As Smarana heads into his 13th day on the course I ask him if he has had to once again change plans. I quiz him whether he is moved on from his first plan and started to skip through the various letters of the alphabet. He has been going through some major blister issues over the past few days.
“Well plan A always has to be elastic. Otherwise it is going to be tough here. If you stick to preconceived concepts”
“I would really like to speak about the oneness aspect of the race. Due to some technical problems we didn’t get any messages via the Marathon Team website. At least ones from Austria, I don’t know why. We didn’t get any messages so I just surrendered. I just let it go.”
“Then they started using a different web account and messages started to come. It made such a difference.”
“Sometimes you get lost in details. The lap becomes very small, your world. Then you have to broaden your perspective again. It was so helpful to get the messages. My helper (Horst) even had tears. It was a touching thing.”
“I felt the oneness energy, the one big family. There is an exchange of energy. I give something to them and they give something to me. It is something very nice.”
“Once a reporter from France was here and I asked him to come around with me and do a lap. Then I asked him, what do you think about the race and he said, you are crazy. I tried to explain to him but he just didn’t get it. Then a film maker named Matt read this article and said I have to come here and I have to make a video. This is the race. This is the place to be.”
So it is like there is so much in this race. Some feel it or get it, and for some it is difficult. The lap is neutral. It is always here. It can become a path of tears and joy, sorrow and delight, whatever. It just unfolds.”
“It is so intense here because of the time pressure. It makes it very condensed. But even every day life gets intense sometimes. But here you can go through a lifetime. Everything is compressed and condensed and very very fast.”
“In the beginning it is always shaky. Your body is being beaten up and thrashed but then you get stronger. Your focus improves and your mindset gets stable. You can say, get in the groove.”
“Horst has done a really good job with my blisters. He is a carpenter and set up a table at his home to set up a working station. He did research and now we are finally nailing the problem and it is great.”
“This is where you can really learn how to savor the moment. Because when you are in the past it doesn’t help you and future is obscure anyway. You can make your plans and go down the alphabet and then end up at z. Sometimes you just let go and then in the evening you miraculously you just have your miles.”
“But if you stay in the mind and say 1 plus 1 equals 2 then you can’t work it out. Once you let go it is all just happening.”
“In the last few days I really had issues with blisters. And I said O boy, then I just let go. Then in the evening I had my miles. It was just like a miracle.”
The vision of a oneness-family
Will one day cover
The length and breadth
Of the world.
Board at start of Day 13
Early
Vajra getting ready to leave
Alan cutting bananas
Yolanda always the first to come
Joke on the fence
Suhasini getting ready
The clock
Kaneenika, Harita, and Sergey arrive at the same time
Stutisheel checking out the board
Andre gives a copy of jayasalini’s new book to Kaneenika
Webcam working
Andre checking the mileage sheet
Time drawing closer
Nirbhasa arrives
Yolanda thanking Samarpita who has been helping her after she finishes counting
Webcam delay of 20 seconds
Ananda-Lahari arrives
The Russian boys
Kaneenika and Harita
Start Day 13
Alan giving some helpful advice to Yolanda as she starts her day
Not quite a full sun gazing day
Slightly overcast
Vasu had his first 70 mile day in 8 days
He now has 820 miles
Taking a break to do his daily back strengthening exercises
Getting help from Sasha
Flower
Nirbhasa did 64 miles
He now has 789 miles
Pradeep helping
Later in the morning
Flower
Kaneenika did 64 miles
She now has 744 miles
She leads Smarana by 5 miles
Smarana did 62 miles
He now has 739 miles
Flower
Harita broke her 7 day streak of 110 lap days and did 111 laps 60 miles
She now has 728 miles
Doing her jokes with Nidhruvi
Doing very consistent and very well
With Katya
Happiness
Yolanda did 110 laps, 60 miles
She has 718 miles
Applauding the Enthusiasm Awakeners
Flower
Sergey did an incredible 120 laps, 65 miles
He now has 716 miles
Flower
Andre did 50 miles
He now has 681 miles
Flower
Nidhruvi did 49 miles
She now has 662 miles
She is making the best of it all
She has many fans
Ananda-Lahari did 51 miles
He now has 633 miles
Flower
Swamiji
Kamaneeya the counter
Katya getting ice
Alan showing a picture after he won the inaugural 24 hour race put on by Run and Become in 1993. It shows him receiving the winners trophy from Ongkar after he complete 138 miles (222.22km)
Nirjharini chatting with Pradeep
Sahishnu bagging ice
Parvati checking out her new gardens
They are looking great
“Can you believe it, the grass is greener here.”
Samarpita reads the Daily Prayer
Samarpita is leaving on the 4th of July and I wanted to know how she likes helping at the race. “It gives me something really fun to do and inspiring. It is actually quite restful. But to see the runners running through all kinds of weather, heat, cold. And also to see the runners concern for each other.”
“One morning it was really cold and I was freezing and I was counting Ananda-Lahari and he could tell that I was cold. And he was so concerned. He came to me and said, O, we have extra blankets in the boys van if you need one.”
“They see everything. They see the helpers and the other runners and their concern for them. It helps inspire me for my running. I realize that there is no limits.”
“I can’t imagine what the race is doing for the outer world. What their transcendence does for the outer world. For me the meditation is more of a service. My meditation is my service.”
“I would like to come back every year, and longer I hope. Maybe even the whole thing some time I hope. That’s my goal.”
Click Below to Play:
Enthusiasm Awakeners
Click to Play:
Everything I am doing
Is aimed at one goal:
A prayerful and soulful awareness
Of a universal oneness-family
Founded upon peace.
Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 190, Agni Press, 1993
Not knowing the field this year very well, I was hesitating to send jokes, but now that I see jokes even put up on the fence I did send a few from a large collection I get every year from a German friend. I may post one here as well:
In Heaven a holiday is being planned. Where to go…
First idea: Bethlehem. Maria is against it: “No hotel rooms available.”
Second idea: “Jerusalem. Jesus protests: “Very bad experiences.”
Third idea: Rom. No big excitement, but the holy ghost: “Yea, I have never been there.”
Amaising world is going here))))) Awesome! Best wishes only!
Very inspiring interview. Thanks a lot!