Day 35… My Life Is Here (July 21)

Kobi Oren, after several thousand miles and 34 days of running continues to surprise and amaze me.  His focused efforts in the hours he is running on the course is always swift and always powerful. At the same time he is able to give a clear and delicate interpretation to the mystical side of the race.  A balance of the inner and outer that is extraordinary for someone who is taking part in the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race for the first time.

“It is hard work.  There are various seconds that I enjoy.  My eldest son arrived recently so with that I had a lot of seconds of joy.  His coming to the race was a very important moment for me.”

Kobi has a quota of mileage he wants to accomplish each day.  Yesterday he ran 66 miles.  “It is very hard to be here.  It is a hard world being here.” At the same time after completing 2300 miles this morning he says the finish line is becoming just a little more clear for him.

He describes that his life has become so immersed in the race that, “I don’t remember what was before.  It is like that I have been here all my life.  So I don’t know what will be after this.  This experience consumes everything.  My entire life is here.  I know that there is a lot of me out there.  But I am not living that now.  So I really don’t know what will happen at the end.  The end is something that I wish for and something that I desire for, but I can’t imagine what will be there the day after.”

“This is more than the here and now.  This event has its own life.  Before the race I thought it was going to be a journey, a quest, a voyage.  Like in mythology when the hero goes to find a golden feather and then he gets the Kingdom.  But now I know that this is something completely different. This is something like a pilgrimage.”

“You need to do things here in a certain manner.  There won’t be any golden feather here.  There won’t be a kingdom.  It is a ritual.  A very very long ritual to find out who you are.”

The Board at the Start of Day 35 *Note the totals may not be accurate…. The magic number is 2,026*

Camp early

Kobi and Vajra

Dipali’s Race Tips

William comes

Memories of winter

Surasa comes

William at his table

Kaneenika comes

Vasu

Smarana

Nearly time

Start of Day 35

Another beautiful day

Vasu ran 69 miles

He now has 2351 miles

He leads Kobi by 59 miles

With Alexei

Flower

Always need ice

Kobi ran 66 miles

He now has 2292 miles

A great performance

flower

The daily poem has just arrived

Ushika did 65 miles (120 laps) his most since day one

He now has 2072 miles

Telling a joke with Max

Flower

Mario working on Arpan.   His birthday is Monday

Sopan did 54 miles

He now has 2058 miles

He leads Surasa by 16 miles

Doing well

Flower

Facetiming European friends

Surasa did 62 miles

She now has 2042 miles

16 miles above the magic number

On day 35

Flower

Helpers of all kinds

Kaneenika did 62 miles

She now has 2008 miles.  Just 18 miles behind

With helper Leelavatee

A tremendous performance

Flower

Kaneenika and friends

William did 57 miles

He now has 1933 miles

Telling a joke

Green

Smarana did 62 miles

He now has 1929 miles

Doing his best

Flower

2 mile race day

Ananda-Lahari did 37 miles

He now has 1871 miles

Green

Must be 2 mile race day

Swamiji

“You know if you climb up just a little bit higher, morning comes a little sooner.”

Poem of the Day read by Chetana

Click to Play:

Poem chetana

Enthusiasm Awakeners

Click to Play:

parvati

Mine is a hallowed
Heart-temple.
Here I sing,
Here I pray,
Here I meditate
And here in silence
I converse
With my Lord Beloved Supreme.

Sri Chinmoy, My heart-temple, Jharna-Kala Card Co., 1999

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