“If I stop for too long my feet hurt.” I joke that means she needs to keep moving for the next 3 days.
Kim Allan has been leading the women’s 6 day race from the start. “It is a good thing it means you can’t muck around. At the end of 72 hours she has 220 miles a number that puts her at 3rd place overall.
“It has been tough. The road is undulating. It is a tough course.”
“When things go wrong it kind of escalates. In shorter races you can think it will be over at 100km. But when things go wrong you think, o my gosh, I still have 4 days.”
Her longest event prior to this was to run for 86 hours where I did 500km but it wasn’t a race. Kim tells me that she is familiar with other Sri Chinmoy Marathon team events from her home in New Zealand. “I did the 24 hour race in Auckland and it is awesome. It is a really enjoyable experience apart from the pain.”
“I am happy I am still going. I had stomach issues that first night at 1 in the morning.” After which she had blisters and realized things weren’t going according to her plan. “The thought of sticking it out for 6 days seemed enormous. I guess I am proud that I am still here.”
Kim feels that at this point in the race it is her mental strength that she is relying on most. “I am not doing a lot of running. I have managed to maintain my miles by staying awake. I have had 2 hours and 30 minutes sleep since the start of the race.”
“I just stay up all night knocking the mileage out.” She has a 17 mile lead over Vikena. She says that at the beginning she was competing only with herself. But now, “It is hard when you find yourself in front. You kind of want to hold it. You get competitive.”
She says that Vikena is running really strongly. “The only way I have managed to keep my place is that when she is sleeping I just keep going. Every lap I do she still has to pull that one back. She is a lovely lady. I don’t want to be competitive with her.”
Her feeling about the race thus far, “It is wonderful.”
“I feel very fortunate to be here. Every time I come here after finishing, it makes me more mature. The race gives me a better understanding of life.”
“I take this race like I do life. Many times in life we feel ourselves in difficult conditions. Here the same thing happens. Sometimes it is cold, sometimes it is windy and because of that you feel low. The answer you find is to keep moving on.”
“Nothing else do you need to do, just keep moving on. 2 days I go I was in a real bad patch. My feet were sore. I used the mantra, Keep moving on, and now I am doing good. I am still on my 50 miles a day pace.”
“Personally I take this race as an opportunity to inspire the citizens of my country, India.”
*translation by Stutisheel*
Click Below on the Read More button to see the rest of report
