Category: 3100 Mile Race 2017

Sergey has been one of the bright surprises of this years 3100 mile race.  He has not had a lot of experience in multi day running only having competed in 4 multi day races in the past 5 years.  His personal best of 627 miles in the 2016 10 day race hinted at the potential but over the past 15 days his performance here has blossomed.

*Translation by Lyalya*

5 days ago he comfortably ran past that mark of 627 miles and as of this morning, as he starts day 16 he has 911 miles completed.  Every new step taking him further and further into personal self transcendence.  When we met this morning I joked with him.  I asked if he had at last got the hang of the race yet or did he need a few more weeks.   “A lot has happened but it has not become any easier.”

“Every day new surprises and new experiences, and new tests.  Because of that the race is becoming more and more interesting to me.  You don’t know what to expect.  Always newness.  It forces you to be in good condition, good spirit, and good form.”

“Every day you have to solve new problems, on a physical level, on a mental level, and on a psychic level. But it is good that this race has with it many experienced runners.  Who have already overcome this arduous challenge, and they are giving me lots of support.”

“They very gladly and easily share their experience and help me in my hardest moments.  Their presence here touches and inspires me.”

“Even though I only have 4 hours of sleep.  It is so amazing how fast my body adjusts itself and I find new strength to get up and run again.”

When asked if Sergey has any special places on the course he laughs.  By coincidence we are coming up to the children’s playground at one end of the course.  He says he appreciates it most in the evening when the heat of the day is over, “it becomes a real happening place over there.”

“Kids have so much endless, tireless energy.  Me on the other hand by that time of day I already have no energy.  When I pass by and see the kids running around the fountain and playing on the slides.  I just soak in their energy.”

Sergey tells me that the most telling experiences he has had thus far have been mostly inner and connected to the mental work he has to do here.  “Especially during the day, sometimes I have very very tough moments.  When my physical strength just abandons me.  On one hand I may even have just gotten some rest and I have come out on the course and am ready to go again.  But I can’t even make one step forward.”

“I just don’t even know what to do next.  I don’t have any strength at all.  Then I just start crying.  God please give me some strength.  (he is laughing as he shares this)

Continue reading “Day 16…Always Newness (July 3)”

So many marvels, both grand and small take place at the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race that you could never record them all.  Sometimes it is hard enough to just record the important things, like the laps of course.  Throughout each runners day things happen, that will not only lift them up but in many ways touch and inspire many others.

Vasu, who is running for his 6th time is so incredibly exceptional in his unfettered devotion to the race that I often feel inadequate when I speak with him.  He is devoid of any artifice or superficiality.  When he says that running here is like being in Paradise I can only aspire to be able to see the race so purely as he does.  For in his unswerving clarity of vision is something I feel lacking and I suspect that the rest of us could all wish we had even just a little more of, such tireless dedication to the divine within.

This morning he tells me a little story about seeing a small boy getting his shoelace wrapped up in his bicycle and thus forcing him to fall over.  Without hesitation he checked on the child, released the lace, and got him on his way.  Only latter on the far side of the course was Vasu approached by the boys Father, who promptly thanked him.

Who knows how much that brief act of kindness ate into his mileage for the day.  It did not matter to Vasu.  Nor does it matter when he stoops down on many laps to pick up bits of trash.  His only wish is to make the course as clean and pure as possible.  For of course there is no trash in Paradise.

When asked if every morning is a good morning, he says, “Yes of course. Yes every morning is a good morning because we are here.  This is paradise for us, this is grace for us.  This is a privilege to be here.”

Vasu says that of course self transcendence is doing better miles if possible.  “If we cannot do more miles we try and do self transcendence maybe inwardly.  We try to pray more.  To meditate more.  To be more happy.  To invoke the consciousness of the Supreme.”

There was a period in late winter after the severe injury to his back that Vasu was doubtful that he would be able to come this year.  “Once I ran and after I did it, I couldn’t run for 5 days or more.  He had no idea, if it was just wishful thinking to come and run the race this year, or maybe it would be somehow possible.

Vasu says that he inwardly asked his late teacher Sri Chinmoy if it would be possible to run.  He then had a dream in which he saw a small child.  He tried to play with the little boy, “but he was a little bit heavy, and my mother told me it was my back.  I put the child back on the ground.”

“The child was so nice so beautiful that I still wanted to play with him.  I understood then that I needed to increase the capacity of my back, in order to play with this child.  Because this child is a 3100 mile race child.”

“Now each day I try and play with him, to run with him.  I imagine that we are both the same age.  We play together and I am happy.”

Continue reading “Day 15…This Is Paradise (July 2)”

I met Harita this morning at the corner of 168th st. as she came up the service road towards me.  I often run along this route during the year and am hardly aware at all that it is anything more than a slight incline.  But to Harita, who has now circled this same corner 1270 times now in the past 13 days it is a hill.

When you lay on the sidewalk, as I have done taking pictures, you can see it unmistakably.  It helps me to get a better understanding,  that all the little details of the course get observed by the runners in ways that we can never fully grasp or understand.

For the last 2 days now Harita has been running 111 laps each day which is just about 61 miles.  “I kind of realized the first few days of the race that if I want to do the necessary miles each day that I would have to stay really focused.”

“I don’t always stay really focused in my regular life.  It is a really good practice for me and a really good opportunity for me.  I can but I often get distracted.  I love people, I love talking to people.  I am interested in a lot of things.”

I saw her early speaking on the phone.  “That was actually one of the first times I spoke with people on the phone.  I haven’t really used my phone much.  I felt, especially for the first couple of weeks that it was really important to practice focusing.”

“I feel that is more like trying to be one with God’s will.  Everything is a flow, and if you can silence your mind, and connect with the higher part of yourself.  For me it is more about not being distracted by other things.  Keep my mind as calm as possible.  Keep myself very present in the moment.  To really have faith, that if I do that then everything will flow from within.”

“I guess trying to focus inwardly which is challenging outwardly as well. Trying not to get too strict, or serious, or regimented. Do what I need to do and have faith that everything will flow.”

Sometime in the past week Harita had accumulated more miles in competition than she had ever run before.  “It was a big deal.  It gave me a lot of joy and encouragement.  Because I still felt strong.”

“I guess at the end of the last 10 day race, I was really at the end.”  She ran 540 miles.  At the start of day 14 she has 789 miles.  After 10 days here she had 606 miles.

“Because of the fact that I still felt strong.  This race is all about transcending yourself and going beyond what you conceive of as possible.  When you can go beyond what you have ever done before then that gives you joy.”

Continue reading “Day 14…Higher Part of Yourself (July 1 )”

2 years ago Nirbhasa ran the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race for the first time.  After 11 days of running he had accumulated 710 miles.  Last year was a break year and once again he is running the longest race in the world.  This time after 11 days he has 725 miles, which in the peculiar trajectory of race statistics, would indicate a very good improvement.

When I ask Nirbhasa if he feels it is going well he says, “I am taking it one day at a time.  I don’t think about the accumulative amount of laps.  But I do remember at this stage of the race last time I started going down hill pretty quickly.”

He doesn’t know exactly what happened back then.  The files show that he started going well under 60 mile per day up until about the half way point on Day 26.  “My body just wasn’t used to it.  It started around day 11 or 12.  Before that all I had done was a 10 day race.  So that could have a lot to do with it.”

“Maybe now I am just doing better at management with things like sleep.  I am really trying now to look after myself.  To be in bed as soon as possible after this finishes.”

Nirbhasa says he learned a lot from his race experience here in 2015.  “But there is still a lot more to discover.  You come back with new goals.  Things that you could have done better outwardly.  Things that you could have done better inwardly to remain in a better frame of mind to actually enjoy the race as an experience.”

“There is no point in being out here for the better part of 2 months if you are not committed to experiencing and enjoying the race fully.  Rather than thinking, O God, and just ounting down the days until you have to go.”

I suggest to Nirbhasa that he went into the last race with a high degree of confidence.  “Confidence is a strong word.  You can cut it two ways.  You definitely have to some kind of idea that you can finish the race, and do well.  Have some goals and try and meet them every day.  At the same time you have to be very humble at this race.  Because the distance is just too long to push or pull.  Anything can happen.  You can get injured.  You might have to go slowly for a while.”

“I guess inwardly part of the goal is to be as happy and cheerful as possible no matter what happens.”

“One of the real opportunities of this race is that you really get to take time off and dedicate it towards your inner search in a way that I try to do in my regular life.  I am very lucky in that most of things that I do in my outer life are connected to my inner search in one way or another.  But still it is normally difficult to get together all those spiritual disciplines that you really like to do.”

“So it is a real opportunity here to really challenge the mind to go beyond the mind and go into the heart.  Because if you can’t do it here where can you do it.”

Continue reading “Day 12…Inner Search (June 29)”

“It’s really nice weather so far.”  Kaneenika is wearing a vest this morning. It was a cool clear night.  Now there is a light breeze, the sky is bright, the air is clear it is an almost perfect day to be running for 18 hours around this sacred half mile block in Queens New York.

“We have had some rain and it has been mostly quite cool.  Sometimes the weather affects me.  If it is too hot and humid then definitively.”  We all of course know that the scourge of oppressive summer heat will be coming soon enough.

This is Kaneenika’s 3rd year in a row of running here and I was curious how she makes up her mind about doing it.  “Until I think, the beginning of February, I was almost 100 percent sure that I wasn’t going to do the race.  Then, I don’t know what happened.  It just happened that I got a really strong feeling that yes, I want to do the race.”

“I think it is my soul that compels me to do it.  Otherwise I can’t explain it.  Because I was really ready to skip this year.  I was more than ready and willing not to do it.”

I suggest that when she was so successful being able to complete the distance last year that she had more confidence and knowledge of how to do the race this time.  “That is why we are here.  To make it always better.  To go deeper.  To handle situations better.”

When asked about the fact that there are 4 girls this year.  “I think it is quite exciting.  Even before the race when I knew there were going to be 4 girls.  I was really looking forward to it.  It is a big difference.”

“There are more opportunities to share and to inspire each other. I am sure there are  moments when we pull each other, consciously or unconsciously. Maybe there will be times when I am tired and I see that other people are running, or doing there best then it definitely helps me.  To pull myself together, and go forward again.”

“Of course there are things you can do to help your body.  To heal and adapt to a situation.  But then as well you need to work on you inner level.  To overcome the situation.  To become stronger and sometimes it is not that easy but there is always meditation and all the things that Sri Chinmoy has taught us over the years, to help in situations like this.”

When I ask her if she feels the guidance and presence of Sri Chinmoy, “O yes.  Very strongly.  Sometimes it just happens and then sometimes I have to remind myself.  He is here and he is doing it.  It is not me but it is him.”

Continue reading “Day 11…Always Better (June 28)”

He is a sweet enigma.  Ananda-Lahari, in this his 13 straight appearance at the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race has spent more time, covered more distance, and smiled more soulfully than any of the other runners he now shares the course with.

When we think of races we usually think of placing, of crossing of finishing line, and the hopes for some, of being able to declare victory.  Ananda-Lahari, though he is built of all the same moving parts as the rest of humanity is simply designed and constructed within to view this race in a much different way.  Certainly some part of him wants always to complete the distance.  Something that has eluded him 7 of 12 times he has come.  Instead he is drawn to do this impossible act in a way that appears to be detached from the obvious results.

He runs as fast he can go, he rarely takes breaks, and stays on the course as late as any of the other runners.  In his absolute devotion to what he does, in his pure and uncomplicated dedication he is satisfied.  Because I believe he sees his spiritual journey as one that is not bound by the sidewalks he circles tirelessly each day.  But instead by the unseen progress he is making within towards a higher goal.  One that has no trophy, no finish line, only his own perfect perfection.

When I ask if he thinks of the loops around the course as repetitive, he says, “It doesn’t look like you are repeating the same thing.  It is like a journey.”  He also feels that the days for him feel longer when he is not running the race.

“I feel every part of the course has some beauty.  It may look very ordinary.  Like just a typical sidewalk and street, and highway, but it is actually very nice here.”  Ananda-Lahari also says he doesn’t miss the course when he is not here.  “Everything has its own time and place.  When I am here I am happy and when I am some place else, I am also happy.”

Only Ashprihanal has run the race more times.  He completed the race 14 times.  “I stayed out until the end but I did not complete the distance.” I point out that regardless he has been here a long time and covered an amazing amount of distance nonetheless.  “I don’t see it like that.  Somehow every year it is like a new experience.  It is a new race and the past is dust.  I don’t think, O I have done it so many times.”

“Every moment is special and every day is like going through many lifetimes.  It is not 52 days, it is like 50 years or more.  I don’t know.”

“Now it is still quiet.  It is just the start of the race.  But after 20 or 30 days it then becomes like immortality.  It is a really long long race.”

Ananda-Lahari says he thinks about his late Spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy a lot.  “He is my inspiration definitely.  I sometimes imagine the places where I saw him many times over the years around the course.”

“I am trying consciously to meditate or to pray or to chant as much as possible.  Which is almost all the time.  I am very grateful that I have the concentration for that and the eagerness, or enthusiasm.  I am really happy that I am here.”

Continue reading “Day 10…The Longest Journey (June 27)”

Nidhruvi is celebrating her birthday at the 3100 mile race today.  It is not a new thing for her to run for 18 hours around a New York city block on this very special day.  She did after all run the race twice before, in both 2013 and 2104.

I am not quite sure now if the course was generou enough to smile beneficently upon her efforts back then. Today at least the sun is shining, the air is dry, and the day ahead looks to be as perfect as it ever gets here deep in the final grinding days of June.

This morning I interviewed her, and though the weather was being nice to her this day I was not so.  I started of with a tough question.  I was curious what she would like for a birthday present?  Both from the Supreme, the world, and from herself.  Her response, not unexpected, “that is too early to ask.”

Nidhruvi not unfamiliar to tough challenges then replied, “Surrender.  Just to be able to surrender no matter what.  And through this surrender then to be the most perfect instrument for the Supreme and for Guru.”

I was curious to know why surrender is so difficult for all of us.  “I guess there are many reasons.  We are still so very much human.  We live in our own little worlds.  There are so many things that we don’t know and we have to learn.  I think it is learning by doing.  Step by step you learn more.  Also we have to find out what surrender really is.”

“This is my 3rd race.”  I ask her if there is always something to be learned by coming back.  She laughs, this is a never ending story.  “This is transformation for yourself and transformation for the world.  You feel everything, because you are just in it.  All is one.”

“Sometimes you quite often feel this heavy weight.  But then again on the other side you also feel this beauty and joy in this world.”

Nidhruvi tells me that she was very excited about coming back to the race after a 3 year absence.  “Till about one month before. But then, like 2 weeks before, I was still looking for helpers and then I got totally sick before the race.  So many challenges.”

“I was always thinking to myself.  Stay calm, stay quiet, and just have faith in Guru.  If you are supposed to be here then I will be here.”  Ultimately she decided that there was nothing to be gained by worrying and that the Supreme would have to be responsible for getting everything organized and readied.

She also says that up until the night before the race she had a persistent bad cough.  “On the last night before the start I was literally crying inwardly and outwardly.  What should I do?  I am weak and I am coughing like crazy.  There was so much fear.  How am I going to run for 52 days in this condition?”

“Then I went to the meditation the night before and something must have happened.  It was so calm and peaceful and light.”  But then again later while in bed she felt a wave of fear come over her.  “But then I said okay, it doesn’t matter.  I am here.  Everything is organized.  I am going to the start.”

Still coughing at the point when she got to the starting line the coughing completely disappeared.

“Everybody goes through ups and downs.  You have your goals.  It such a hard tough race, with such a high standard.  I have done it before.  I know how hard it is.  My big goal is just to surrender, always do my best, and not be attached to the outcome.  Just be happy, whatever it is.  Surrender means that the Supreme is running in and through me.  He is running, not me.  Once you realize that then it makes it easier.”

“Because then you just and try and be the instrument.  Okay, take my body, my soul, my heart, and whatever you need take it.  I will try and to be of your service as best I can.”

Continue reading “Day 9…Never Ending Story (June 26)”

Andrey Andreev has been a regular at the annual 10 Day race in Flushing Meadow.  For 10 straight years he has participated and his performances culminated last year in 2016 when he set his personal best of 629 miles.  The kind of miles that clearly demonstrated that he had the capacity to take the large step up to the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race.

So far he has put in 7 days and is getting ever closer to going longer and further than he has ever run before.  He likes to keep the mood light and is quick to find humor and make a joke.  This morning when we talked he told me his race was amazing so far.  Particularly after yesterday.  When questioned further he says, “I got some sleep.” (laugh)

Andrey says that in the 10 Day race there are more options to take breaks and sleep.  But during this race the allowance for rest is very very tight.  Too much time off your feet and the goal of 3100 miles will disappear.  Andrey has 388 miles so far 7 days.  He ran 46 miles yesterday.

Asked what has surprised him about the race so far, “I was surprised by the seriousness.  But now it has just become normal.  I can’t even tell what the seriousness is all about.”  Lyalya who is helping with translation interjects, “he is a philosopher.”

“Yesterday I got a feeling that I can overcome this distance in a happy way.  This particular way I am very interested in.  I hope that I can always remain happy during the race.”

I ask him, of such qualities as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, what is his view on how they should work for him.  “They are all important.  But of course the most important is spiritual.  Because we have to be able to become more spiritual.”

“This spiritual aspect I am trying to get to know better.  I hope that it comes to the fore.  Because there is no other way here.  You learn new things, and discover new things, and I try and live by all those new spiritual discoveries.”

“Every time you have a new spiritual discovery, or illumination, or awakening.  This is something that we have always wanted.  This is something that we have always needed it.”

Continue reading “Day 8…The Happy Way (June 25)”

Off and on over the past week at the 3100 mile race Ray Krolewicz has been a significant presence.  He has helped fix cars, fix feet and more importantly the lump of grey matter sitting in a lot of peoples heads.  He has inspired and guided, not just those on the course but any all who so easily got swept up in his loving personality and sometimes boundless energy.

He is one of the very few who was personally invited by Sri Chinmoy 10 years ago to come and run the race.  But was advised at the time that the moment for such an undertaking had yet to come.  In 2014 at age 59 Ray decided that it was the right time, and though he may have been disappointed at not completing the 3100 miles he settled for a not too insignificant 2014 miles instead.

Today he is appropriately wearing a t shirt which says, “Go Beyond.” Before he left the course I talked with him.  I first wanted to know what drew him here so much over the past week.

“Seeking motivation for life in general, running, and this event specifically.”

What he came away from his race here in 2014 he says, “sore feet, sore legs, a lot of friendship, and a lot of understanding of things  much bigger than me.” Foremost he says though he says, “things aren’t as easy as they look.”

“I would like to finish this race some time and not just be here.  I can be here and help and give encouragement and everything but I would like to come here and actually complete this event.”

“I was at the 2007 6 day race in Flushing Meadow and I had a conversation with Guru which I frequently did since I first met him in 1983.  And I talked about this event, and that I hadn’t gotten to run it because of teaching and working summers.  Which took a large block of time.  He told me that I should come and run it.  I said this year?  And he said no, not this year.  You will know when the time is right.”

In that race he says, “I gave it my best shot.  I don’t regret that but maybe that wasn’t the right time? Maybe the right time will actually happen later.”

“I think all events combine the inner and the outer.  There is an intensity to every event.  This race you  have to very carefully stretch it out and spread it so that you don’t burn out.  But if you were only running a 5 km race, and really seeking to excel and do the best that you can do.  You have to look for both the inner and the outer to succeed and do the best you can do.”

“I want to continue running and maybe improve my running.  I know I can never be again the runner I was in the 1980’s, but I think I can be a lot better than I have so far in the teens.  I would like to find that place where I am running as well as I can run with my age.  And not just be out there merely participating.  But actually trying to do performances.”

“Even when I was gone for a few days I checked the site.  I am jealous of the runners.  I am envious of the fact that they are here and continuing on and I am coming in bits and pieces but being here has in fact been motivational and inspirational to watch them and help me achieve whatever I can achieve going forward.”

Ray feels the race is a great teacher.  It helps you learn to be able to accept whatever is happening.  “Good days bad days.  We have watched different runners every year, this year in particular have good and bad days and recover and then come back.  It teaches patience.”

“It is one of the things that Sri Chinmoy tried to teach all of us.  Be patient.  Know when the time is right, not just for this event.  But for everything, and work towards the larger goals in life.”

Continue reading “Day 7… Seeking Motivation (June 24)”