The thought of doing one though had been nagging at him inside for a little while.   Many if not most others could have simply played it safe and shut the door on such a crazy thing like running for 10 days. At the very most he could have selected something like the 6 day, just a little easier.

And to be honest about the situation, in the great scheme of things he wasn’t as well trained and experienced as many of the elite runners were who run the 6 and 10 day self transcendence races.  So really the best he could hope for was to stick it out and make it comfortably into the final hours of the last day and then sit in a chair and enjoy the sun in the park.

In professional sports we can marvel at athletes pure strength, speed, and agility.  Great competition reveals to us arm chair mortals just how wonderful the human body can be when it is trained, naturally talented, and supremely focused on winning.  Nirbhasa like all the other runners here are remarkable athletes, but their focus is far far from winning or loosing, or becoming rich and famous.  The 82 runners who have been here so long, suffered so much, and gone so far are seeking something else.  Not that they all wouldn’t want to be stronger and faster than they already are but something more important is happening inside of each and every one of them.

Now what happened to Nirbhasa was that he got this one inspiration to finish the race with 600 miles, which would be a terrific achievement.  But then sometime last night he got another inspiration that was just plain crazy.   If he had slowed down a step or stopped to really think about it, he could have simply discarded the inspiration and laughed it off as just plain insanity.

For what happened under the full moon bright sky, was that Usika suggested to Nirbhasa that he should finish the race with 1000 km.   Which theoretically was really a beautiful thought, except for one thing.   It would mean that over the last 24 hours he would need to run 91 miles.  An impossible total if you consider that it was more than 24 miles further than he had run on even his best day. And one thing more, nobody else in the race had run anything like 90 miles since the very first day of running.

By no means does self transcendence

Mean an impossible task,

And possibility can and must reach

Self transcendence shore.……Sri Chinmoy

“I have a target of 622, which is a 1000 km.  We’ll see, I am kind of going at the pace for it.   I see if I can hold it for the 2 hours till the finish.”  I am running at an incredible clip to keep up with Nirbhasa and he says that in those last 2 hours he has to run 10 miles.  “If I get it well and good and if I don’t then well and good.”

I am puzzled that he seems to be stronger than he was before he started the race.  “I think it is because the finish line is approaching.  I am trying to get in as many miles as I can before the finish.”  I mention that yesterday he ran a very impressive 67 miles.  “It was a nice experience actually.  I was having some difficulty getting some enthusiasm.  I had 2 very nice experiences actually.  One, I was really invoking enthusiasm and dynamism, and it is really funny because you really feel that those qualities are out there on the course.  You know if you just really cry within.”

On another night he describes having some inspiration issues.  Then he simply got the ideas, “60.  Why don’t I do 60.  The whole goal gave me a lot of joy.  Because I had been used to 53, 54, 55, and somehow 60 gave me a lot of joy.  And it also opened up the possibility of getting 600 miles in.”  He is running very smooth and strong as we have this conversation, yet he is moving much faster as well than anyone else on the course.  At this point he is optimistic but admits, “my world wouldn’t collapse if I didn’t do it.”

“I had kind of given up.  Basically I have been running all night.  So you know I am very tired.  So quite a few things today basically inspired me to go for it again.”  When asked about next year, “my main focus is this one and this little challenge that I have here.”

Nirbhasa

In the great circus of excitement that envelops the  finish line at the end of all of these races, most people probably did not know what had just happened when Nirbhasa crossed the line with a miniscule sliver of time still left on the clock.  It couldn’t have been much more than 4 meager minutes.  When you listen to the audio it is all cheers, and ringing bells, and shouts of encouragement.  So much is happening all around you that it is hard to focus on it. Every few seconds one after another runner keep coming in.  His distance of 622 miles is called out but very few can possibly take note of the fact just what a super human effort went into giving him that warm wide wonderful 1000km.

end of clock 2 Nirbhasa

As the pundits chew through the stats from the race over the next few days Nirbhasa’s last day effort will cause jaws to drop and people to scratch their heads.  They may think a wrong total was entered or a mistake happened somewhere along the long lines of score cards and data sheets.  But no matter how they look, or examine, or ponder they will come eventually to the conclusion that a little miracle took place on the last day of the race.

On  full moon night in a New York City park, an Irish man looked in his heart and saw that there was more there than he realized he had left.  And much to his surprise, it just so happens that his legs were willing to give him more than they had over the previous 9 days.  Every runner who was on their feet and moving into the last hours of the last day are champions and are deserving of being identified as ones who transcended themselves.   And yet when you look just a little closer at what this young man from Ireland did here today it is hard not to be amazed.  And maybe wonder, what have I got left in my own heart that I have yet to bring to the fore.

Most people will stay on the course until they simply do not have enough time to run another mile.  For most of the runners here, one mile more or less does not mean that much.

Kaneenika in the 10 day race has consistently run the most miles per day of all the other women.  Her total of 686 will put her first amongst the women and 2nd overall.  “I am happy.  Each race is a new experience.  Each time I feel like I do make some kind of progress.  Not only outwardly but I also try and implement something new in my next race.  But most importantly I feel that I am growing stronger spiritually.  And bringing me closer to my Guru.”

Kaneenika

“Every time I do a fixed time race I always stay until the very end.”  Phil McCarthy will be the overall winner in the 6 day race and on his last day here he will run a respectable 71 miles.  His voice has a hint of  roughness to it as if a combination of fatigue, pollen, and pain are proving a point that they cannot be ignored any longer.  “I am very happy with how everything went.  It has been a great experience.  My body seems to be holding together, more or less, and I think my feet are hamburger.  I don’t have any major physical problems.  You never know what can go wrong in a thing like this.  It was a great experience all around.”

He describes how he was enjoying himself the day before running at a comfortable pace and thought, “let me keep it going as long as I can.  I didn’t know what I was thinking about how long I could sustain it.  I ended up doing it for a good 7 hours.”  He says he was able to keep running like this because of his crew at the time Otto Lam.  “He was working like a dog, getting things ready for me.”

“The whole point is to see what you are capable of, and see what is possible.”  He is happy with his total of 462 miles.  “I had goals coming in, but some of it was kind of naive, some pulling it out of mid air.  In the end I was prepared to push for some super high mileage and crash, and take risks.”  He says that he in the beginning took a risk but conditions made him settle down and he is ultimately glad that he did not fall apart.  “I still ended up with a total that I am very very proud of.”

While setting his American 48 hour record he rarely slept but in the 6 day he had to make some major adjustments to his running.  He says how when Otto was here on Thursday night he told him, “Just focus, don’t worry about me.”

“Now focus is not the right word.  It is something different from focus. Because you are here, and this is what you are doing.  You have to be HERE doing that.  In the moment.”

Phil

“I had a bit of a nasty fall on Wednesday, I thought I cracked a rib.  I have been dealing with a lot of pain and shock from it.  So I think through the rest of the race I have been a little bit shattered.”  The past few the weather has pretty rough on the course but she describes the past 2 days for her as being dream time.  “It was quiet and calm and sunny.  I feel everyone got a lot from it, especially me.”

For a lot of people Phil McCarthy’s performance has helped push all the runners.  “I was a bit worried about him in the beginning.  He is a 24 hour 48 hour runner and in the beginning he was really pushing.  He was pulling me because I didn’t have a girl pulling me this time.  He is a great runner and has a great future.  He is a very sweet person, and he took it in his stride.  A great effort on his part.”

“These races really humble you, humble and crumble.  I think Martin is getting the experience now.  He has a wonderful style.  He has learned a lot from this race.  These races are created for absolute self transcendence.  You learn so much.”

“I guess in 1991 when I first came out here I didn’t know what it was all about.  Then I started to run and train more.  Learn what this ultra business really was.  During the year when I am doing my training I do think about these races.  You have to put in the miles you have to have the feel of what is going to happen when you are out here.  And Guru had this tremendous vision.  People look at this race and see so many people from all over.”

“They are doing great and are so enthusiastic.  So for me I train for them.  16 in a row is no joke.  Something pulls me, I guess it is my soul, and my love of my Guru who taught me how to do it.  Gave me the inspiration and he was the one who created this race.  It is definitely a blessing to be here.”

Dipali

Martin finishing with 720 miles

The champions all.

“The last lap, what a concept.”  Ken Ward has had a great race and am very glad to meet up with him as he is finishing up his 6 days.  “The last lap ever, never.  I am extremely happy.  What a great race what a great organization.  The park was much more beautiful than I expected it to be.”  Coming from the Pacific Northwest he says, “it is totally different.”

Describing the difference of running on wood chip trails at home versus the concrete here.  “It is such a grind especially on the connective tissue.  I thought it would be more of a pounding on my joints.  It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  I thought I would get badly damaged, and I haven’t.  I have been lucky to not have anything go badly wrong. “

Ken

Right behind Ken is another first time runner, Ramisvan from Bristol England.  I have recorded a snippet of conversation where Ken is thanking Arpan for all his help with massage.  “He is the one that made it happen.”

Arpan: “I just kept them on their feet that’s all.”

Ken: “It is kind of important to stay on your feet.”

Ramisvan: “I just have one more mile to do 380.  I think it is just the right number to finish on.  I am really really pleased.  So I have gone beyond my goal of 360.  I have had issues with my Achilles tendon, but I persevered through so I think 380 is the right distance to do.”

ramisvan

“Last day, beautiful day, one more mile to go.”  Niribili is doing her last lap with husband Rajpal and they are glowing as they do their lap.  I am told that Niribili has done 27 more miles than she did the previous year.” Niribili finishes with 448 miles over 10 days.

Niribili

I came to work so I did the job, but it was hard this year because I had a bad ankle.  But when I decide to come I came to work.  So I did the best job that I could do.”  Michel Guoin has come to the race with his family for many years.  Last year he set a personal best and because of his injury he came up a little short.  When you see him on the course he is always working hard and giving his best effort.  He will end up the race with 527 miles.  He has always been and continues to be a great champion.

“It could be better next year.  I hope so.”

Michel

sahishnu speech

“To participate in this race and stay with it all the way through, everybody deserves trophies, medals, or something.”  Sandhani is one of the race directors of the Sri Chinmoy marathon team and while the runners are putting in their final laps he is getting 4 tables of trophies ready.  One for each runner. “It is the way we honor them.”

“I think the award ceremony is something special and significant.  Every participant is acknowledged.  For me it was very intense, because it was the largest field that we ever had.  But I appreciate all the help we had.  A lot of people came out and somehow they showed up when they were needed.  So they arrive, give us a hand, and help us get through this thing.  It is a big special event and I think it is the best of its kind in the world, the 6 and 10 day race.”

Sandhani

Allan Young is here for the second year in a row.  He seems very much integral to the fabric and feeling of this great race.  Compared to last year, “I somehow feel closer to the whole event.  I was in the mix right from the very beginning.”  He says that crewing for Martin he feels drew him even closer to the race.  “It is a very hard challenging course and to get 720 miles, is not bad.”

He is very experienced at what he does and has seen multi day races all over the world.  Of the Self Transcendence race, “it is very different.  Whether it is because there are so many Sri Chinmoy disciples or because it caters to the whole range.  Everybody is special.  There is no difference between how they treat the elite or the back marker.  They all get that…..Got You ….Such and Such.  No chip system does that.  Nobody else does that.”

“I will be back don’t worry.”

Allan

Ales

Dharbhasana

Cleaning up

A dog named April

Elena Kareva finishing 3rd with 602 miles.

A German interview

Ilvaka and Eva clearing up and moving on.

Jayasalini finishing 2nd with 383 miles.

John Geesler has a superb last day and completes 74 miles his last day.  He is 3rd and can’t quite catch Alex Swenson.

Kumar with Allan after completing his first 6 day race.

Larisa from Finland

Mathias is the last to cross the line with barely seconds to spare.

Mark Dorion working it.

Patanga from Brazil after finishing his first 10 day race and his shoes.

A very happy Pati Ibinova from Irkustk finishes 6th with 545 miles.

Prabala from France finishes his first 10 day race with 472 miles.

Priyavadin from Austria has 328 miles for 6 days.

One of the great Italians, Sandro.

Shamita and crew still smiling through it all.

The little village disappears so quickly.

Meanwhile if there is anyone who deserves a massage it is Nirbhasa Magee.

While getting a massage Nirbhasa is on the phone with his brother in Dublin.  When asked what he thought about his brother’s performance in the race.  “It is really incredible.  It is amazing to watch his journey and to see him the last 3 days really go from strength to strength.”

Ambarish:  Asked about reaching 100 km.  “That many has been pretty impressive.  It is very inspiring.”

Nirbhasa phone call

Greatness competes with

Goodness.

Goodness competes with

Soulfulness.

Soulfulness competes with

Self transcendence.

Self transcendence does not compete

With anything or anyone.

It just tries to complete

God’s transcendental Dream

In His universal Existence Life.

-by Sri Chinmoy

Tomorrow night they will tumble into irresistible slumber which they will offer themselves up unchallenged. During the night they might suddenly awaken and wonder in what strange warm comfortable place they have strangely and mistakenly entered, and then simply drift back into the embrace of sleep and emerge only many delightful hours later.

Their mirrors and their friends will remind them just how much different they look now.  But this will be no surprise as they attempt to climb steps, open doors, and sit alone in a soft comfortable chair and contemplate just what an incredible thing has taken place so significantly in their lives over the course of the past 6 and 10 days.

As the days pass what just happened will ever so gradually seem as though it was all just a little unreal.  Jobs and family, and friends and life itself will intrude with all the demands these things usually have a hold over us.  But somewhere and somehow all this will appear and be just a little bit different to them now.  The clammer and clasp of the world hopefully will no longer feel so loud and so strong as it was before.

Within them the sweet sacred whispers of peace that they so often heard in their hearts as they ran day and night for hundreds of miles will be once again cherished and remembered.  For how they look at  themselves and the world they live in will forever feel and be altered.  For the very fabric of their beings has been strengthened  and brought ever so much clearer into focus.  And what is real and eternally bright within has risen up that much closer towards their own perfection.

Martin finishes his 9th day with 660 and Kaneenika with 620

Philip finishes 5 days with 391 and Dipali with 378.

“We are heading into the last day and everyone is suitable tired and exhausted,” says a suitably tired and exhausted Martin Fryer.  “And the fastest runner is probably not going much faster than a walker.  But I can feel the anticipation in the air.”  I am curious if there is also a sense for some of simply not wanting it all to end.  “This is our world.  This is where we belong, but the other side of you likes the creature comforts.  (laughs) It has really had enough of getting up out of freezing cold tents.  Completely stiffened up and walking like a corpse.”

“But we are really all here for the same reason.  To be part of this experience, to transcend, and to see what capacities we have.  It is very exciting and it is a real pleasure to do that with people from all around the world.  It is just a great experience.”

He says for him that he got a more subtle appreciation of what is here.  He laughs when reminded of his last race, “unfortunately no lightning bolts this time.  No it has been about subtlety and I am coming in with a deeper appreciation of everything that is here.  I am really immersing myself more deeply in the moment and the environment.  I think this has helped me get along better than I would be. I am still tired.  In the equivalent 6 day race I was a complete wreck by now.  So I think it has actually strengthened me.  Having had those experiences.”

He tells me that he can see the finish line now.  “I am aware that we have all this extra time, but in the scale of things it is minimal.  It is almost like, here is your last chance to take in the changes in light in the last afternoon, and the last sunrise.  So I think it makes that easier.”  He is also glad that he doesn’t have any runner too close behind him.  “That would be my worse nightmare.   Being so tired and having someone to go head to head with. To a competitive ultra runner that is your worst nightmare.”

“I guess I have always set low, medium, and high goals.”  He says he should finish with about 700 miles which is for him somewhere in the middle.  As for the hours remaining, ‘I don’t really want to push hard, in this next session.  I want to finish the race and embrace the joy of it.  Rather than push myself to a total collapse.”

I suggest to Martin that the presence of Allan Young as his helper really means that he ran as a team.  “He makes a huge difference.  Two years ago I didn’t have any crew.”  He says that the extra miles he was able to make having Allan always ready to help was incalculable.  “It is that support, and him being a good friend.  There is a mutual respect.  We are an excellent team.  We keep a sense of humor when things are looking a bit grim.  He is a great great joy to be with.  Just his accent alone is enough to keep me alert.”

He has received a lot of support from friends and family back home.  “I have been thinking of all of them the whole race.  Wondering what they were speculating as they looked at the website.  Actually the whole race I have felt that support from Australia.  I know there is a lot of people willing me on. ”

“Seriously for me the goal was more inner than outer.  But as we know if you can align those two systems properly.  That if you get the inner right the outer will take care of itself.  I think I have kept fairly good poise most of the race and that was one of my aims.  Keep my poise try my best to smile.”

Martin

Alex Swenson finishes day 5 with 352 miles.  A short break and a massage of tired legs will get him many more miles yet.

Abhaya, quiet and strong finishing her 5th multi day.

Andrey Khachaturov finishes 9 days with 536 miles

Anna Eliseeva has 211 miles after 5 days.

So many still quiet faces

Trying all so hard.

The goal always lying just beyond.

Shamita seems to always on her feet and moving forward.  Painfully for sure but her inner strength and sweetness are still very much to the fore.  As she moves out of the dugout her helper is beside he with a box of treats.  Coincidentally Kaneenika is also leaving her chair and her helper is holding out a similar offering and this makes everyone laugh.  Shamita takes a piece of cake sitting on top, “sweet as life.”

We haven’t talked for a few days and when I suggest things went differently then she thought they might, she laughs, “definitely.”

“I think this is not very difficult to know in my case.” (more laughter)  “We never know what is going to happen.   It is an experience.  Everything is an experience.”

For the past 5 days she has had debilitating shin splints.  “A totally new experience.” When asked what she thinks about them she tactfully and rightly declines to answer suggesting it would just force her to be in the mind.  “I just want to try and accept it, and make the best out of it.”

“You develop so many other divine qualities.  Determination, going forward, no matter what happens, and find new ways to move, and you actually get a good kind of humor.  You enjoy nature more. You just go on another road.”

“There is no failure or success in God’s eye, everything is the same, it is just an experience.   But we all know that.”

The experience of coming back to multi day running over such a long period she says is a positive one.  “I am very happy that I did it.”

Shamita

You can count on Devasishu

Czech and Slovak girls checking some translation.

And somehow Dharbhasana ran more miles than anyone else in the 6 day.  The birthday boy ran 28 on the actual day and 73 on the next.

Tejini has just completed 200 miles while beside here Dipali completed 378 miles over 5 days.

Philip McCarthy has 391 miles for 5 days.

Rimas says he is not pushing hard in this race.  “I am not trying to beat any record. I am trying to do only 50 miles a day.  If I have any problem with my feet I go and sleep.”

Because of a bad injury he was not able to race or train hard for between 3 and 4 years.  He feels well now though and says that he needs, “training, training, training.”

“Now I feel much stronger and I can run, but I don’t push.  I listen to my body.  Maybe I come back next year and try and break David Luljak’s record.”  He tells me that David was here yesterday and that he told Rimas that his record was 541 miles for 6 days.  Rimas of course had run 600 miles for 6 days but it was during the 10 days so in not a record.

He is clearly very content with his growing fitness and feels that it is not a problem to compete 50 miles every day here.  He says that he first ran the 6 day race here in 1999.

David Luljack promised that he would come back next year but that he was now an old man.  Rimas told David, “but I am an old man too.  58 years old is not young but in the 6 day and 10 day it doesn’t matter.  But I need really good runners who can push me, like Phil McCarthy.”

Rimas

Ilvaka is safely in 2nd place with 576 miles and seems to be getting stronger.

Jayasalini very solid and full of fun with 320

Kaneenika also strong and in first of the 10 day women with 620

Some of the boys.

“I am breaking it down now.” Fred had a great 60 miles on day 7 he is anticipating the end of the race just a little early but the light of the day is quickly fading.  “I am going to get this out of the way and then walk latter.”

When asked how he could go from a one mile distance on day 6 to a 60 the following, he jokes.  “That is why I did 60 because I didn’t do anything the day before.” (laughs)

“It was a normal race but not a good one.  I still haven’t done my potential.”

Fred

Ken Ward with a very respectable 325 miles after 5 days.  He would like his wife to know that it is possible that the math shows that he just might have the potential to run the 3100 mile race.  (Which takes an entire summer to do) But if he says anything like, that he is one day going to do it……..he is only joking.

Kumar has 228 miles after 5 days and is doing well.

Mark Dorion with 448.

Michel is having some ankle problems so will likely not break his record from last year.

The Celtic folk having a wee chat. The Irishman on the right ran more miles yesterday than any other day of his race and seems to have gotten even stronger since he started.  He ran 67.

Pati completed 500 miles over 9 days.

Niribili has 416 and a good hold on her hat.

The Father and daughter team of Peter and Livka

Roger may break his record from last year.

Sergei.

Subala with 190 miles in 5 days.  Much longer than she has ever run before.

Sylvie who has lots to celebrate.

“I am so happy to be running.  This is the 9th day almost the 10th.  Like other runners also we don’t want to stop.  I feel like I would like to go on though I don’t think so for everyone.”

I suggest that I have never seen her anything but smiling.  “There have been a few tears in the medical but it is so great to be out here. ”

Her longest race prior to the the 10 day was a 100km race.  “I got inspired so I thought I would do it.  Last year I was here for just one day the first day of the race.  I was in the kitchen preparing food for the runners, and I felt the energy here.”

She also works with Pradeep in the Madal Bal health food store in Den Haag and says that he has done this race many times and also inspired her, both with his achievements here and also his running of the 3100 mile race.

“The 10 days didn’t really frighten me at all more for example than the 24 hour race.”  Sara has completed 381 miles over 9 days here.  In the beginning she wasn’t paying any attention to her mileage.  “But they keep telling you so after awhile you pay attention.”  She feels for her that the numbers are not so important.  Instead she prefers to focus on her running and on her Guru.

“Definitely I will do it again next year.”  She feels that it is her spiritual teacher that is actually doing all the work.  All she needs to do is remain receptive.

Sara

Three wonders we carry within:

A God dream,

A perfection life

And a transformation earth.

-By Sri Chinmoy

Since he retired he is no longer constrained by the limitations or nuisance of a regular work schedule.  Now every day he goes out his door and runs.  Alternating religiously between the Coney Island boardwalk or for the hilly loop in Prospect Park.   If you asked him, he could show you the proof of all this in the many many spiral bound notebooks he has carefully recorded each and every one of those now thousands of miles over more than 3 decades.  It wasn’t too long after he first began running that he got a taste for long distance competition.  Around 1980 he showed up at his first Sri Chinmoy Marathon team event, and just like his runs in Prospect Park and Coney Island he simply never stopped coming back.

On this very nice warm spring day in Flushing Meadow he is now into his 5th day of running here.  When he finishes the race on Saturday he will go home to his apartment in Brooklyn, have a bowl of soup and the very next morning he will be out the door again and off running to either Coney Island or Prospect park.  Running is what Luis does and there doesn’t seem to be any good reason to stop. When you run around 150 miles a week there isn’t much time for anything else any way.

For most people on the course and in the camp today is pretty special.  For on this brilliant Spring morning Luis turned 65.  People here and there are continually calling out to him and singing snippets of the Happy Birthday song as he shuffles round the course.  You can easily sense just how much affection everyone here has for Luis.  Some friends from Brooklyn came by and many more will drop by throughout the evening, and yes there was a cake as well for him.  This pleased Luis in his very quiet and undemonstrative way.  But as nice as it was to be celebrated, in the unconventional manner of this little plywood and plastic community, he isn’t the partying kind of guy.  It isn’t that he doesn’t appreciate all the attention but he has his priorities after all.

The most important thing for Luis, not just today but every day is to just  keep on going.  For this little world he is inhabiting right now for 6 days each year has a one mile asphalt road ripping right through the middle of it.  All he really wants to do is cover as many miles as his bent sinewy body can complete.  When asked what he is doing differently today he laughs, “I am walking around all damn day, what do you mean.  I am happy to be anywhere.  I am 65 years old.”

“I am having a ball.  My back aches, I have blisters.  What more could I want.  At least it is not going to rain.   That is one good thing.  I am happy to be here.”  As he walks his body is slightly twisted at an odd angle.  He is in pain clearly but he says it is not horrible.  If it were horrible he says that he would stop.  “It only happens in this race.  In normal life I am alright.”

“I always said I would do these (multi day races) when I retired.  In the old days I didn’t want to spend my vacation doing these races.  The weather is the key factor in doing these long runs.”

“I always say this is my last one, but I am already plotting what I am going to do next year.  I am already thinking of next year, what can I tell you.”

Luis Rios

Martin is continuing to impress with his mileage in the 10 day.  2nd place overall is held by kaneenika.

Philip McCarthy had a rough day yesterday but seems to be moving better today.   Alex Swenson had the most miles yesterday but Dipali is in 2nd place overall.

The nice weather will continue through until Saturday.  Nights will get cold.

The American Pacific North West is well represented. Team Daulot is back for the 2nd time.

Dipali has 309 miles

Elena has 216 miles and is currently in 5th behind Dipali.

Jayasalini is in 2nd place in the 6 day women.

“I realized this a moment ago and it is always a mixture of feelings.  (the race will end in 2 days) Looking forward to it to be over and not wanting it to be over.  It is always like this towards the end.”

Practically every runner here gets messages of support from friends and family but I am told that Jayaslini is one who generally gets the most nearly every day.  “I am so grateful to all my friends.  It is amazing.”  Many she says tell her how much her race here inspires them.  “One boy told me that he is walking every day for 10 days.  Since the 10 day started he walks every day 10 km in Moscow.  And people from all over Russia send messages. Some got to know me through that video.” (Last year a Russian television crew followed Jayasalini throughout her race here and did a detailed examination of how it affected her physiologically.

“The message of this race.  The meaning of this race spreads far far beyond this park.  So many people send messages and they talk about oneness, about self transcendence.  I really feel that our world is like a net.  And what is happening here, the vibrations than go through the whole world.  It is not only what is happening here with you, with me, it spreads far beyond.  We cannot imagine how many people get inspiration and it changes their life.”

“This race means so much to me.  It changed me and my relations with others.”  She describes how her Mother once thought that jayasalini’s interest in distance running was crazy and now she helps her daughter each race and has come here for the 4th time.

“Sometimes you think things are beyond your imagination and when you are here you see that they are possible.  It is possible for a person to run 1,000 km.  To do this distance in a plane takes more than 2 hours.  But you can cover this distance by foot which is really beyond your mind.  And seeing that this is possible.  This then gives the message that there is no such word as impossibility.  Everything is possible. This I think is the main message for me.”

Jayasalini

Fred Davis bounced back with 60 miles yesterday.

Gudrun has 378 miles after 8 days.

Ilvaka is in 2nd with 514

Kaneenika with 551 is in first place in the 10 day women.

Maria still using her special ingredient of love in cooking

Nipura takes a brief break.  She still has 2 more days of cooking.

And yes there is still lots of counting to be done.

“It has been a challenge.”  Ramisvan’s debut in multi day running has been nothing short of spectacular.  Eventually of course some problems did arise.  “After yesterday, mid day I had so many issues and problems arose.  They sort of all came at once.  I got a really bad chest infection.  I started to get blisters.  I started to have problems with my legs.  Then last night I got some treatment.  My Achilles tendon started to go.  I was able to get some mile in during the night.  Then this morning it was all right and I was able to run, walk, and get the miles.  I did about 55 miles for day 4.”

“Then after mid day i couldn’t walk, my Achilles just clamped up.  I have had some strapping put on it and I have been able to walk for the past 5 or 6 hours.  It has been only in the last 30 minutes that I have been able to run with some sort of flow.”  He is happy to be able to run again and says that he found himself simply surrendering to the experience.  “What will be will be.  If I have to walk for the next 2 days then fine.”

“Then something sort of twigged in me.  I need to be more determined.  I can’t just resign myself to the fact.  I might as well be patient as well as have determination at the same time, and hope it turns around.”  After about 6 hours of experimentation it all turned around.  “I hope that it can sustain me until the end of the race.”

Ramisvan

The medical tent has been busy the past few days.

Problems big and small arise are fixed and the runners keep going.

Martin with 591 miles

Phil McCarthy with 324 for 4 days.

“I am doing good.  This year it is a little bit harder.”  Ratuja ran 286 miles when she first ran the 6 day race here in 2011.  This time she has shinsplints in both legs.  With her for a while on the course is her helper Prapti who mentions that she has had them since almost the beginning of the race.  Despite the obvious pain and discomfort Ratuja says, “but still I accept everything.”

2 years ago she had problems but this time she feels that she is more able to accept the experiences of the race and is happy.  “I try not to think about it.  I just do what I can do.  I enjoy it more even consciously.  Some times I cannot run.  I can walk only but still I can stay happy.”  She describes how she is able to just appreciate the world around her, “and such joy comes into you.”

She says that it is ironic to have so much pain and yet be joyful.  “It is true.  It is difficult to explain, and also it is about Self Transcendence.”  She describes that not many people can even come and just be here and be part of something so difficult.  “The decision Just to do the race is even self transcendence.”

Prapti confesses, “for all the years these races have been going on I have never come to see them.  I have never come to help.  I never wanted to be around them because I think I was terrified, because if I thought about them they were overwhelming.  I couldn’t relate.”

“Somehow I got inspired to come this year and help and I have to say that I am hooked.  It is awesome.  The thing that moves me to tears.  Is you see at every moment what they are going through.  Sometimes they will be running.  They will be running so fast.  It is effortless, it is so beautiful to watch.”  Then she describes how the fates of the runners can then change to the opposite, “they are practically paralyzed.   And they are dragging themselves around the track hardly able to walk.  They will do this for 5 or 6 hours and then the next thing you know, they are running again.  This cycle goes on day after day and it is so moving.”

“It is the whole idea of self transcendence, never giving up.”

Prapti has as close a view of the race as anybody.  Yet as the helper of a runner her job isn’t an easy one.   She says, “to tell you the truth by midnight the first night I had a couple of blisters, and I am just a helper.  So I had to get my mind set that this was going to be a big workout.  The helper almost needs a helper.  It is really full time work. You just try and be there all the time to offer some support.”

Ratuja says that Prapti is a great helper.  “Everybody asks me, all my Russian friends, where did you find such a great helper.”

As for the end which is coming soon.  Ratuja says, “it is a pity that it is over.”

ratuja and prapti

Volodymyr has 500 miles after 8 days and is in 3rd.

Many messages of support come in every day.  They all help and inspire.

There is always much to do and much more to be done

Larissa.

Nirbhasa doing well in some very un Irish weather.

Impossibility is a mere word.

Such being the case,

Impossibility must surrender,

And it does surrender,

To the seeker’s completely

devoted oneness

With the Will of his Beloved Supreme.

-By Sri Chinmoy-

“I was just laying down flat in the tent getting out of the wind, out of the sun.” He is clearly fatigued as he stiffly walks forward, gradually warming up aching tight muscles and brings his mind back from the warm comforting darkness that he allowed it to stray for just a precious sweet moment.

He is now a little more than half way through the longest race of his career.  In the first 3 days he ran a tremendous 264 miles and in the last 24 hours, which was brushed by wind and cold clear nights, with an anxious moon above him dangling brightly in the sky, he ran 67 miles.

He is focused, and he is determined, and he is teaching his body or perhaps adapting himself to something very new in his life.  He may not have it exactly right just yet but gradually the road is instructing him with what it wants and all the bits that make up Phil McCarthy are showing him just how much they are prepared to both willingly and grudgingly offer up over the final 3 days here.

He looks superbly determined and says, “I am in it for the full 6 days.  I figured a little break would give me more energy because I was feeling a little drained.  I had to shut everything down for 15 minutes.  Hopefully I will have a little bit more energy.  I may not be moving real fast just yet.  In the long run hopefully it will pay off.”

“In my American 48 hour record I never lay down for more than 5 or 10 minute at a time.  Part of it is getting off your feet.  Giving your feet a break, your hips, and the whole skeletal function.  Part of it is physical and part of it is mental.  Your brain shuts down and your heart rests for a little bit, and your organs rest.”

“It is uncharted territory, and I am only half way through.  I have had advice from everybody and they just say keep moving.  But I also know the value of a good short break. ”

He seems to have lots of different folks coming out to the race to help him.  “I think I am gaining a reputation of having a huge entourage.  I think by the time this is over I will have had 14 people helping me at some point.”  Al who is with him now but will be soon heading back to Brooklyn.  “Al is a veteran,” he says, “he knows the deal.  So it is real good to have him there. ”

“I have had some people who surprised me at how good they were at crewing.  Because it is not easy.  You have to anticipate what the runner wants.”

At the half way point he says that his mileage is not what he had hoped for, “but that is okay.”

“So many people have been coming out to help me and giving me a lot of encouragement.  That is a big number too, and that far exceeded my expectation.  Not to mention the staff, the directors, and the other runners and everybody here.   It is really great to see that.”

Phil McCarthy

Martin Fryer Continues to pile up good mileage in the 10 day race. Kaneenika has however moved into 2nd place overall

Phil has a good cushion going into the second half of his race but Rasmivan is beginning to press Phil if even ever so slightly.  Dipali is even closer, just 21 miles away.

“it got up into the 60′s today,” says Al Prada, but with this wind it just feels cooler.  I am not even in the race and I have been cold and putting extra layers on.”

“At this point he is doing very very good.  I am proud of him.  What can I tell you.  This guy is the 48 hour American champion.  He is going to have a great race.  You know, when you are out doors and you have to deal with the weather.  No matter how elite or well you trained, mother nature always wins.  It is hard to compete.  You just have to do what you can with the conditions and be happy about it.  Stand up at the end and go on to your next race.”

Al Prawda

On day 3 newcomer Rasmivan ran 73 miles.  A daily total which was 6 more miles than Phil.

“Today it has been windy, and sunny and an okay day.” Going into his 4th day Alex Swenson has put some room between himself and 4th place runner John Gessler.

“I got up about 1 o’clock.  I went to bed early and I got up early.  And I have been running, walking, and jogging since then.  I had a bad spell for about 36 hours earlier in the week but I am over it.  Stomach thing, but I am over it.  It was a bottle of juice that I bought down the street before the race.  My fault, not the races fault.”

What that translates into, “You don’t eat and eventually you can’t run.  You are just running on empty.  It works for a while but not for the long term.  Day 2 day 3 there were some mileages that were not that great.  I am fine.  It is fun to run again.  I am not feeling sick.  I feel good and everything is working.  Taking it hour by hour.”

He describes the weather as being very much like back home on the west coast but says the wind, which is causing white caps on the lake is another thing altogether.  ‘I can see myself getting through it.  I don’t know what that number is, but I am getting through it yeah.”

I ask him if the presence of Phil McCarthy help pull him along.  “Phil is way out there.  If we were a little closer that would probably come into play.  He is way out there.  What he is doing doesn’t have any bearing on what I am doing.”

“I have raced with Phil in quite a few 24 hour races.  I know what he is capable of.  Not for a second do I think he is going to burn out, or suddenly shut down.  He is going to keep cruising along and doing great.”

Alex Swenson

Ananda Lahari in 2nd place in the 10 day race.

First time runner Dennis getting some coaching and encouragement from Galya

Devashishu and the counters try and stay warm as a cold fog drifts in late in the afternoon.

Dipali has gotten stronger on her 3rd day.

Fred Davis had a tough day yesterday but seems to be flying now

Giribhu Muhs a first time multi day runner from Berlin is doing very well.  “I am fine now.  I had an injury for 2 days.  It was on the side of my foot.  It was just pain when I walked.  Now I can run again.  It is a miracle.  I didn’t expect that.”

She tells me that she couldn’t put in the training for this race that she would have liked.  “So my training was just running in the evening, for a half or one hour, but quite fast.  But a few long runs I did.”   Her previous longest distance was 150km in a 24 hour race.

I ask her why she went from 24 hours to 10 days.  “It is quite a celebration.  It is my anniversary on Sri Chinmoy’s path, and so I decided to do the 10 day.  It is a game with numbers.  But it was the first thing in my mind to do the 10 days.”

I ask here how she feels now at this point in the race.  “It feels longer than 7 days.  Because you are running daytime and nighttime.  The day is longer than general.  But you are really focused and concentrated on the important things.  This is running of course as well as sleeping, eating, and meditating.  The days are going very quickly.”

When the end on Saturday comes, she says,” On one point I will be happy and on the other I will be sad.”

“I would like to reach 500 miles.  Yeah, it will be tough.  But now I can run again so I hope with much grace that I can do it.”

I ask her about her motivation.  “I don’t know exactly but it comes from inside.  I go to bed and I decided to sleep for 3 hours, and I could sleep for 5 or 6 hours of course but I said no.  I want to go out.  It is dark its cold and it is raining, it is windy but there is some inner strength.   I don’t know.  It said no, go out.  Go out and try.  It is not a decision in the mind.  It comes from inside.”

“It is surprising and it makes me really happy, because I feel as though I can do many things if I feel it is from inside and it comes out.  It makes me strong and I can do whatever I want.  I hope in the future.”

I suggest that she is becoming a different person than the one who started the race.   “I don’t know how or how it looks like.  Probably other people will tell me but I don’t know what will happen.  But I think I will be another person.”

Giribhu

Ken Ward finishes Day 3 with 210 miles and may be listening right now to the Grateful Dead.

Kaneenika ran 65 miles and has a 7 day total of 485.

Kumar on his way to setting a Nepalese  record.

Litaff from Finland has 131 miles in the 6 day.

Mark Dorion taking a break in medical.

They just may be the best team in multi day running.  Alan and Martin. Martin has 526 miles after 7 days.

Shamita with 444 after 7 days is in 3rd.

Sahishnu keeping watch.

Sara Schmidt from Den Haag with 311 in her very first multi day race.

“I reckon I have had my fair share of blow outs too.”  Dharbhasana for the first 2 days of the race was in the mix, which is a position we have come to expect from this 3100 mile runner but the multi day races can always deal out the unexpected and be not generous to those who have not put in the miles.

“For me this is cold.  I just have spent a half hour in medical getting a bit of a rub down.  When I came out it is way more freezing than it was.”

“I started off strong, well and truly ambitious as well.  I haven’t done any training really.  I am always a risk taker.  One extreme to the next.  Patience is a continual quality that I have to try and learn.  And when it comes to these races if I feel good I play on it.  So on day one i was feeling good and on day two I wasn’t.  So I kind of pushed a little hard.  By nightime I felt brilliant.  I did 88 miles the first day and on the 2nd I was reduced to walking which is kind of natural.  After 6 hours of walking I felt really good so I put the speed on and blew out 20 miles quite quickly.  By the time I got to bed that night everything was a little disturbed, and shin splints developed pretty quickly the next day.”

“Obviously it feels like the right place to be.”  He tells me that today is his birthday and so he is even more motivated to stay out on the course.  As for mileage, “My mind let go of the miles pretty quickly.”

He has helped here at the race for many years but it was in 2010 that he last participated in the race.  “All my running is done on trails.   I don’t actually pound the pavement much at all any more.  I think I better get back into it.”

“My helper is the best little helper ever.  My daughter Shakti.  She is there every moment.”

He doesn’t have many wishes over the next 3 days.  But says that having a hot shower whenever he wanted it would be golden.  “I put my order in already for a nice meal from Annam Brahma.  These are really achievable.  I am a simple guy.  Your needs become really simple out here.  I think if I could run again that would be great.  And I am kind of hopeful now.”

Dharbhasana

First time runner and strongman Sergei

2 runners with lots of multi day experience, Galya and Stutisheel.

Usika

Volodymyr in 3rd in the 10 day with 446 miles.

The sun slips slowly away.

If you want to remain happy,
Always follow the starlit footsteps
Of your soul. 

-by Sri Chinmoy-

Ken Ward is a 55 year old runner from Oregon.  He describes himself as scientific by nature and works somewhere in the world of Chemistry out where he lives in Corvallis.  He is an immensely experienced trail and distance runner but has come to New York this spring to challenge himself with something he has never done before and that is to run for 6 days.  Well into his 3rd day he is running very well and over the first 2 days he has racked up 152 miles.  Not only that he is also in 3rd place and seems to be smiling nearly all the time.

He tells me,  “this is a great race for looking more at my inner side than my outer side.  Most of my other races I have looked at very technically.  Plans, spreadsheets, and this kind of stuff.  But you throw that out the window after the first day here.”

There are probably more than a few running here on this cool windy course pushed up against the Grand Central highway who would like nothing better than to also take a dive from space.  To have a momentary nail biting adrenalin rush.

But all the runners here have obviously chosen quite a different path of adventure.  One that they have to personally train long and hard for in order to even cope with the stress and strain of running so far, and for so many days.

A few are well known in the ultra community but most are not and neither are they interested in any notoriety.  The Self Transcendence race here for the most part is well beyond the scrutiny of the public and media because very few really care what happens to them here, other than their immediate friends, family, and the small group who are interested in multi day running.

But by running all day every day they are each forced to venture into the deepest recesses of themselves.  Confront more pain and fatigue than many have ever encountered in their lives before,and at the end of it all they ironically find themselves at the exact same spot their race began, 10 or 6 days earlier.  What they look like and how they ultimately feel at the end of their journeys no one can predict.  Ken tells me that he really didn’t know what was going to happen here during the race.  “I am expecting to be surprised.”

When asked how he feels running into his 3rd day Ken admits to me, “I have been better that’s for sure.  Had a massage and shower, and am feeling a little better now.  I am really enjoying this race so much,  The support is unbelievably great.”

“I have done 70 ultras, almost all trails.  Probably 20 100 mile runs and few 24 hour runs.  This is a big jump for me.  I probably should have done a 48 hour run or 72.  But I decided all the way into the 6 day and see what my capacity could be. ”

He has a lot in common he says with 10 day runner Martin Fryer.  “I like his quote.  Being a scientist, a hippie, and a mongrel dog. Because that summarizes my life too.  We are both scientists.”  He says in preparation for this race he did a lot more road running.  “I had knee surgery last year.  I was pretty much running all on trails in order to have a softer surface.  But primarily I did road running in order to get my joints and body ready for that.”

“I am feeling pretty good for the most part.  Here and there there are obviously a lot of issues. My feet have been a bit of a problem.  Overall I have pretty good energy.  I slept 4 hours the first night and 6 hours last night.  For the first 24 hours my goal was 85 or 86 miles, and I ended up with 88.  Day 2 I backed off and I think I did 64.  In the evening of day 2 I was struggling.  I was too focused on the plan and not focused on how I was feeling.  I pushed more than I should have and it was a good lesson.”  He describes how the race has to combine all parts of you.  “It all fits together.”

“Now it is a new experience and kind of see what happens.  My main goal is to be happy with wherever I am.  As long as I have a happy experience, I have been tremendously happy so far.  That is what I really want.  I have thrown out any type of plan.  I realize I just want to have fun, and the Sri Chinmoy group just makes it so easy to have fun.  I think it is the deep caring for each person individually.”

Ken

In the 10 day Martin is still running very well.  He finished 6 days with 462 miles.  Kaneenika seems to be getting stronger and is threatening Ananda Lahari for 2nd overall.

Phillip McCarthy has 197 miles after 2 days.

Kaneenika 420 miles after 6 days

Sylvie Boisvert is doing very well in her first 6 day race.  In her first 48 hours she ran 136 miles, just one more than Jayasalini.  Her goal she says is to run 600km.  She says she has heard about this race from many runners.  “I have wanted to come for many years.”  She has competed in many distance races  and says to be here is, “like meeting my old friends here.  Lots of runners I have met in different 24 hour races around the world and they are here.”

“It is not always fun but today is a good day.”  Of the organizers she says, “they know what they are doing.  They have been doing it for so many years.  They are taking care of us.”

“Right now I won’t go to bed until I have run 200 miles.  I am on 153 right now.”  I tell her that it seems like a long way yet to go to reach it.  “Who cares.  Tonight there will almost be a full moon.  Hopefully my body will take me to the 200 miles before bed time.  Maybe like 2 o’clock in the morning.  Jogging has been my life for 38 years.”

Sylvie

Alex Swenson with 161 miles after 48 hours

Rasmivan went through just 2 miles behind.  He is feeling really good right here as he has just had a shower.

Dharbhasana is having a rough patch but did 150 miles

John Geesler just a mile ahead with 151.

For some inexplicable reason this race has 3 father and daughter teams.  Stutisheel is supported by his daughter Alakananda, Dharbhasana getting help form Shakti, and Peter Hlac being aided by his daughter Livka.  I joke that there is a combination between the 3 groups.  Livka says, “Shakti is a good helper.”

Peter says of his daughters help, “good.”

Livka thinks her Dad, “Is pretty awesome.  He is really strong.  He has a pain in his ankle but he can still run all day.”

Why he is doing he says, “the inspiration came from inside.  Something always told me that I should run the 6 day, about 6 months ago.  There is no problem to be here.  Many of my friends know that I am running and they are inspiring me.  They said, wow, it is incredible that you are doing it.  They gave me even more inspiration to run the race.”

Peter and Livka

One of the other teams.

Phil taking a short break

Counters keeping track of lots and lots of laps.

It is not all hard work.

Or hard work for the helpers.

Some in particular are looking forward to warmer weather tomorrow.

For the runners it is never easy.  Just ask Don Winkley.

I find Tirtha carrying brand new numbers.  I suggest this might lead to new things, and she jokes.  “Don’t expect anything from me.”

“I don’t know how I can still be here but I still am.”  Her stomach problems she says have persisted since almost the very beginning.  “The energy level never grew.  So basically I can’t even walk fast.  But the Doctors in the medical tent are very kind and are looking after me.  And they are finding out what my problem is.”  She says that she believes the problem stems from a visit to Asia that she took 3 years ago.

“Now it is coming out.  And didn’t I say that all I wanted was to be healthy after the race.  So, I am getting what I wanted. Because it is so hard sometimes that these things get transformed.  So much more time out here with yourself.”  She says because of all the obvious distractions of being home that you never have the unique opportunity and endless time that you do here of dealing with your life.

She says that, “only the cold and the wind here have been more of a struggle, than the physical pain.”

tirtha

Subala has 105 miles after 48 hours and says she feels even better today.

The great Rimas

Ratuja and her helper Prapti

“It is my first time in the 10 day race.”  Until starting this race Anna from Moscow had never run further than 48 hours.  “I am very happy to be here and to get this great experience.”  She says that it wasn’t until 2 years after the 48 hour race that she felt it was time to run something longer.  “I felt I needed more training and more inner conviction that I was ready to do it.”

Already she has gone much further than she has ever gone before.  “This self transcendence gives happiness and satisfaction.  I feel very grateful that I am able to be here to do it.”

“I think that it was after the first day that the struggle began.  There were pains in my legs and other pains that I have never had before.  I am very grateful to the organization of this race because you can go to Doctors who help your pain and you can continue to run.  There is also a kitchen that can sustain your body.  All you have to do is run and remain happy.”  She is hoping to complete 400 miles by the end of the race.  “I can’t really guess what the number will be.”

“since I began the race I have gotten a lot of letters of support from my Russian friends.  They give me so much inspiration.  I am also very grateful to them. ”

Anna

Andrey from Dubna Russia

Kodanda and Virendra play

kodanda

Martin does a quick change

And just keeps going.

Mark doing some house keeping.

Kumar taking a break.

Michel moving into the night.

“It was a long and gradual journey,” says Salil who finds himself running the 6 day race for the first time.  He tells me that he has been helping with them since 1985.  “You can look back and see this seed being planted and slowly germinating.  It was a very gradual process.”  He says that by seeing others, who he would least suspect doing the race that inspired him.  “It opened up the possibility.

Every other year he organizes the World Harmony run so it is impossible for him to do the race on those years.  He says that it is from the World Harmony run that he understands what a miracle it is for it to happen and how many things have to come together so that it all works.

He also realized, “I said, if I want to do this race I better do it now.  Who knows what is going to happen,”

“The best advice I had was to do 10 mile blocks.  It didn’t even occur to me that I needed a plan.”

Salil

Tommy

The Grand Central

Man, in his outer life or his outer achievements, is very limited. But the same man, when he enters into the inmost recesses of his heart, feels that there is something which is constantly trying to expand itself. This is consciousness. This consciousness links him with the highest Absolute.

-Sri Chinmoy-

There is an economy and beauty to his stride.  His steps so lightly touch the ground that they are almost silent.  Imagine watching a ballet dancer leap across the stage with what looks like no effort at all.  Their face serene and tranquil.  Always moving precisely to the rhythm and music of an orchestra.

The ballet, or race that is, has just begun of course and there will be many more scenes yet to come for all who run here.  Each with their own unique steps and movement.  A fortunate few who will have moments, or hopefully many miles, when they appear to have the boundless energy and beautiful motion of Alex.  Running with the poise and grace of dancers, while many others have resorted to awkward shuffling.   Progressing sometimes with such labored agony, you  cannot understand how they even stay erect little alone continue to shamble on.

Each runner listens and moves to a tempo and sound that is unique only to them.   Everyone will no doubt wish that they had practiced and trained more.  Done just a little bit more so that they could move and flow like poetry in action.  Alex moves this afternoon like that, while the only real noise and disturbance I hear is that of my own labored breath as I gasp trying to keep pace with him.

Alex was last here doing his first 6 day race in 2010 and says that he has wanted to return ever since.  “Stuff happens.  Injuries mostly, and just life stuff.” He put in a tremendous performance at that time but things didn’t turn out ultimately as well as he hoped.  He came then he says with a preexisting injury and then the weather was awful, which led to a bad case of blisters going into his final day.  “They killed me.” He finished the race though with 396 miles.

For this race he says he just wants to race more consistently.  “So far it has worked.  Yesterday my goal was 100 and I ran 100, and I am on track.   What I want to do today and that is 80.  So one day at a time.  If you can do that one day at a time than the numbers will add up eventually.”

He describes the conditions for him here now as ideal.  “Just perfect.  50′s temperature, cloudy, sunny, not too cold.  My biggest fear is that you get the freaky 80 degree week.  I am liking this weather, a little windy but I am not complaining.”

“I love the race.  It is a wonderful event.  I have wanted to come back.  I have actually worked my running year around it.  So I am really pleased to be able to come back.”

Alex Swenson

The 6 day board

The 10 day board

Bob

“I have settled down a little bit.” Yesterday Philip McCarthy was running so fast and powerful that he looked as though he was running a marathon and not a 6 day race.  The energy of that first day is an intoxicating energy that eventually evaporates into the cool darkness of the night.  Philip had a very good first day.  “I am keeping with what is a comfortable pace right now.”

He says that in an earlier long race he had a problem with the cold.  This time he says that the cool evening was not a problem.  “it was still and there was no wind.  I kind of ran out of energy at one point.  My feet were hurting me a little bit.  So I slowed down, and took a short nap and got back out again and I was feeling real good again by daybreak.”  At the end of his first day he had completed 120 miles.

“Predictions at this point are out the window.  I am trying to keep this pace as long as I can and not feel like I am pushing myself too much.  So it feels comfortable.  I will get more sleep tonight.  That first 12 hours I did take a risk.  I was zipping around there pretty fast.  Then I figured that was too much.  I had better take it back a notch.” The pace he is moving at this moment he feels he can continue with for the next few hours and then he will simply see what happens next.

Philip

Kaneenika has taken over the lead of the 10 day women

Samita is now in second place with Ilvaka.  A few problems but still happy.

Ilvaka did 61 miles yesterday

The lake

Don and Louis a great team

For the 10 day runners who have had the track to themselves up until yesterday, the arrival of the 6 day runners  has been both a blessing and a distraction.  I ask martin if they have got in his way at all.  “O a few times I have gone into a dark place, and the mongrel was playing up.”

“When it started yesterday there was a big feeling of increased energy.  I found it a real boost.  It was wonderful.  There was just so many more people and the excitement was infectious.  I think if you asked the other 10 day runners they would say the same thing.  You feel something extra out on the course.   But unfortunately today a lot of them are feeling bad and I feel a really really low energy on the course this morning.  It was so strongly palpable across everyone.  Normally you can see some souls bouncing along happily, but they were few and far between.”

“Right until the middle of today I felt I had no energy at all, and every part of my body ached.  I had just to go back to my tent and get some recovery and recharge a bit.  I think I needed to be separated from that energy for a while.  I back into a good patch right now.  That is because I have gone and taken that hour off.  I haven’t taken any real long sleeps like some of the other people have.  That takes its toll.  Once my pace drops off and I am loosing form I just say to Allan, there is no real choice to make here.  So I go in and have a short rest.  The duration we play around with.  We have played around from 10 minutes to half an hour.  We don’t have some scientific plan to it.  It is very much ad hoc.”

When asked about his numbers.  “The scientist tries to peak from out of the cupboard but I try and put him away.  He is interested in the numbers.  But the numbers can be dangerous.  ‘I think in this event being new for me.  It is really about each day being a new day.  It is fascinating just watching the sun come up and the sun go down and I see the same lady cycling every morning at the same time.  It is remarkable.  It reminds me of the HG Wells movie, The Time Machine.  Where the guy is sitting in a chair and sees the days flick by.  Except this is going much slower.”

Martin Fryer

This afternoon Sylvie celebrates completing 100 miles.

The counters and helpers are more than busy.

“I had to dig a little deep over night.  I always try and get over 100 the first day.”  Underneath all the clothing is Dipali, she got 103 miles.  “It is always difficult that first 24 hours and the second 24 hours are also difficult then you settle in on the 3rd day.  I am feeling okay.   I am still feeling that freshness and that newness.”

Dipali

Dinner time in the camp.

Don and Louis

Spring has come.

“I have been better,” says John Geesler this afternoon.  “Something happened to my knee at the end of the first day and I can’t run.  I am walking.  I took an hour off resting it and now I am back out seeing how the waking goes.  If I can run later I will try.  Right now if I try and run it will knock me out.”

He made 100 miles for his first 24 hours.   “I thought I would be better than that but nobody had tremendous mileage for the first day.  I was in 2nd place but Alex caught me just about that time.  Alex and Philip are teammates of mine from the 24 hour.  We have known each other for quite a while.  We are friends.”

He says that Phil is doing well.  “He is not overdoing, he is pacing himself well.  He looking good like he should be able to maintain it.  But of course things happen.”

He suggested to his friends that they should, “bank tons of mileage.  You go out really hard and fast the first day.  Pile it all up if you can.”

Of his knee, “it doesn’t feel like the sort of thing that it is going to heal up really good.  But, there is always the chance so I have to keep plugging away. ”

When I ask him if it is ever possible that he would drop out, he says, “If I am going to pay I am going to play.  You are here.  You are not going to have fun sitting in the tent playing tiddly winks.  You have to be out here.  That is where the fun is.”

“Right now I am walking fairly smooth.  Earlier I had an awful hobble and it was real bad.  I have improved so I can enjoy it.”

John Geesler

Kumar after having a fast started has finally found his rhythm.

First timer in the 10 day, Nirbhasa, continues to amaze.

“I am really surprised how relaxed I am.  When I woke up this morning there was no pains in the legs.”  Rasmivan, a first timer in the 6 day race is also very much a surprise as he appears to be moving effortlessly this afternoon.  “I force myself to go to bed at 2 o’clock.  I had 2 and a half hours sleep.  Obviously in the morning it is more difficult.  Gradually got into it and everything feels really good at the moment.”

We pass the counting area and I ask him if he is aware of his mileage.  He says he hasn’t been looking but I can hear the number 113 being called out.  He says he did pay attention to his 24 hour split.  “I did 90 miles and that exceeded my expectations what I was aiming for really.  It gives me a bit of cushioning for the last 5 days.  I am just taking each day and each hour as it comes.  Ultimately I am just so grateful to be here.”

“I am not trying to go into the mind.  I don’t want to calculate how many miles I should be doing.  I am trying to live in the here and now.  It is such a beautiful day like this.  I have been so blessed with such wonderful weather.”

“Issues have arisen with my feet, but I have resolved them.  I am really trying to stay relaxed, and I suppose all the hard work and perseverance of not giving up is starting to come through.  It is still early days.  It is just 30 hours but I am now here for the duration.  Putting some work in until 2 o’clock in the morning.  Last night was really beautiful, because it was quite still, it really quiet and there was hardly anyone out on the course.  There was only a few of us and it was just so peaceful.”

Ultimately he feels such gratitude for having the opportunity to be out here.

Rasmivan

Niribili

The eternal promise of Spring

Pratishruti

Ratuja

“I first came to the race when I was 15.  My mom often comes and helps out one of the runners.”  From an early age Subala got inspired by multi day running and particular this race.  “There was something about the air here, the whole community.  It just made me fall in love with it.  I just knew that one day I would come back and do the 6 day race. That was about 13 years ago.”

“I am actually finding this to be the easiest race that I have ever done.”  She says this even though she has never run for this long before, not even ever running for 24 hour.  “The longest race I have done is a 50km.

“I would just like to see that I can make it to the end.  A good amount of miles I guess.  Do more than I ever thought I could.  It was not too long ago that I couldn’t even finish a 2 mile race that I do every week.”

Her previous longest distance, 50 km is quickly slipping behind her.  As of now she has completed 69 miles.  She is surprised at just how good she feels.  She started the race making one small mistake she says.  She wore thick socks hoping they would protect her feet from blisters but in fact they heated her feet up and started to create blisters within the first couple of miles.  “Apart from that everything is fine.  I can move fine and there are no injuries.”

She says that during her earlier 50km race she had such knee and hip pain that she could barely keep moving.  Here however, “I haven’t had any pain whatsoever.”

As for what she would like to see happen here.  “I guess I just want to get rid of my mind.  I just want to be able to control it.  Because quite often when I run my body feels fine.  But my mind says, you can stop now.  By the end here, I would like to be able to run without being controlled by my thoughts.”

“I am really just trying to surrender.  Let everything happen as it is supposed to happen.”

Subala

Another young New Zealand girl who has spent a lot of time here.

Under the sun

Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 49, Agni Press, 2008

Sound of the start:   start

For most multi day runners a 6 day race is a vast and vague blank sheet that with each step forward they gradually engrave their personal experiences, add up victories both great and small, and acknowledge disappointment, pain, fatigue and  failure as things that must be dealt with as they continue relentlessly onward.  Some may compete one with another but for most here the real competition and life long adversary are the faceless doubts and nagging imperfections that cling to our fragile mortality.

In the papers today a new picture was posted of a nebula that exists some 1500 light years away from us.  It is a place where new stars are now forming on the distant edges of what man’s most advanced technology can see.

Scientists can picture these marvels but most likely mankind will never venture to these places, that lie out beyond the vastness of space.  But our imaginations and our hearts can push us outwards into the infinite.  Our dreams and prayers can form deep within us and rise up into the heavens.  And 6 days from now these 44 runners will still be running here in Flushing Meadow,  until that moment of course when the clock simply runs out of time.   They each will cross a finish line one last time, and they, as well as the 10 day runners, will have completed the self transcendence race for 2013.

They will be able to accurately measure their miles.  They can also mark and note all the things done right and push aside all the things that perhaps went wrong.  But then they will return to the regular world from which they have made this brief escape from.   Life will go on, and then they, and you, and I, will all simply continue on our paths leading always towards our own perfection.

Sri Chinmoy, The Wings Of Light, Part 3, Agni Press, 1974

“I have the American record for for 48 hours set 2 years ago.  So I am going to the next step to see what I can do for 6 days.”  Philip McCarthy looks relaxed and happy in the few brief quiet moments before the start of his race.  When asked when his last 48 race was, “I tried one last year about this time but it didn’t go so well.  It got very cold and I didn’t make some smart choices.  Now I am going into unknown territory.”

“I live in Washington Heights and I have been interested in this for quite some time.  I have come out here in the past to help out some runners and to watch, and I thought, I just want to try a 6 day, and this is the one I definitely want to do.  I know it is a great set up here, and you have got everything, and amazing people staffing the race and amazing people running it.  It will be a nice friendly atmosphere.  Hometown crowd, so I can have some people coming out and helping me.”

Like a good poker player Philip politely declines to reveal any mileage goals that he has at this time.  Then he adds, “I really don’t know, it is unknown territory.  I am going to be taking some risks.  It could be something really big or I could crash and burn, we’ll see.”

No matter what happens to Phillip, the moment he stays on the course longer than 48 hours he will be entering into a brand new experience for him.  “Self transcendence is definitely part of why I run, especially for the longer ultras.  I feel that is one of the things that I get out of it.  That you transcend your every day normal self and you reach another state of mind.”

Philip McCarthy

Kumar Limbu an endurance athlete born in Nepal and now living in Flushing is running this race for the first time.  He has lots of experience on hilly terrain but this will be his first time on a flat one mile loop.  He first visited the race last year because he is friends with Alan Young and runner Allan was helping last year.  He is not predicting how he will do but is simply looking forward to running and seeing what he can do.  “I want to make a new Nepali record.”  Which of course will be immediately created once Kumar completes the race as no Nepali has ever run 6 days.

Allan Young tells me that he first met Kumar while on a trek in Nepal.  He told Allan that if he got a visa he would come to Scotland and would like to run the West Highland way race.  Allan did not take much notice.  He says, “you never meet the trek people again in you life.  3 months later I get a call.  Namaste, Kumar here.  You know Gatwick airport, write this number down.  I come Wednesday….click.  The phone went dead.”

“He came with a back pack, a change of clothes, a bottle of ointment, a poly book, and a Scottish telephone number.”  Kumar went on to win the West Highland way in a record time 6 hours and 25 minutes.

Kumar

“I have done 4 or 5 24 hour races.  I think the goal was always to do the muli days.  I felt the 24 hour races were just a training program.  Progressing gradually over the 4 or 5 years.  Rasmivan from Bristol England looks confident and fit before the start of the race.  “I have been sort of in training for this for the past 2 years.  I was hoping to do it last year but I just felt that I wasn’t ready.  12 months have gone by and I feel that I am much stronger.”

His real goal this race he says, “is to ultimately remain as cheerful as I possibly can right up until the end.”  On a practical level he says he would like to average 60 miles a day.  “That is an estimate, I have no expectations this is my first time.  I just don’t know how my body is going to react on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th day.”

“I think with me is that I always like overcoming obstacles and challenges.  I think sometimes when you have to struggle at things it certainly gives me enjoyment.  It is an achievement and is the idea that you are making progress.  Because sometimes in the races when you think things are going to go well you have issues and problems.  But it is all about just staying in there.  It is not ultimately the end result.  It is what happens during the race is more important.”

He describes how he feels that by going beyond 24 hours he will be better able to see, “what is inside me.  That will definitely be quite revealing.  It will open up other avenues I think.  Probably finding out more about me.”

“It is going to be a run with the heart and soul I think and certainly not the mind.  As soon as you start going into the mind then I think there will be issues and putting up problems that are not necessarily there.  I think it is for me to totally surrender to whatever experience that I have here.  And take that with me through the rest of the year and on to the next challenges.”

Rasmivan

Sahishnu’s introductions:   Sahishnu

Band of brothers

Baladev

Bob Oberkher and friends

Not to be forgotten are of course those brave souls who started the 10 race 4 days ago.  Smarana says he is not doing so well physically but otherwise very nice.  His feet are in fact quite swollen and he has painful blisters.

“This time I was coming to deepen my inner peace.  Since I have a different attitude this time, I don’t have these expectations or I tried not to have and I lost the rest of it.  So I don’t have anything that is freaking me out.  Or pushing me to do this or that.  I just want to be in the now.  Enjoy the moment.  Savor the moment.  And whatever happens except it as it is.”

He has run the 3100 mile race 7 times but also has a deep respect for any of the multi day races.  “Each one is amazing step that you take.  Since I have so many problems in this race.  I can appreciate people much more.  Even when they only make 30, 40, or 50 miles.  Because just the effort is admirable.  If you don’t fool around and you really do your thing  that is what really counts.”

He feels that he was always a little haughty about the shorter races but because he is now suffering he looks upon them with renewed respect.   “It helps me have more oneness with others, and appreciate others much more.  I am very grateful for this opportunity for myself.  To learn how to have more of this oneness and have this family feeling and in this way I am very happy to be here.”

Smarana

There are many helpers here.

There are all kinds of family gathered here.

“This year I feel a new beginning, as Pranika (a dear friend who has had health problems) begins a new life, I am beginning a new race.”  Dipali has an incredible streak of 15 straight victories in the 6 day race, but there has been a lot of unexpected struggle for her in the past year.  “I feel tremendously full of gratitude.  This morning I felt this incredible blissful feeling and I felt that it was coming from my soul.  I can’t explain it.  I have never felt so happy at the start of a race, ever, ever, ever.”

She says that one of the feelings that became stronger for her in the last year was, ‘to always remember how precious life is.”  Her sense right now is that this race may be the most significant one she has ever taken part in ever in her entire running career.  “Everything is new.  Everything is fresh and even a new feeling of gratitude.”  As we are running she tells me that she is dedicating this race to her late spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy and as well to her friend Pranika, who has gone through so much in the past year.  Which by chance we happen to come upon at that moment walking along the track.

Pranika tells me that she has just found out about this very special dedication.  Dipali left her a letter describing this in which she was not allowed to open until this morning.  Pranika tells me that the moment she had her health problem Dipali gave up her running career to help her.  “She stayed for a whole month with me in the hospital.  She helped bring me back to life.  I am so grateful.”

Dipali

Ilvaka

John Geesler

The front runners together

Louis Rios setting his own pace.

More family….Stutisheel and Alakanada

Last year Jayasalini had a Russian film crew doing a documentary on her race.   She says, “it was a wonderful experience.  I think everybody, them and me enjoyed this.
They made a film and it came on tv, and I know that quite a few people watched it, and enjoyed it.  It is really inspiring.”  When asked if it took away from her achieving her best results she suggests that it may have taken away some of her time but it gave her back much more when it came to joy.

“This is my 7th time that I am here.  This is lucky 7.  5 10 day races and this is my 2nd 6 day race.”  Her decision to do the shorter race is because she has only limited time off from her job and also has gotten very inspired to also participate and train in triathlons.  “I have done 2 full distance triathlons and this is also really something.  I just recently started to really enjoy swimming.  This winter I did a lot of swimming, almost as much as I did running.”

This July she is planning on entering her 3rd triathlon.  Each time she has competed she has improved her time.

“This is the 4th time that my Mom has come, and she looks forward to it every year.  This race unites families.  We live in different cities so this race is the time that we can be together.”

“This race is very special, it is my priority.  The races that the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team put on are totally different experiences.  They are very very special.  Of course first of all this is an internal journey.  I recently realized that there are a few things that really form your life.  And this 6 and 10 day race is something that totally changed me and gave me so much, so much.  Of course every year I want to come again and again.  This is what makes me happy.”

Jayasalini

Pratishruti

Priyavadin

Prabala

Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, Part 16, Agni Press, 1983

Pati doesn’t speak English so with the help of a friendly translator we conducted a little conversation on a warm bright afternoon.  “I get lots and lots of joy here, ” she says when asked why she has come so far to be here.  It has been 4 years since Pati was last here at the race and when you look at a map it doesn’t take too much imagination to realize just how expensive and difficult it must be for a person to get here from there.   Who knows just many flights and how many hours of travel and how many months and years she probably saved up just to come and run.

Right now Pati is doing pretty well amongst the other 10 day women.  She is currently in 5th and completed 130 miles over her first 2 days.  The first thing she says about Irkustk is that it is cold.  It turns out that from the beginning of November until the end of March it rarely gets above freezing.  So it really defies the imagination as well to picture just how difficult it must have been for Pati to go out the door each morning and train and prepare herself to come here and run for 10 straight days. It is only some hours later that it truly sinks in,  just how incredibly dedicated  Pati, and a lot of others here are,  in coming to the race, from so many far off places.

When asked why she came back after 4 years, “happiness is the key word.  The miles are not so important.  It is the happiness inside that keeps me going.  Everybody has their own happiness but it just comes forward more intensely here.”  Pati as we are speaking is bubbling with enthusiasm and joy.  Before she is about to leave and run some more she tells me she wants to share a secret.  She tells me she is dedicating her run here to her little country.

Pati Ibinova

The Self Transcendence race here is extraordinary in so many ways.  Top class athletes mixed in amongst those who are perhaps here for the first time and will finish hundreds of miles behind.  Some who will improve dramatically over their previous efforts and some will kill themselves just to make one more mile than they have done before. Yet what binds all the runners here in both obvious and subtle ways is how their heart’s goal is so much the same.  To pursue their own perfection. To transcend themselves and find out just how beautiful and powerful they truly are within themselves.  And yes as well to be truly happy.  A happiness that is worth traveling the length and breadth of our great and wonderful world to try and attain more of.

Martin has finished his first 72 hours here with 261 miles.

Volodymyr has also traveled far and worked hard to come here.  He comes from Vinnitsa in the Ukraine which is a place no less exotic than Irkusk but also for some reason seems to have an incredible number of very good multi day runners who come from there.  Volodymyr is here at the race for the 5th time,  He says he comes because, “moving is life, and after every time I do the race I feel as though I am a new person.”

“Every race here gives me more and more happiness.  I feel not just the happiness here but also when I go home to my regular life.  This race helps me to be happy.  I also feel that the race allows me to transcend my capacities.  I feel that this race is all about self transcendence but I feel that by running it is preparing me for an even higher level and that is to be able to run the 3100 mile race.”

“I dream about the 3100 mile race and this race is the only the first steps which will take me there.  That is why I eagerly look forward to it and fly to this race with wings.”

For him the 3100 mile race which takes place in Queens each year is the Mt Everest of all distance running challenges.  “If I have a good result this year in this race I hope to be able to run it next year.” There is lots of laughter and joking throughout this conversation.   I joke with him and ask what he would do if he was invited to come this year and run the race.   He laughs, “Just let me know when it starts and I will be there.”

Volodymyr

Race leader Martin Fryer

Women’s leader Samita

There are many who come out just to see the race going on and be even a small part of it.  Theresa tells me she has been coming out here just to see the race for the past 4 years.  She loves to come and spends time cheering the runners and seeing the numbers on the boards get bigger and bigger each day.

Patanga is a first time runner from Brazil.  He says that his country is well known for many other sports but not very well known for it’s marathon running.  He believes he just might be the first Brazilian to run this race.  ” I have done one 24 hour race, an ironman, but this is my first multi day race, and I am loving it, absolutely.” (laughs)

I ask him why he selected the 10 day race instead of the shorter 6 day race.  He describes how a few years ago he was attempting to run a 47 mile race for the first time.  He realized late in the race that he was in danger of not making the cut off.  He then started picking up his pace and managed to cross the finish line 30 seconds before the race was stopped.  He was amazed at being able to do this and realized then that he had more capacity than he realized.  “Or that more capacity was given to me than I could imagine.”

This experience than created and inspiration within him to then try this race.  “I am not afraid of it, because I do not know it actually.  It felt a bit like looking into the infinite.  You are just staring into the beyond.  It is something you cannot imagine.  Just a completely new experience.  So far every moment, every hour, I have a different experience.  Hard things, good things.  But everything, that’s what makes a day, many good and difficult things.”

“It is better than I thought it would be, definitely.  Still I am in the 3rd day.  I feel that this is the day that I am getting adapted to the race.  So only I feel pain here and there.  Sometimes quite severe but generally my body feels completely fresh, except for one or 2 places here and there.  Where as on other days I felt completely destroyed, or totally tired and everything was aching.  So I think this is the beginning of the real ultra racing.”

I don’t have any mileage number in mind.  I don’t want to do too little.  I feel there is a certain amount which is possible for me to do.  But I don’t know exactly what it is.   I just want to be up to my own capacity.  Or maybe go beyond what my capacity is.”

“In the early morning before I start the race.  I try and meditate a little.  But immediately when I start to focus it comes spontaneously.  The meditation is already there, just waiting.  Here, at every moment in the race there is a certain stillness of mind.  I see things and I don’t react to them in my usual way.  There is a poise and peace of mind, and this goes on throughout the day.  It is so satisfying and fulfilling.  It is not as though I am always looking for something.  Things are there and I can see them and be happy.”

Patanga

The day is a delightful mix of overcast and sun…….and yes the wind comes too.

Everybody finds the proper footwear no matter how unusal

The finish line calls out again and again but the last lap is still a week away.

Lots of activity going on in the camp.

Laundry dried the old fashioned way.

Last year was the first time that Mark Dorion had missed running the race here in quite a few years.  It took major surgery from keeping him off the track but he came any way and helped out instead for the entire time.  He is not back to his usual running form and says, “I am still recovering obviously.  I felt really good in training over the winter but that is very different than being out here all day and all night.”

“I am out here plugging along and if I am in last place alright.  Believe it or nor, it might change but I am on about the same pace as I have been on other years.”

He tells me how he has been helped tremendously by all the medical help and attention that he has received from the medical.  He says that after a massage you will always feel great even if it is just for an hour or two.”

“The best training for this race is in fact to do it the year before.  But you never know what is going to happen.

Mark Dorion

75 hours and counting

2nd Place man Ananada lahari

Martin goes down for a 15 minute break.

Fred had a tough night and today he is getting some well deserved help from Dr. Mitch Proffman in the medical tent.  “Last night my lower back started bothering me.  I couldn’t straighten up.  I did what I didn’t want to do and that is get in the car and turn on the heat to try and warm it up.”  He confesses that he got lost in the car.  While Mitch is here I am going to go ahead and get this taken care of.”

At this moment Fred is waiting for Mitch to finish with another patient who turns out to be Usika.  When asked what happened to him, Mitch says, “he fell apart last night.”

I ask Usika if this is true, and he laughs.  “Yes, today I am collecting the parts again.”

Mitch says he has found 3 lumbar vertebrae.  “And we put them back in. “So he is going to be fine.”

Fred Medical

A little later I cornered Nirbhasa in medical. I ask him how he is feeling.  “Pretty good.  Thanks be to God my mileage has been consistent.  65 the first day, 60 the second, and 60 the third.  Probably I am an unusual ultra experience so far because I think for a lot of ultra runners it is not like that.  For the first 3 days it has seemed quite clock work for me.  Obviously there have been a few little ups and downs.  Other people seem to be going through tougher times.”

“I was talking to Vasanti before the race and she said something nice.  Her goals first of all were to be cheerful.  Second of all to finish, then 3rd of all to have a particular time frame.  So I am actually trying to put that in order.  Because it is kind of funny when you are out there.  Really the main thing is to stay cheerful.  I am not seriously injury plagued.  I am pretty tired.  But you have to remind yourself when you are out there that there is nothing wrong with you  You can keep going.”

“I guess the basic thing is being in the heart, and not being in the mind.  Because when you are in the mind, even if you are not injured, the mental tedium of grinding out all the miles.  You know, spending 16, 18 hours on the track.  You know just putting out all the miles can just get to be too much.  It can create a lot of mental tension.  So I guess I am just trying to stay in my heart and not in my mind.”

Medical Nirbhasa

Crews continue to work on the camp.

While a few others are just having fun.

I am jogging at a fairly quick pace trying to keep up with Michel Guoin who is right beside me walking.  “To keep energy all day long I am speed walking and running.  I have 3 speeds.”

He reminds me that this is his 6th year at the race.  Last year after trying for quite a few years he set his personal best in the race of 547 miles.  I joke with him and tease him that wouldn’t it be safer not to try and do the race again and not do better.   “I will sit on it but only for one year.  Now I have come back.  It is always a pleasure to be here with all the people.  Especially for all of my family to come here.”

He says he has come this year a little injured, with a bad ankle he picked up in a 48 hour race in Arizona this past winter.  “So that is why I am trying to alternate, to run and to walk, with my speed.”

He says that his son, who has come with him and his wife since the beginning also wants to run in the 6 day race next year.

Michel

Vasuprada

Michel’s friend Sylvie who starts tomorrow.

Prabala has 117 miles after 2 days.

Sri Chinmoy, The Significance Of A Smile, Agni Press, 1977

Click below to see him setting a world record in 3 mile race in 1965:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8rC2Xeiz5k 

Sri Chinmoy  was asked this question in 1974.

No doubt some bored technician was gathering up this endless stream of images or perhaps the data just dropped silently onto some vast digital hard drive as it relentlessly circled our world.  Something it has continued to do on an average of about 15 revolutions day.

Now some day it just might happen that it will do this same scan,  just as the Self Transcendence 6 and 10 day race is going on.    Technicians might be startled to notice a stream of little figures trotting around the paths of the park and wonder just what are all those little plywood buildings doing there.

As a rule, it is pretty easy to be amazed at what technology is constantly able to improve upon.  Both make things happen better, faster, and cheaper.  And yet for those 38 runners who have now circled around these same paths for more than 24 hours, the marvels of technology is of no benefit to them whatsoever.  No doubt some may be listening at times to their personal music players or getting calls from friends and family in the nearly 15 countries from which they have traveled from.  At night when the lights go on and food is cooked and is tasty warm everyone is happy that some good old fashioned technology is making their lives just a little better. But no gadget or gizmo will take away the tiredness that is creeping into their legs or dull the not so subtle aches and pains that are for some becoming truly annoying new companions.

Today the weather did an abrupt about face and it seemed to be continually drizzly and cool.  There wasn’t much reason for anyone to play tourist and take in the sights as they circled the winding one mile loop again and again.  One can’t say for certain what experiences each of the runners is having at any time of the day but one thing is certain.  With each new lap and as the many hours tumble past, each who one runs here, find themselves drawn ever more deeply within themselves.  Into parts of their being that most of us are often quietly aware and yet most of us never seem to rarely find the time or inclination to explore there.  Even though this part of us has been constantly beckoning us.

It is within this unmeasurable inner journey that they also feel an  expansion of their subtle dimensions.  For it is after all a pilgrimage here.  To a place where the travelers journey, way beyond the very limited world that their eyes see and their feet can carry them.   A place of self transcendence in which the goal is to explore and gather new strength and purpose from the uncharted regions within themselves.

This afternoon it was all very much about staying dry.  These 3 were very fortunate that the fashion police did not swing by and give them tickets for copy cat dress code violations.

Martin continues to be the big  but not unexpected news for the 10 day race.  Both Samita and Ilvaka are probably causing more than a few headaches for some of the boys.

“It’s pretty much like at home isn’t it.”  Nirbhasa is a first time multi day runner from Dublin.  When asked if the weather this afternoon is not unlike Ireland he confesses that the similarities are eerily similar.  “For an Irishman it is kind of otherworldly.”  When he describes the bright sunny day which greeted him here on his first day he said that he had only seen a day that nice was only once in the past 6 months back home.  Ironically on the day he left.  “This is more up my scene.”

He says that for him today he is already entering into new territory when it comes to distance running.  “I did a 24 hour in London last year.  I did 100 miles.  It was pretty good.  When people say for a first timer that is a good mark when you do a 100.”  He says he had been thinking of doing this race much earlier and used the 24 hour race as part of his preparation.  In fact it was just about a year ago that he felt the call of the race in a very real way.  He came to the park here with some friends late one evening.  “Just as soon as I stepped out of the car and started walking I somehow knew this was what I was going to do.”

“Originally I thought I was going to do the 6 day.”  But he says that something inspired him after his 24 hour race.  “It was quite tough in a lot of ways, but very rewarding in a lot of other ways.”  He says that about 2 weeks after the race he was showing a documentary film on the 3100 mile race called Spirit of a Runner to a mediation class and said that he was profoundly moved even though he had seen it many times.   He calls the film spirituality in action.  The next day he realized that if multi day running is such a life changing experience why shouldn’t he try it himself.  “I mean everybody you talk to says it really changes your life.  So I really got this inner feeling.  So if you are going to have this experience why not make it last for 10 days instead of 6.”

” So far conditions have been quite good and I feel quite good.  So far it has been a real joy running the race.  I have been sure to take it easy.”  Many have told him to not over extend himself on the first 2 days at least.  “I have been very obedient to their advice.  I run for about 3 hours and then take a break.  So that is quite good for the mind as well.  Just to king of ease into it.  I am really taking each day as it comes.  I know in the next 7 days, and possibly quite soon, when those experiences when I am up against it.  I will be able to answer that question then.”

“I think that part of it is that you are not running this race yourself.  We are all in it together.  If you are kind of grumpy or down it definitely affects other people.  Where I suppose if you can smile or have a kind word or joke, it takes a load of people.”  He describes how experiences a real joy when he can inspire in even a small way anyone who crosses his path.  He laughs and adds, “or at least not make them worse.”

Nirbhasa

A Kiwi countess

Dinner time at the race.

Maria and her fresh Strudel, who says the secret ingredient is love.  “Cooking and baking with love.”

“It is amazing.”  Nipura is the chief cook again this year and of her crew she says, “they are the best, the best, the best.” I tell her that she said that same thing last year.   “But they are the same crew.   I am so lucky.”

Kitchen

“She is doing very well.”  Eva is once again handling Ilvaka this year.  When asked about her runner who is sitting beside her she says, “she is running very well and is very happy.

Ilvaka responds to this with, “she is helping me in every way, by giving me joy.  I always look forward to seeing her every lap.  I look forward to the food and everything but inwardly she is giving me so much inspiration by being herself so happy, cheerful, and enthusiastic.”

As for the change in weather from yesterday she suggests simply, “you must love every weather.”

“What is really my goal is to give my best, and also always try and be on the positive side.  I always feel that the worst suffering here is not physical pains but the worst suffering is inner.  When you say, O God this is painful and your thoughts tell you that you do not want to continue any more.  I want to give up….. That is the worst thing.  That is what I would like to avoid, and try and be on the positive side.”

Eva says, “I am grateful to be here.”  Ilvaka adds with delight, “tomorrow is her birthday.”

Ilvaka and Eva

Andrey Andreev from St Petersburg.

Staying dry.

I come across Vinati who is working on one of her shoes.  “I am cutting it more because a blister is coming.”  She hasn’t felt well since the beginning of the race but as of this afternoon she has completed 100 miles.

Vinati

Some jobs are hard at the beginning.

Then you create something quite wonderful.

“It is a new experience for me.”  When I question Tirtha further about this she says that this time it is, “a new situation.”  Even though she has done the race several times since 2008.

She lists for me all the different scenarios that have kept her from running the race the past few years, even though she did make one appearance here as a helper.   An experience that is for many even more difficult than tying up running shoes and actually doing the race.  Last year was so demanding with her job she says that it killed her body.  “I must admit that I am still kind of struggling with a burn out.  So my running has been very poor, over the last year.  So my only hope to change things was to come here and run it out.  I knew that I didn’t have much energy, so I am walking a lot.  Which is fine except that I am getting so cold.”

Yesterday the weather was ideal for most of the runners but Tirtha says that as much as she enjoyed running her first day she unfortunately somehow managed to get a stomach problem that was very painful and persisted into the night.   “During the night it did get better being out here.”

“I am glad to be back but it is a new experience for me.” She is trying her best to get into the rhythm and flow of the race with the limited physical capacity that her body seems to have at this time.  But because she has been here at times when she has been much stronger and more fit she is trying to ignore the temptation to build up the big miles and instead move forward with the capacity and inspiration that is available.  She also doesn’t have a helper which also takes getting used to.

Her only real goal, “is to get back my strength.  That I come out healthy.”

Tirtha

Sri Chinmoy, The Wings Of Light, Part 8, Agni Press, 1974