He arrives looking strong and upbeat but all is not well with Pranab Vladovic.  In last years race, which was his 4th, he set a personal best.  A physical ailment however has been relentlessly shadowing him for the past year.  In 2008 he lost a full day to it and still came back and set a personal record.  His skin rash, and accompanying swelling are making demands on his physical well being that appear to compromise his chances of continuing.

A nurse is coming to see him in a short while but it is clear that the allergic reaction, which he feels is caused by the sun, is getting worse every day.  He ran only 45 miles yesterday. Nobody wants to see anything like this happen to any of the runners who have sacrificed so much to come and particpate.  It is a small family, these 13 runners.  They share the same road and the same goal.  By helping one another they proceed on, hopefully to transcend themselves on every level.  For now he is preparing to go out and run a full day.

Other runners are still arriving.  Pushkar, had his own problems last year but seems to be doing extremely well this time.  He has 218 miles and ran 68 miles yesterday putting him in second.

Vlady, who is  a first timer ran 58 miles yesterday and has 192.

The serious business of setting up.

Kodanda plays most mornings.

Kodanda on flute

Diganta talks about flowers

“I had this idea in 2006.”  Diganta is the runner with the green thumb, or at least the one responsible for planting 27 different flowering plants around the course.  Last year he planted flower seeds but unfortunately nothing grew from them, or at least bore noticeable  flowers.  He says, “It was a failure and so I thought I should just put plants.  I was inspired because most of the time there is only the concrete.”  He also describes that wild flowers come up from time to time but most of them get cut very early by the grounds keepers from the school or the park.

His reason for doing this the day before the race is simple.  “I always get so much joy from flowers.  So I thought I should do something about it.”  After completing the race in 2005 he says Sri Chinmoy gave a talk in which he encouraged the runners that when they came back the following year to select places on the course where they got joy from nature.  In talking amongst themselves some felt inspired by a large pine tree on one corner of the course.  He says that for him it was the flowers that peeped up around the iron fence that he was most encouraged by.No Expectations

He points to the pine as we round the corner of 168th street.  Just a little further on he describes a flowering vine that tenaciously entwined itself around an iron  fence all summer and resisted the chop of the lawnmowers.  Sure enough the vine is back again this year but has yet to bear any flowers.  He says, “It had a very beautiful blossom.” As he recalls the experience of seeing it he gets very enthusiastic and says, “every time I saw it…wow.  Look at this how beautiful”Post card to his Mom

He tells me this is his 4th race.  He is doing well and describes how both his body and mind are getting more used to the 3100 each time he does it.  He says, “I try and find a balance between doing my best but also having joy as much as I can.  It is very hard to do this race.  All kind of things you go through, in spite of that I try and be happy.”

At one point he describes not thinking about whether or not in advance that he will do the race the following year.  He says, “I go one year at a time.”  In addition he describes how the call of the race is irresistible. He describes the inspiration to come, that when it calls out to you is so powerful that, “You don’t have a choice if you come here or not.”

When it comes to the results of the race he is surprisingly without any expectation.  “It is just too long to many things can happen.” He says in this race so far, “I am starting well and having a good experience.”  He mentions the knee problems that have plagued him for much of the other races and says so far he is having no problem.  He thinks they may be being kept at bay by the stretching that he is now doing several times a day, which is taking the tension off of his bad knee.  With real optimism he says, “Maybe this year I can do my very best.”Joy as much as you can

“I feel more and more that this is a pilgrimage and at the end of the race you feel that something has changed in you. I focus on the positive and be grateful for being able to do it.”

Parvati’s Group