And that's when he suggested the race. This was at like 7:30 a.m. and there were tons of vespas and people walking to work in their nice sleek Italian clothes, totally not expecting some crazy old guy and a teenage girl to come flying down the sidewalk. I never saw that guy again, but I imagine he's still running along the river every day, challenging young people who think they have a chance.