The orbit of my little world took something of a seismic shift in orientation over the past week. Instead of finding myself perched rapturously on the sidelines of the 3100 mile race I was relocated to quite a different universe altogether. I had driven just 920km north of this hard little Queens sidewalk to a place in which there were hardly any sidewalks at all. Family commitments had drawn me away and I confess, that I surrendered to them with little opposition. [image source: Jim Leistman, flikr]
I will not bore you with the delights and the despair of family encounters but I would say this, I did not have to travel far before the miracle that is the Self-Transcendence race drifted free of my mind almost entirely. When one is surrounded by nature that is full and lush it is easy to be distracted from that, which so recently had absorbed almost every fibre of my being. Instead, Goderich Ontario is a tiny Canadian town with all the usual pastoral enchantments that can soothe ones being with their sweetness, simplicity, and charm. There are no great struggles here, at least none worth noting. When you are tired you go to bed. Nobody is in a rush to do anything at all. In fact life here is just like it is in most places in this wonderful world of ours.
What is missing here of course is the absolute expression of divine transcendence taking place repeatedly on a tiny fragment of a Queens neighborhood. You could of course stand face to face with the runners as they shuffle past you and still not see it, but once you have glimpsed even an iota of the miracle of the 3100 you can never ever really forget it.
I will try at one point to describe it to my 91 year old Mother. For her now a great distance is to travel down the long hall of her apartment. My words at first do not seem to find any purchase, as I try and describe for her what the runners are doing. I repeat again how many years it has happened. How many hours they run, how many days they will be here, and how far they have already travelled. My description seems to be just drifting away out of her reach when suddenly her eyes light up. “My that is such a long way,”and Mom smiles in recognition.
Of course the moment a bike passes by me and a, “Where ya been,” is shouted it is easy to feel back at home amongst the runners. As much as everything is different in most ways it is much the same as when I left. The biggest change being the hundreds of individual miles each has run and the collective thousands that have been amassed by the now band of 12. Petr is now almost 130 miles beyond his distance this time last year. Purna-Samarpan, who is here for the first time has more than doubled the number the greatest number of miles he has ever run in a race before.
One of the big events that took place yesterday is the Stripping of the Grand Central service road. The impact for the runners yesterday was a lot of commotion and dust. Though for some it provided a little harmless industrial theater in which the plot is well understood though the conclusion far from certain.
Yesterday was eventful for quite a different reason. It is understood that from time to time the peace and tranquility of the course can be shaken and challenged in unexpected ways. Pranjal was involved in an incident in which his running skills were put to the test. In the late afternoon he noticed a young girl walking near the counting tables deeply absorbed in a conversation on her cell phone. She did not notice she was being approached by 3 young boys on bikes who were up to no good. Pranjal described one as, “his eyes were empty and I knew something was wrong.”
They turned their bikes around after they passed the girl and came back and snatched her phone. Responding quickly Pranjal gave chase to the one who had it. The boy, seeing he could not peddle his bike fast enough to elude Pranjal, instead jumped off and sprinted away catching up with his friends and escaping on their bikes. The girl who suddenly no longer had her phone now had acquired the thief’s bicycle and proceeded to ride it away. Pranjal in his ‘do gooder’ role never left the course and notes he probably has not run 50 meters at that same speed for a very long time.
“I try to be happy,” Pavol tells me on this day when he will pass the half way point on his journey. A year ago he was 130 miles behind his current pace. He tells me about his experience here last year. “After 20 days I did not see the finish line for me. But this year I see the finish line. All for me this year is going automatically.” He pauses as he searches for the right words to describe how in tune he is this year with the whole 3100 mile experience. “I only run,” he says and smiles with confidence. “Everything is good.”
He says he realized something significant yesterday. “When someone starts running this race it is only one race, it is only one path. When I finished last year I knew the race was not finished. This year when I started I felt like, I was just continuing. It was amazing.” He is clearly in awe of Suprabha being here for 13 years and all the others who make the race the focus of their life’s journey. He states, “All runners must be like Suprabha.”
“Yesterday I was suffering mostly all day,” Petr tells me. Despite this he ran nearly 67 miles and is currently 130 miles ahead of last years effort. He is celebrating today because while he runs here his brother is getting married back home in Slovakia.
He tells me that an Italian Ayurvedic Doctor has helped him a lot over the past few days. “He is always smiling and cutting jokes,” which is a therapeutic remedy in itself. Such a positive attitude has been universally known to be one of a physicians most important aids in the care and treatment of patients. “One of the best Doctors who have come here,” he says. He has been so inspired to help at the race he has extended his stay at the race by an extra week.
He tells me that he is aware his mileage is much better than last year but as well he feels more comfortable in the race. “I am very satisfied with this year.” Also he is inspired by all the others who are also doing well.
Grahak is pressing ever closer, with each new day he runs, the almost certainty that he will reach a new personal best and an Australian record. Over the past week he has had three 70 mile plus days and on two occasions he ran more miles than anyone else that day. What he is amused to tell me now however is not anything about running but rather about some of the skits he has put on since I was away. “One of them was like a miracle,” he says and then immediately begins to laugh.
“Asprihanal was really tired and he was walking,” he recounts. By chance the two met up at their tables just before where Parvati’s group was singing. He tells me that Asprihanal turned to him and said, “what are we going to do.” He told him, “Put some paper towel around your head so that you look like a bride.” He told him that his line was just to repeat the words, “Me too.”
When they got to the girls Grahak said, “I have just been married for two hours and already I feel like a new man.” Asprihanal than said in a quiet voice, “Me too.” He says with that little skit they not only amused the girls but also Asprihanal found his running form again immediately afterwards. “All this joy came to him and that was really nice,” says Grahak about the skit. He says it was his favourite because unquestionably he felt it was a way for the inspiration to touch and inspire his friend.
He says on another occasion he had Asprhanal imitate the hunch back of Notre Dame by wearing a coat over his head and having a padded lump under his shirt. He had a bell in his hand which he kept hitting with his forehead as he went by Parvati’s group and kept saying the word, “the bells, the bells.” He says it was then hard to deliver his own line because the girls were laughing so hard. Grahak eventually managed to say, “Does anybody recognize that guy, because his face rings a bell.”
For the lack of two cherries and more importantly not being synchronized with Asprihanal, no skit was offered today. He says he enjoys it when his simple childlike skits offer encouragement and joy to others. “I also go faster for a couple of laps.” There is now some pressure to come up with ideas but clearly he is not intimidated by creating skits or coming up with the miles he has yet to run. Grahak interview
There has been a noticeable beautification of the course over the past week. Various members of the Enthusiasm Awakeners, have volunteered to plant more flowers.
There cannot be any place
Which is a long way
From my heart-home.
Excerpt from Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 21 by Sri Chinmoy.