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All the runners had gone home last night, except for one.  There were just a few minutes left before the curtain of midnight would descend over the course and even if you ran an extra lap it wouldn’t count.  I know he has done something like this before. but suddenly, much to the astonishment of the handful of helpers who were still there, Pranjal decided to get one more lap in before the cut off came.

Picture if you will the very stark reality that he had already run 68 miles, and over 5 days is already close to 10 miles ahead of last year.  He was attempting to run a lap quicker than he had certainly done all day and perhaps faster than any he had run from his very first day of the race.  Sahishnu was one of the few who was still there and told me this story this morning.  I, like most normally exhausted people was probably  already beneath the covers and dreaming about just trying to make it to the race before Pranjal would again arrive here at 5:45 the next morning.

According to Sahishnu there was a little more than 6 minutes left.  Normally a lap takes Pranjal 8 to 9 minutes to complete.  There are no pictures of this of course and in the great scheme of things it is just one of those amazing moments that happens every day here in some way great and small to each and every runner.

The point here though is that Pranjal sprinted a lap in 5:30, squeezing it just in before it would no longer count.  Then with out fanfare he hopped on his bike and went home.  In the end for him it was just one more lap out of the 5649 he will need to do here to complete the race.

When you attempt to take a broad perspective of the Self Transcendence race, you cannot help but notice that everything is inexorably always moving forward.  Nothing can ever remain static, everything is constantly moving and if obstacles thrust themselves up in front of you than they have to be pushed aside.  If anything at all remains constant it is the runners undying faith that they have a divine inner purpose to be here and do their very best.  The capacity they all have, they themselves just have to come up with the willingness and the shoe leather.   Then every so often they do something impossible and make us all wonder just what we can accomplish as well.

Continue reading “June 17: Miracles and Monuments”

Yesterday Pranjal passed a significant personal milestone that tells an awful lot about this incredible Slovakian runner and just why he has been so successful here at the 3100 mile race.  Yesterday it turns out was the 3rd anniversary of when he first started his, never miss a day, running streak.

After completing the Self Transcendence race here in 2009 he hit upon the inspiration that if he simply kept running, at least 2 miles a day, he was almost certain to get better, and he was right.  His strategy, which is a simple one, is one of  the keys as to why he has improved so much. In fact from the very first year he ran here, which was 2005, he has transcended himself each year.  Now, after 4 days of running he is 4 miles ahead of last years pace.  This of course is a razor thin margin but if he manages to keep it up, it will mean he will once again improve his time, in this his 7th year in a row of running the 3100 mile race.

Some of the veteran runners here, but not all, take lengthy breaks once they have completed the race.  Who could blame them.  There will be weeks if not months ahead of painful recovery.  From the very first time he ran here Pranjal felt that this was going to be his life., and as long as he was able to run, he wanted to immerse himself in this, the pinnacle arena of spiritual transformation.

Every one of us believes that there is at least one thing in our lives that we may be better than average at doing.  Very few of us however can even begin to imagine the training that any of the athletes here, particularly Pranjal, puts in, in order to not just make a decent effort, but to wholeheartedly say they gave their all.  More importantly he is not for a moment thinking of beating any one else.  He simply wants to be able to simply say that he gave all that he had to give.  Expect no reward in this either, other than the certain knowledge that this was his very best as a runner and as a seeker athlete.

Pranjal is a relentless trainer and a relentless seeker of his own perfection.  If it means coming early and staying late he does it.  If it means taking shorter and shorter breaks and being as efficient as it is possible to be, he will do it.  If it means that the key to getting more miles each day is to run just a little faster each lap, he does it.  If there is time to squeeze one more lap before the clock strikes midnight, he will do it.  Is he tired, is he sore, is his body suffering, absolutely.  The thing is of course is that he is not listening to his body, or his mind, or the pain, or the fatigue.  He listens only to his heart, which is giving him the best possible guidance and which is never wrong.  O to be like Pranjal.

Continue reading “June 16: Do My Best Every Day”

When one decides to run the 3100 mile race it quickly becomes apparent that from the moment you take your very first step here that suddenly you are entering a very public arena.  You may have trained for months alone on soft mountain trails and felt the sweet stillness of nature comforting you with its beauty.  Perhaps you ran care free without any problem intruding into your life and felt contentment and peace in abundant measure.  This world is available here as well on the concrete loop here in Queens but it is an aspect of the race that does not come to all and never to all, all the time.

Here you are visible at nearly all times.   There is practically not a moment of any kind of  privacy for 18 hours each and every day.  If your race is going well and you have settled into a comfortable zone than it can be heaven on earth.  Sometimes however the runners experience and learn the most here when they are confronted by real monumental struggle and with extreme adversity.  A battle must be waged to win each and ever lap. In the end perhaps the greatest adversary a runner must deal with is not gathering up all the miles but simply confronting a part of their being that resists being transformed.

The foes within can be identified by many names.  Whether it be unwillingness or lethargy, or even a deep stubbornness that resists all sweet enticements to surrender and instead must be pushed ever forward, lap by lap, into eventual submission. Self transcendence is ultimately more about what we become within and not what we accomplish on the outside.

Atmavir is for me an extraordinary gifted athlete and he is incredibly dedicated to this event.  Last year however was a monumental struggle for him practically from day one until he finished the race 49 days latter.  It was the 4th time he had run the race and prior to last year he had gotten faster each and every time he ran.  Last year of course was extremely hot and he rarely looked comfortable and yet he never gave up.

He said at the time, ”

“I was wondering why I was suffering so much this year, while some people were really quite smooth.  On those really hot days.  My feeling is that everybody has a different role in this race, and we have to accept these roles.”  He explains that it is also in the task of cheerfully accepting the different results, no matter whether it is success or failure, that is perhaps one of the key accomplishments for those who run here.  That you must work extremely hard to do your best and than as well be grateful for whatever the outcome might be.

“Definitely I am quite happy that it will be over.  It was my toughest year here.  It was my hardest race ever.  On the other hand the inner progress that we are doing here.  If you are putting yourself through more pressure maybe something deeper will appear.”

Continue reading “June 15: Something Deeper Will Appear”

Whenever we attempt to fully describe others we quickly begin to realize that each and every person is multifaceted.  That no one label can ever begin to adequately describe someone.  We are all composed of so many different qualities and capacities.  Most of us perhaps would like to picture ourselves in the, ‘jack of all trades, master of none category.’

Perhaps as time goes on we develop new skills and expand our horizons in many different realms such as sport, creativity, and other practical endeavors.  Rarely, very rarely do people come along with whom you cannot help but describe them as being a master of something.

There is at least one runner here whose capacity and talent, combined with their perseverance means that they really and truly are a RUNNER.  Surasa Mairer, a 52 year old athlete from Vienna is without question  one of the world’s greatest woman ultra distance runners.

Last year at age 51 she attempted the Self Transcendence 3100 mile race for the first time and was only able to complete 2760 miles of it.  Very early in the race nagging injuries held her back and yet she continued to run on cheerfully and devotedly until the very last minute that it was possible for her still to run.  She told me then that she was happy with her effort and glad that she could fulfill a long held goal to run here in this the longest race in the world.  Her resume as ultra distance runner is astonishing, and with all her previous achievements in ultra races no one would have been at all surprised if she had simply decided not to come back and tackle her Everest once again.  Yet she did.

So much about the Self Transcendence race is undefinable and this applies particularly to the runners themselves.  How can we begin to grasp why and how they do this thing and even more, come back and do it again and again.

Vishvarutpani is one of those helping Surasa and when she begins to describe her friend she simply glows with appreciation and respect.  Of her friend she says, “she is very amazing.  So cheerful and very in the moment.” Then she added the word, “surrendered.”  It is a perfect description.

When you see her arrive here each and every morning, looking so bright and full of energy and promise you just know that this is her world.  To be someone who simply has the unique capacity to run all day long.  And all the time propelled by such a positive attitude that any negativity simply does not touch her world.  To the point, she is simply an amazing woman athlete who is defying age with every step.

She has incredible strength and endurance and when this is combined with such a determined and positive attitude she is nearly unstoppable, and yet there is more.  It is in her running that she becomes aware of her spiritual potential.  It is on this course in a race created by her late spiritual master, Sri Chinmoy, that her inner and outer world draw so perfectly together.  For her to run here is to go beyond, to self transcend, and find herself drawing ever closer to her own perfect perfection.

Continue reading “June 14: I Have To Run”

In many ways each time a runner participates in the 3100 mile race it is like they are starting a new life.  Even the most talented runner however really has no idea what this lifetime here will reveal to them.  One can hope for days filled with joy and satisfaction but like most lives this is not always the case.  Lessons are learned both small and grand, sweet and painful.  Experience are gathered here that are either celebrated or endured and everything in between.  Ones that can never be gained on any of life’s other potential paths.

True, all you have to do here is run, but the obstacles one meets here along the way cannot ever be side stepped or avoided.  Pain and fatigue will be relentless opponents and one must never let down their guard for even a moment.

Stutisheel Leebedyev is perhaps the perfect example of someone who takes running the 3100 with the utmost respect and appreciation.  He credits his running here with most of what he has learned about spirituality and his own inner life.  For his family as well, the Self Transcendence race has created a world in which they too can join in and share this unique experience.

This year he and his daughter Alakananda are here again for the 8th year in a row.  Just 2 years ago in 2009 he set a personal best of 48 days and 12 hours (averaging 63.8 miles a day).  Last year the iron man from the Ukraine experienced something most of us never thought was even possible.  He sustained a knee injury and was forced to retire at 1386 miles.

But like the true champion he is he has returned here once again seemingly unfazed and undaunted by an obstacle that his body simply could not overcome.  Yet in the miracle, which is the 3100 mile race, one can not help but believe he learned  and achieved something grand and worthy nonetheless.  His body wounded but not the spirit within.

Now he starts again his beloved race which is so important to him and his family.  In the months that have gone by since he may have heard the calls of fear and doubt but he has not brought them here this day.  For this year is a new life and he is listening only to his own Self Transcendence goal which calls him onward and onward, forever onward.

Continue reading “June 13: A New Life”