Vasu has finished the 3100 Mile Race 5 times. Since his first race he has been a consistent and relentless competitor. Qualities that don’t first come to mind when you first meet him. For in person he is all gentle sweetness and untiring soulful devotion. But mixed in there with his joy and brightness is determination to fulfill this impossible task of running the longest race in the world. All done with a dedication to transcend whatever he has done before.
Now Vasu has been running for 3 straight days in his 6th race. He leads the field with 211 miles and yesterday ran 69 miles, the most of any other runner. What is not so obvious from the almost effortless way that he runs is that it is a real miracle that he is here at all this year and able to run even one step of the way.
“I have a story about a miracle of Sri Chinmoy. Last year after I ran this race I wanted to come back and run again this year. I tried to recover and also do a little bit of training. But on the 7th of January I fell down and broke a bone in my back. (He describes that it was not his spine but most likely, as he demonstrates with his hands, quite possibly ribs. He also shows me how his diaphragm was hurt as well)
“I could not laugh or cough it hurt too much. My first thought when I fell down was how was it going to be possible for me to run the race this year.”
He was quite anxious and concerned that his injury would keep him out. One of his Doctors told him, “Vasu we love you, and we will pray for you, and everything will be good. He gave me so much positive energy.” He describes that he then went back to his home in St Petersburg and many of his fellow disciples tried to inspire him. But I was only able to lie down on my back. If I needed to stand up to eat or do something else I had to put on a back brace. Many people helped me.”
Because of inactivity he started to gain weight. He says that he got to be as much as 10kg over his usual body weight of 70.
“Sri Chinmoy inspired me to do everything. To be healthy and ready to do this race.”
Vasu describes going to a joy weekend in May and that he had a very good experience. “There I got the inspiration to run this race. After this he contacted the race directors and asked for an invitation to run.”
“I have done everything possible in order that I could be able to run this race.” A friend heard him say this and answered, “You did not do it. Sri Chinmoy did it in and through you.”
Besides put in some very good mileage Vasu continues to do strengthening exercises for his back. “I am trying to be in a good consciousness and I am grateful to everybody that helped me get here. Thank you Sri Chinmoy for this experience.”
I know
How to run and run
And run.
My Lord Supreme
Knows
How to love me
With His
Blessing-Pride.
Sri Chinmoy
June 21st, 2006
Board after 3 days
The man who will wear the hat has yet to arrive. He will need it today
Yuri cleaning
Alan has a word with Vajra before he leaves
Harita’s basket
Suhashini getting ready with some close supervision
Nidhruvi arrives
Rupantar giving thanks to Michael one of today’s sponsors
Ray checking the laps sheet
Yolanda arrives
She is enjoying the board after a good day yesterday
Ray chatting with the girls
Suhashini helping Kaneenika with her shoes
3 minutes
Ananda-Lahari arrives
Andrey
Katya helping Harita
Smarana and Nirbhasa
Alan advising Nirbhasa
Getting shoes ready
Start Day 4
It is a beautiful morning
Nirbhasa is in 2nd place overall with 204 miles.
He ran a very impressive 67 miles yesterday
Bit of green
Jadranka counting
Smarana has 191 miles
He ran 59 miles yesterday
Vinaya visiting with Champ
Flower
Harita has 188 miles
With Katya
Flower
Kaneenika has 187 miles. She ran 58 miles yesterday.
Flower
Nidhruvi has the same mileage of 187
Nidhruvi did 58 miles yesterday
Flower
Yolanda did the most mileage of all the girls with 60. She has a total of 174
Flower
Camp
Andrey did 47 miles yesterday and he has 167
Ananda-Lahari did 62 miles and has 167 miles
Flower
Sergey did 49 miles yesterday
He has 156 miles
Poem of the Day
Recited by Katya:
“It’s Fathers Day weekend so I came.” I spoke with Purnakama a few days ago. She is a teacher in Winnipeg. “I got a long weekend so I came out. So the race starts this weekend so it is really important to be here and support the runners.”
“It is just inspiration. Because it is absolutely mind boggling what they do. Your mind can’t even capture or even begin to imagine what they are doing. But there is a light here. When you are here you are getting that light, that river of light that flows around the track. It feeds you. It makes me want to go out and run.”
“It is inspiring and that light, even when you are not physically here, just reading about it gives you that daily inspiration, to just keep going. When you look at what they are doing and what they are going through.”
“I do run more when the race is on. Because I think, o my gosh. If they are doing this all day, I am sure I can go out and do 2 miles. I read the blog in the morning before I go to work and it keeps me in a good consciousness. I get the idea of transcendence, that idea of light, and that idea of joy, so that I can carry that with me when I go to work.”
Click to Play Interview:
Enthusiasm Awakeners
Click to Play:
Miracles do happen.
But if we want to learn something
From the miracles,
Then we must believe in them.
Beautiful video as always, Utpal. It’s the spiritual engine to my day. I love the drone shots! By the way, for some reason the sound in the poetry reading is not showing up on the blog.
To Abhinabha: perhaps you use Firefox? I’ve the same problem as you with it (despite the latest version of Adobe Flash), but everything’s fine with Chrome and IE (11 in my case) engines.
Every morning a new jewel of inspiration. Thank you very much!
Hi all!
I can also suggest following the Peace Run daily:
http://www.peacerun.org
It is now running through Slovenia and Russia