“Sometimes I feel like that I have never gone from here. It is like a continuation of the last one.” The Self Transcendence race is just minutes old and Sarvagata, like all the other runners, is still warming up. Loosening up reluctant bits of body, fine tuning his focus, more heart and less mind, and still trying to find an inner rhythm and strength that will be his most important constant companion for the many miles ahead.
There was a small enthusiastic gathering as the race started at 6 am this morning. The cheers and applause gradually faded away as most of the bystanders slipped back into the personal private worlds in which most of us all inhabit. In an hour or so the sidewalk around Thomas Edison High school was once again swept free of bystanders and became the sole unique world of the 12 who have dedicated themselves to an almost impossible journey . A sacred place, that last year changed Sarvagata’s world forever. Somehow he was able to come here as a first timer and did not simply survive but thrived and found victory in just 44 days. This city block may be a tiny material reality but at the same time it is an infinite universe teeming with limitless possibilities for transformation and transcendence.
For those who ponder the most significant questions of life such as, ‘who am I?’ There is no guarantee that any magic answer will be revealed to them here, no matter how much they commit themselves and sacrifice all parts of their beings, whether it be inner or outer.
But at least with each mile that takes their body around and back from where they started, the most important portion of themselves is continually obliged to move ever forward on the inner journey we all one day must take. For each and every runner the scenery never changes but their own personal experiences are constantly evolving and have infinite possibilities.
It is unlikely that any runner will have some cosmic vision of their world in which everything is revealed. Most certainly however all will have some positive insights into their inner selves and be certain that they have done the right thing to come here and run. Maybe even from time to time see what keeps them limited or chained to their past.
More likely are the precious silent moments that also reveal the luminous brightness of their true inner reality. One not defined by tired painful bodies but by smiles and the unhorizoned joy of those struggling to find their way back to the source.
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“First of all welcome to the 16th annual 3100 mile Self Transcendence Race, the longest certified foot race on earth. It is a test of endurance. They have to traverse this course of slightly over half a mile 5649 times in order to finish in 52 days, which is an average 59.7 miles per day. Which is a formidable task for any human being.”
Sahishnu Starts the race
When Sarvagata went back to his home in the Ukraine after the race last year he felt some part of himself coming back again and again to the the race. An experience not simply of reminiscing but also something closer and deeper because he says his heart came back as well.
“This is a place in my life that I can come back to, and revitalize everything, on all levels of my being. I am really happy I have it.”
His return this time was not a foregone conclusion. “But I got so much support, in both worlds, so I had no choice but to come. But I am really happy that it all came true. I had less hesitation than last time.”
I ask him now that he has so much experience now on the course is there anything that he learned that he would have liked to advise himself before starting last year. “I am really happy with my approach last year.” He feels that ultimately his race and experience here is all in the hands of the Supreme.
Click to play interview
This year Sarvagata’s wife Sarvakamya will be able to help her husband while he runs. She was shocked last year, as much as he was when he received a last minute invitation to come and run. “Just 2 weeks before the race he got the answer yes, and he called me. He did not say that he was running he said, can you guess what good news I have. What good news I couldn’t even imagine.”
When he told her that he had been invited to participate, she said, “Did you say yes?” He said, “Of course I said yes.” As excited as she was for him she could not help but feel disappointed because it was literally impossible for her to get organized with visas and tickets to come and help Sarvagata. Her feeling, “he will be alone. O my God.”
Somehow they kept in contact by phone throughout the race. She describes the slimmest window of opportunity to speak on the phone due to the time difference between the US and the Ukraine. “It was a little bit tough especially for my neighbors.” Due to an often bad connection she describes how sometimes she had to yell into the phone in order to be heard a 2 in the morning. “It was something.”
I wonder if she was surprised at how well he did in the race. She describes that she felt somehow within that he would not just do well but extremely well. “I wasn’t surprised.”
She is really happy to be here this time and not reduced to late night phone calls. “Here is better because when I am here I can do something.” When home last year all she could do was pray and mediate for him but describes this approach as not as satisfying as being able to really take part herself.
Here on this first day she says, “I feel really satisfied with everything. Just to see the runners and the helpers. It is really something to be here.”
Click to play interview
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A performance by Vinaya and friend
Matt and Jason are having a great time this morning as the race gets underway. They are also are not adverse to joking in the best possible way. “We are here, and I don’t know if you are aware, the world”s longest foot race just began here about 30 minutes ago. We came out to witness the beginning of it which we have never seen before. We have been out to the race several times but we have never seen the beginning.”
A couple of years back they had organized mystery bus trips in which they brought people to locations that they had to somehow discover what was taking place.
Jason says that for him when he came with the group, “it looked very ordinary in a funny way. I don’t know what I expected. What was fun about the project was that we had dropped off everyone on the opposite side of the base camp. Then had them walk half the route. It was really awesome that there was just a dozen people running, and you didn’t really understand what was happening. Then we got to reveal, by reading excerpts from the Harpers magazine article, what an extraordinary thing was really happening.”
Matt adds, “the people didn’t even know that they were at a race. They just got out of the bus and the whole thing was that nobody knew where they were going that day. They get out of the bus and they just see a few people jogging. They think, O, just a few people out for a jog.
We go in the opposite direction from the others so we cross paths and come across a few more runners. I don’t think anyone is really thinking anything of it. then we start reading from the Harpers article and you start to see peoples mouths dropping open.”
“A really wonderful thing about the race is how so much of it is kind of an internal kind of thing. It is so hard to grasp externally the magnitude of what is happening here. It is kind of a hidden thing. All the meaning and the significance is wrapped up inside everything. You really have to spend a lot of time in order to extract that.”
“So I love that at the start of the World’s longest race the start is this crack in the sidewalk. A moss filled crack that is where it begins.” He believes that from photos or video is almost impossible to grasp the signifcance of what is really happening.”
Jason continues, “what I love about the crack in the sidewalk is that it symbolizes that you have to start somewhere. You don’t have to have some huge ceremony or some big official thing. If you are going somewhere you have to start somewhere and it just as well might be this crack. You don’t need a stadium to do extraordinary things. The extraordinary can happen any where that you want it to.”
Matt: “Stadiums almost convince people that what is happening is extraordinary by putting it in this setting. While here you simply let the extraordinariness talk for itself. You don’t have to dress it up in anything. Some people may not understand but that is the way it is. When you spend a lot of time here and start to think about what it is like for these runners, and how intimate they must be with every crack in the sidewalk by the time they are done. Just to think about seeing that same thing over and over that same block pass before your eyes constantly. You could ponder it endlessly. So much to think about.”
Click to play interview
Girls singing on the course
Enthusiasm Awakeners
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Satisfaction is not only
At the finish line
But also
At the starting line.
Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 16, Agni Press, 1999.
Hi Utpal, its great to read your blog! It almost feels like being at the Race Site. Greetings to everybody! See you in August. Purna-Samarpan
Utpal, thanks a million for starting your own dauntless reporting journey again and supplying all of us around the world with boundless inspiration!
It looks like 3 guys are wearing “Warrior Spirit” hachimaki. I just ordered one which I’ll wear in remembrance of you guys.
Thanks! Great Blog! Keep up the good work!