April 24….Day 8 (Keep Moving)

“If I stop for too long my feet hurt.” I joke that means she needs to keep moving for the next 3 days.

Kim Allan has been leading the women’s 6 day race from the start.  “It is a good thing it means you can’t muck around.  At the end of 72 hours she has 220 miles a number that puts her at 3rd place overall.

“It has been tough.  The road is undulating.  It is a tough course.”

“When things go wrong it kind of escalates.  In shorter races you can think it will be over at 100km.  But when things go wrong you think, o my gosh, I still have 4 days.”

Her longest event prior to this was to run for 86 hours where I did 500km but it wasn’t a race.  Kim tells me that she is familiar with other Sri Chinmoy Marathon team events from her home in New Zealand.  “I did the 24 hour race in Auckland and it is awesome.  It is a really enjoyable experience apart from the pain.”

“I am happy I am still going.  I had stomach issues that first night at 1 in the morning.” After which she had blisters and realized things weren’t going according to her plan.  “The thought of sticking it out for 6 days seemed enormous.  I guess I am proud that I am still here.”

Kim feels that at this point in the race it is her mental strength that she is relying on most.  “I am not doing a lot of running.  I have managed to maintain my miles by staying awake.  I have had 2 hours and 30 minutes sleep since the start of the race.”

“I just stay up all night knocking the mileage out.”  She has a 17 mile lead over Vikena.  She says that at the beginning she was competing only with herself.  But now, “It is hard when you find yourself in front.  You kind of want to hold it.  You get competitive.”

She says that Vikena is running really strongly.  “The only way I have managed to keep my place is that when she is sleeping I just keep going.  Every lap I do she still has to pull that one back.  She is a lovely lady.  I don’t want to be competitive with her.”

Her feeling about the race thus far, “It is wonderful.”

“I feel very fortunate to be here.  Every time I come here after finishing, it makes me more mature.  The race gives me a better understanding of life.”

“I take this race like I do life.  Many times in life we feel ourselves in difficult conditions.  Here the same thing happens.  Sometimes it is cold, sometimes it is windy and because of that you feel low.  The answer you find is to keep moving on.”

“Nothing else do you need to do, just keep moving on.  2 days I go I was in a real bad patch.  My feet were sore.  I used the mantra, Keep moving on, and now I am doing good.  I am still on my 50 miles a day pace.”

“Personally I take this race as an opportunity to inspire the citizens of my country, India.”

*translation by Stutisheel*

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Budjargal still leads the 10 day field

He has 529 miles

Igor is 2nd with 497

Nataliya leads the women with 397 miles

6 Day Board

Ashprihanal leads the men’s 6 day race with 241 miles

John Geesler is 2nd with 231

A park resident enjoying the race

A friend of Wendy and Allan

Wendy and Allan conferring

Todd taking a picture of his total

Getting some swollen ankle tips from Dipali

*Click Below for more tips*

Vinnati with Patricia

“This seat is terrible.   I don’t see even one runner.”

Who is then abducted by Bandhavi

Albena

Vasuprada taking a break

“Are you joking.”

Vinati

“It is definitely more interesting here the past week.  I don’t like hanging around.”

Passing

Susan

“There better not be any problems getting the time right.”

Shirley passing the one legged stand test

Ales

Flower

Arun taking a food break

“Get the board right too.”

Bayarsaikhan

Bipin sorting out a tent

Flower

Anna

“I think this is going to be my nephew or my lunch.”

Crew

Sandro and Mark

Roger

“Wait a second where are my shoes?  I need 2 pair.”

 

Rimas coming off a break

Popular discussion

Flower

Fred Davis

“So this is what a bad day look like”

Dipali with a weather report

Georgs

Flower

Gudrun taking a break

Gudrun running strong

“Maybe I will feel better if I have lunch.”

Mattali

Gundega

Flower

Joe taking a break

Potato peeling

Laila getting some advice from Stutisheel

“It is great to have someone to tell your problems to when you’re having a bad day.”

Mark Dorion an Robin searching for a sighting of Batman

Pratishruti

Flower

Priyavadin

Michel

Igor

Mark McCaslin

Petra

Pedja and Allan

“I just ran from the parking lot and I am exhausted.  But I heard you had some squirrels around.”

Wendy and Mark