6 & 10 Day Race 2017 – Page 2 – Perfection Journey

April 18 ….Day 2 (When You Give Joy To Others)

The first 24 hours have passed in the 10 day race

The camp

Before the first 24 hours Budjargal got 100 miles

He is running very well and is leading the 10 day field.

Bubbles

“I promised you that I would come back after 10 years.” Last year Pedja Knezevic ran the 10 race after an absence of 10 years. (69 miles for 24 hours)

“I changed my mind because I realized it was a very important race. When I saw my people when I came home I saw how happy they were so therefore I decided to run again.”

*Please Click on Read More Button Below to see the rest of the Post*

Continue reading “April 18 ….Day 2 (When You Give Joy To Others)”

April 17….Start of 10 Day (Start of Something New)

The Self-Transcendence 10 race started today in Flushing Meadow

“The races are always great. The runners push themselves beyond the brink of sanity but they discover new potential or they discover something new inside themselves.” I spoke with Sahishnu before the start as he was giving out race kits.

“It gives them an assurance…. a joy. A feeling that yes there is meaning in this life. There is a quality that they are starting to manifest. It could be poise, it could be peace. It could be joy or it even could be sore feet. Who knows?”

“The thing is we put on these races as Sri Chinmoy instructed us, as a service to the running community. But there is something special that Sri Chinmoy offers through these races. It is a feeling of heart’s oneness, not just with the runners but with humanity in general. It is imbibed into these races wherever the marathon team puts them on around the world.”

He described the intensity of the runner’s efforts is not strange when you look more deeply. “It is a real spectacle of human development and determination.”

“The runners change from when they start the race and when they finish. They may be extremely tired but as well there is a certain vibration that they gather from doing these kind of races and it stays with them. For months and even years.”

Budjargal gets a massage before he starts

Some last minute tidying up

Maria peeling potatoes

There are lots of potatoes to peel

Happy cooks

* Please Click on the Read More Button Below to See rest of this Report*

Continue reading “April 17….Start of 10 Day (Start of Something New)”

April 16….I Feel Ready For It

Now it is just 24 hours before the 10 day race starts on Monday.

The score board eagerly awaits the first numbers to be attached.

Runners are busily arriving setting up their tents.

The dormitories are mostly empty

Lots of work still being done

Jesper Olsen has returned after 5 years

“In 2012 I reached North America.” At the time Jesper was doing an around the world run and stopped along the way to compete in the 6 day race. “I was tired because I had been running non stop for 3 years. It went as expected when you are tired.”

“It is like starting a car and you have forgotten to put fuel in the engine. You do 100km a day and that is all.”

Jesper will be running the 10 day and says this time he has no distractions. He says that it is important to be ready. Physically, Philosophhically and spiritually. He says 5 years ago that he was not physically ready to compete. Philosophically he says he was ready. “I was still curious and hungry for more distance…..and for victory.”

He says this time he is very ready spiritually. “Being physically ready is a completely different thing.”

“You know I am getting older and it is supposed to be an advantage in these multi day races but you never know. My body is getting tired and my spirit is getting young. They are going in opposite directions. I am getting more and more curious as well as getting more and more tired. My goal is to find the equilibrium so that I can still run and I am very curious if I can push the body more.”

Yuyudhan has many tools

The empty path

Rajpal

Richard and Kim

Kim doing some decorating

Taking a break

more break

Big break

Race director Rupantar

Bahula and medical

Uddipan

Cones

Putting up the banner

Arun

Its up

These long distance races remind me of our Eternity’s race. Along Eternity’s Shore we are running, running, running. We are running and running with our birthless and deathless hopes. We are running and running with the ever-transcending Beyond.

Set Up For 6 and 10 Day Race……April 14

3 Days to go

From the air

Just one tent

Bipin

Traffic on the LIE

Remarks after 1991 700 – 1,000 – 1,300 Mile Race

I am a student of peace, and I feel this is one of the ways to offer peace to the world at large. I am a man of prayer and meditation, and from my prayer and meditation, I got this inspiration to be of service to mankind. I feel that while running we are able to offer our very best to establish a world of peace.

Athletes derive tremendous benefits from these races. They go beyond their capacities. In order to make oneself happy, one has to go always beyond and beyond and beyond one’s capacities. So here, while running, each runner is getting a very special opportunity to go beyond his or her capacities. Self-transcendence is the only thing a human being needs in order to be truly happy. So these races help the runners tremendously, although outwardly they go through such hardship. Eventually, when the race is over, they feel they have accomplished something most significant.

The future of this kind of race is very bright. Our philosophy is the philosophy of self-transcendence. I do hope either in the near future or in the distant future we shall increase the distance. Eventually, it is my fervent hope that we shall one day have a 2,700-mile race. Since we believe in self-transcendence, I am sure that we are not going to stop at one thousand three hundred miles. We shall try to cover a longer distance. The seeker-runners who believe in their capacity — which is totally the Grace of God — with this Grace of God will be able to accomplish something unique in their lives.

PRT 5. 4 October 1991, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, New York↩