Author: utpal

It all takes place in less than an hour.  The singing, clapping, and offering of treats to the runners.

Who most likely have slept little, are aching and weary beyond belief, and are staring into the mouth of a mileage chasm that seems at times impossible to fill or even satisfy.

The girls all in matching colored t shirts arrive with a spirit and energy that is precisely the balm and remedy for waking up to 18 hours of running. Not on a soft forest trail mind you, but on the hardest unforgiving surface that a city can slap down, solely for pedestrians to make their way across the neighborhood

The weather at this time of year in New York is also generally hot, humid, and miserable.  The course of the 3100 simply put is a place where you are exposed to some of the worst aspects of nature.  An unyielding loop where the physical world is all one long hard battle.

But then quite to the contrary.  In an imponderable irony.  It is also where as well the divine brightness of the inner life beams more profoundly clear than any other place perhaps on earth.

The great tick tock of time now says that this is day 39.  The runners have been struggling and soaring and everything in between for well over a month.

For Yuri who is in the lead and still has 570 more miles more to go in order to reach 3100.  He could be here for 10 days more.  For those not as swift or as fortunate there could be a maximum of 14 more days out on the course.

So the vibrant joyous presence of the girls singing group  every morning at the course has an effect that brightens the sober reality they face.

A cheerful reminder of just why they have struggled so long and hard.  But of course as well to inspire and enable them all to see the source of their own inspiration.

That what they do here and what they accomplish is not about time and distance.  Instead it is about extending themselves towards a goal that is unsaleable, unknowable, and yet but must be reached by all of us someday.

Parvati tells me that the little brick alcove where her group sings each morning that Sri Chinmoy over 2 years of the race must have come there at least 100 times.

“He would first drive around the course encouraging the runners then he would stop at this very spot, and teach us a brand new song.”

“We had the privilege of waiting here and watching in anticipation for Sri Chinmoy’s little red car to come along.  Then he would teach us a new song.  Then the next day it would happen again.”

“In 2007 it happened 65 times.  It was pretty amazing.”

I suggest to Parvati that the spot still seems to have a special energy to it.  She says, “I think it is the runners that keep the message that Sri Chinmoy wanted us as his disciples to carry.  They, more than anybody else I have ever seen carry that.”

“So it is a real privilege just to be here and see them and witness what true aspiration is.  They also give us a reminder, that Sri Chinmoy tried to bring to us every single day.  That we can do more.  That we shouldn’t say no so often.”

“So being here at this time of year reminds me of that.  I shouldn’t say that I can’t.”

Continue reading “July 27… We Can Do More (Enthusiasm Awakeners Anniversary)”

Kaneenika has been running for 89 days now on the course.  She has collected 5304 miles but has yet to reach her goal.

This of course makes little sense unless  you are familiar with her history here at the race from last year.  She gave of course a valiant effort over 52 days but came up in the final hour still 86 miles short of the distance.  An injury she received in a fall late in the race kept her back from being able to maintain her pace.

Last night she completed her 37th day this year and ended the day with 2290 miles.

For those of us who have watched her blistering pace over the first month were relieved when she made it to 2000 miles.  She looked unstoppable.  As though nothing could go wrong, and then quite unexpectedly for all of us and in particular for Kaneenika, it did.

For the last week she has been battling sciatic pain and though she has not stopped, she has slowed.  For all of her supporters there has been an inaudible yet collective gasp.  All mouthing silently the words, O please not again.

Since we are now in the late stages of the race the numbers for those of us watching from the bleachers are easily calculable.  The one number that is easily added up to is the number 54.  If she can run that number of miles every day she will complete the race.  Last night she ran 51 miles.

“I guess there were some indications but I guess I didn’t catch them.  Then it came all of a sudden after my break on Tuesday.”(last week)

When the problem first arose she says, “I started treating it right away.  Which was helping because it could have been much worse.”

“I didn’t know that it was sciatica from the beginning.  It started as lower back pain.  Which my helper was trying to massage.” The very next night Kaneenika says that she received 2 different treatments.

“There were worries of course but I was trying to stay positive.  I was concentrating on trying to treat it.”

She says that there have been other problems that she has dealt with since she began the race.  This sciatic problem has just been perhaps the toughest.  If there is something to learn from this, who can say.  She says that all these tests ultimately make you stronger.

“To have more faith.”

“When something like this happens it becomes a kind of focal point.  You forget all the other problems that you have.  It changes everything. Also it changes your perspective and how you look at things.”

Kaneenika says that before it happened she had been realizing that there were still more than 2 weeks to go.

For a time she says she began to feel the nagging tugs of doubt.  This event with sciatic pain only intensified her worries.  “Maybe I won’t have enough time to finish the race.”

“Now I am just trying to stay positive.  To stay in a good consciousness, and just to surrender.”

*Click below to see rest of Report*

Continue reading “July 26… Stay Positive”

“Every day is a good day.”

I have unfortunately fallen into a bad habit.  Without much exception, as far as I can tell.  Nearly every day I ask each runner I interview whether or not it is a good day.

My reasons are simple of course.  Because my own answer to that question is never as consistent or as generous as those of all the runners here.  Who, on this the 37th day of the race have run so hard and for so long, that I personally cannot imagine how even any day here can still remain good.

Baladev now is here for the 8th time.  Yesterday he ran 54 miles for the 3rd day in a row.  He also completed 2012 miles as of midnight last night.

Does he have the time left to still reach 3100 miles in the 16 days remaining to him?

Probably not.  But what he will do is savor and worship and enjoy as many of the moments and miles as he has left to him.

I describe for Baladev a hornets nest of adverse conditions that so often inflict their pain and torment relentlessly on the runners.  He smiles as if the question is absurd.  “Of course.  I can die here and I will still be happy.”

“You can feel lots of pain and you can still be happy.”

“I think we are learning here how to be happy.  We are learning who we are and what we have.”

“In normal life it doesn’t matter so much whether we are happy.  There is no pressure.  Of course when we have inspiration we can do anything.  But we don’t have inspiration every day.”

“Here, if you want to run or to even move you have to find inspiration from somewhere.”  Baladev then offered his appreciation for all those in the race who are still running well.”

“I don’t feel that I am a good runner.  But I am trying.”  Then he raises his hand and points up the block.  He says what he so often has said before.  “I am trying to get to the next corner.  That is it.”

Baladeva also believes that someday a runner just might achieve God realization while running here.  “I am positive that this idea will one day happen.  This is the most significant event.  The most amazing place, where you can make the fastest progress.”

“Guru did not create the race for competition.  Many people think it is just a race and a competition.  But it is not about results.”

“It is about something deeper.  It is about spiritual progress.  What we are doing here every year until to we reach the goal.  Not just finish the race.  We need to finish the inner race.  This is why we are here.”

Continue reading “July 25… We Are Learning Here”

If one needs any reminding that the results on the board are not the only thing that is important here at the 3100.  Than taking a closer look at Ashprihanal helps to illustrate just a little more clearly that numbers are just one small aspect of the true race.

A year ago now Ashprihanal was 4 days away from a world record.  He had run on average 75 miles a day and on this day had 2757 miles.  This morning he started day 36 with 2315 miles (785 miles to go). There is no question of course that Ashprihanal will complete the distance.  But now that looks to be as much as 13 more days away.

As someone who has already run the race 13 times you can’t help but see in him that the race still has powerful lessons and experiences to offer.  Ones that are not really visible to us who watch him lightly skipping and flying up the street.

“The numbers are definitely getting better and better.”

“I always like it when you get to the last week and you can say, ah, this is the last Saturday.  But there is still time for that.”

“Last year was only for the world record and nothing else.  So I shut down everything else.”

“Last year was the time for that and this year I couldn’t do it.”  Ashprihanal accepts this wholeheartedly, that he is not going to be breaking records every year and that simply being part of it and doing his very best is his only option.

I ask him if he would call his experience this year fun.  “It is a little bit of everything.  Sometimes it is fun and sometimes it is not.”

“I am definitely trying to have fun.  I am trying to enjoy.  But it is not easy.”

“It is still nice.  I am running pretty good.”  One big improvement is that he has lost a persistent cough that had lasted a long time.

“I am happy.”

Continue reading “July 24… Trying To Enjoy”

Volodymyr was a powerful presence for 19 days and then in a flash his race was over.  Or at least his outer one was.  In those few precious days at the 3100 mile race he was able to complete 919 miles.  Most certainly the last few hundred of them were particularly hard fought.  He walked with a kind of personal agony, that you could not see.

Yet each day and each lap he still found a way to smile.

*translation by Lyalya*

I hadn’t seen Volodymyr in 2 weeks and in the time since, he has rested and recovered, or at least enough to be able once again visit the battleground.  The place in which he endured so much and also accomplished something deep and significant as well.

“When I started to have problems, very strong pain.  I was looking for ways to get out of it.  Soon I understood that there was only one way out, and that was to go deep into my heart.”

“When I started to go more and more deep into my own heart, as the pain increased, I was able to go even deeper.  I actually felt happier.  So despite the pain I was feeling happier.”

“This inner state.  This happiness I felt inside is eternal.  The pain was only temporary.”

“When I was able to gain access to this inner happiness it allowed me to be able to fall asleep at night.  I could see Guru.  I could feel Guru.  The pain was pushed into the background. It remains there.”

“Working on this pain that I had here.  I am already preparing myself for next year.  I will see what Guru wants me to do.  The 10 day race in the Spring or this race again.”

“I really strongly believe that the state of my heart, the state of my vital, the state of my mind is good now.  Then of course my body will be able to follow their example.  I am a strong believer in that.”

My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!
I shall never give up,
I shall never give up!
I must continue,
I must continue!
I know my Goal is ahead,
And I am destined to reach my Goal.
My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!

Sri Chinmoy, My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 6, Agni Press, 1999

*Click below to read the rest of the report*

Continue reading “July 23… Deep Into My Heart”

For those interested in simplifying their lives, at least temporarily.  Running for 18 hours a days for 52 days may exemplify a stripped down, superbly focused lifestyle that is hard to beat.

Yes it is brutally hard and unrelenting.  But once you are immersed in this world wholeheartedly the rest of the clutter and superficial enticements that constantly nag us tend to disappear.  Or at least in theory that is the case.

50 year old Vasu Duzhiy who is running the race for the 5th time however is in another league altogether when it comes to his steadfast devotion to the race.

Each of the runners over the years have come here have brought remarkable skills and qualities. But in all honesty I have never met anyone whose life has been so stripped of external distractions and problems quite like Vasu.

As he starts day 34 he has 1000 miles left to go and 19 days in which to do it.

Because he has run so well up till now he only has to run 52 miles a day in order to make it.  But for more than a week his blister has been hobbling him physically.  True to his sweet nature however he remains unrelentingly cheerful.

Moments after we start our little run together he has just memorized the Daily Poem.  One which Sri Chinmoy composed on this day in 2007.  He recites it for me in both English and Russian.

At the moment he is running well but says he had a bad morning (which means he could only walk slowly).  “To be happy helps me so much.  This is our medicine.”

I ask though, when it is hurting so much how can he still be happy.  “I think Guru does it.  I try to be in his consciousness.  I try to pray.  I try to sing.  I try to meditate.  I also speak with other runners.  This also helps because everybody has some problems.  If we speak or joke it helps.”

“I think it is good.  We are one family.”

When asked if he is looking forward to the end.  He smiles and says, “I hope that I can finish.  Do it for Guru’s victory.”

“Everyday I get many letters and it helps me so much.”  Vasu says that one person is sending him a poem about smiling every day.  “It is so nice.”

He feels that since he first started running the race 5 years ago more people are now interested in the 3100.

And a comment that could only come from Vasu.  “I am grateful for my blister because many disciples have shown their kind hearts and inspired me to run.  We are a big family.”

I must never lose
contact with my
Lord’s Compassion-Eye
and His Forgiveness-
Heart. Never.

Continue reading “July 22… We Are One Family”

“I had a really good day yesterday.”

Atmavir did have a good day yesterday, and of course it didn’t hurt that it was also his 38th birthday.

You can see it on the scoreboard and you can see it clearly in his smile and his relaxed and happy attitude today.

The mileage by the way, which is a lot easier to check, was 66 miles for yesterday.   This gives him a 32 day total of 2151 miles.  Which means the remaining distance left in front of him is 1049 miles.  Which is just about the distance from Zlin to the other side of Moscow.

What is another good indicator of his mood is that when he ran by me late in the morning he heard me talking with someone about problems.  He called out, “there are no problems.  Only opportunities.”

“I had a really good time yesterday.  I was able to maintain a good consciousness all day.”

Not too many days ago Atmavir was simply having a tough time.  For 2 days in a row he was getting mileage in the 40’s and could barely run.  “It happened on Saturday and Sunday.  Usually those days are the best on the weekend.”

“It is like a party time.  There are many games going on and there are no kids going to school.”

“Saturday I stopped running.  I had an empty battery.  I didn’t feel as though I was pushing too hard but I just didn’t have a lot of energy.  So I took it easy.  I went home for a few hours.  I really had to recover.  It turned out to be my best day here so far.”

“I slept for an hour.  Then I felt that I should meditate.”  Atmavir says the meditation was such a powerful experience that he felt as though he was being showered by light and was so moved by it that he cried.

When he came back to the race he felt as though it was now a completely new start for him.  “A new life.  Everything was new.”  Atmavir says he was surprised that Sopan independently also felt like he too was having a new start at the same time. “A new journey.”

“It was an experience that both of us had on the same day.”

When asked if there is a particular song that he likes, he says he really likes, ‘All your Grace.”

“I like its inner message because we really depend upon grace here.”

Atmavir says that are times when he is running when he is particularly aware that grace is the power behind it.

“There is a flow.”

All Your Grace, all Your Grace,

All Your Grace, all Your Grace,

My Lord Beloved Supreme!

All Your Grace, all your Grace,

My soul and I are able to join

In your birthless and deathless Race.

-Sri Chinmoy 3100 Mile Race Songs

*Click below to read rest of report*

Continue reading “July 21… We Depend On Grace”

I asked Surasa the question that I suspect many people have been wondering.  How are you?

“If you don’t ask about my legs than I am fine.”

Surasa never stops smiling and for the past week she has more or less not stopped walking.  What is not within her reach right now seems to be the ability to run.

The pain from shinsplints has restricted her mobility but not her poise.  A solution seems painfully elusive as does now the likelihood of breaking her own world record from last year.

“It doesn’t want to leave me.  I have to kick it out.  But I don’t know how to kick it out.”  Yesterday after Mitch the chiropractor adjusted her she had a few sweet precious hours of freedom.

But the pain soon came back as did the frustration of a problem that seem not to have any solution.  Or at least a quick and easy one at this time.

“I think the solution is to pray more.  To be more inside.”

“The character of the race now is totally different.”  Surasa describes that it is actually harder to walk now than it was earlier to run before she had the problem.  She feels that going slower takes even more energy than when she can run freely.

“It takes so much effort just to move forward.”

“I can only say thank you, thank you to all those who are thinking about me.  It is always very very touching when I hear people say, that they pray for me.  It really touches me deeply.”

“Each ultra runner eventually has this same experience.  That an injury comes.  In this race so many are suffering.”

*with Vishvarupani*

“I am so spoiled.  In the last few races I had no problems.  Now I have a new experience.  It is okay.”

“I think it is so important to stay positive.  No matter what happens we always have to accept all the things that come.  It is just part of the race.  So it doesn’t make sense if you complain.   You just loose energy.  It is so important to have positive thoughts.”

My Lord,
Do give my heart the strength
To love You most intensely.
My Lord,
Do give my life the strength
To need You most sincerely.
My Lord,
Do give my legs the strength
To run most speedily.
My Lord,
Do give me the strength
To manifest You here on earth
Most unconditionally.

Sri Chinmoy, My Race-Prayers, part 2, Agni Press, 2006

*Click on Read More to see rest of the report*

Continue reading “July 20… To Be More Inside”

“I am alive and happy.”

Speaking with Yuri this morning he somehow makes what he has just done look deceptively easy.  Late yesterday evening he completed 2000 miles.  For the few who were there to witness it. Some bells were rung and he slowed for just a moment and then quickly kept going.  He still has a long long way to go.

Today it is day 31, which will mean he has spent a full month circling Thomas Edison High school.  His 2009 miles (3,233km) would take him just about to the coast of Portugal from his home in Vinnitsa in Ukraine

“My body is not used to the heat.  That is why I have to put in a lot of effort in order to overcome it.”

Of course it has been hot and humid for the past few days but today is a delightful break for Yuri and all the runners.

As a comparison, the temperature today in Vinnitsa is 68 F (20 C).  Where as the typical temperature here is in the high 80’s F ( near 30C)

“There are many ways to overcome it.  Dr Kumar recommends salt water with lemon.  I also take special pills that protect me from the heat.  I put ice underneath my hat and when that doesn’t help I take ice into my hands.  The most important thing though is your inner state.”

“I begin to pray and this prayer makes me whole.  Then nothing from the outer world can harm me.  It is a very strong method.”

*translation by Lyalya*

“I have already said that the first half of the race is very hard.  But in the second half of the race you open up.  You are very receptive.  I had an experience in the evening just as everything was starting to cool down.  All the confusion and noise was gone.”

“I was very relaxed but at the same time very focused.  In one moment I felt as though I was expanding.  At the same time I became more subtle.  It lasted for what seemed a long time.”

“I felt as though I became the size of the whole universe.  I was in every dot of the universe.  I was everywhere and everything was in me.  At the same time I was very subtle.  I felt as though I was almost invisible.  I was very receptive.  I could still feel everything.”

“This was a very strong inner experience.  I have never had anything like this before.  It comes again and again when you immerse yourself in this state of being.”

“It is an amazing experience.”

Continue reading “July 19… An Amazing Experience”

“This is the quietest area at least at night time.” Ananda-Lahari points his right hand towards a low brick wall where the Enthusiasm Awakeners sing each morning and also were Sri Chinmoy once used to come as well and practice his music.

It is a typical Sunday afternoon at the 3100 mile race and for my ears it is raucous and loud and almost unbearable.  Just making one loop on a hot Sunday afternoon and you are constantly bombarded by hordes of people and volumes of sound.

“There is always noise on Sunday.”

Across the street as he tells me this a soccer football match is going on.  Car radios blare and then down by the baseball field an intense game is going on.

As we pass home plate the batter hits an enormous fly ball deep into center field.  Ananda-Lahari no longer notices, and many years ago ceased to care about all the distractions.

Distractions that come out of the usual turmoil of life, rolling and tumbling around him, and even for that matter, the existence of the other runners.  Who make little sound even at the best of times.  Who on this day at least gently shuffle past him.  Ananada-Lahari has been walking non stop now for the past 10 hours.

“I try to stay focused.  Not to look left and not to look right.  But still sometimes I look.”

“I am not there yet but every year it is getting better and better.”

“If you go through a difficult period in your life and you go through it step by step.  It is much easier.”  Ananda-Lahari then describes that if he was focused on time it would just frustrate him.

“It is a very very precious experience for me the whole race.  Even if I am not doing well outwardly but still I make the effort.  Stay focused and I am doing my best.”

When I ask him how many breaks he takes a day.  He says that this morning he decided that he would not take any breaks all day.

“I felt today that I could just go for it.  I want it to be my offering to this race.  Everybody is trying their best.  It doesn’t matter what speed.”

“What is the goal of life.  We are here so many years.  We have so many experiences.  We are inspired by so many things.  Some times we do better and some times we do worse.  Life is not (snaps his fingers.)  It is long long long.”

“The journey itself is the goal on one hand.  The goal here of course is to run 3100 miles, and all the runners are striving for it.  Everybody is trying their best to achieve it.”

Then Ananda-Lahari tells me a story that took place when Sri Chinmoy once came to visit the race in 2007.  “We were running from the other direction.  Every day we were getting prasad from Sri Chinmoy.  And exactly on that spot (points to the curb a few feet away.)

“He handed me an ice cream out of the passenger window of the car he was riding in.  He also was eating an ice cream and then he said, Oy, you need an extra blessing, and he handed me his ice cream.”

“It happened on a day when I was starting to crash down.  I was running 70 miles a day in 2007.  I was getting more and more tired doing it.  So I felt he was trying to inspire me.  So I got a very nice experience.”

Continue reading “July 18… Step By Step”