Perfection Journey

Each and every day the 14 runners at the 3100 mile race collectively accumulate on average  830 miles.  As of midnight last night, the end of day 23, when Pranjal was the last one to leave the course, the lights went out, and he pedaled home, they had run 19,105 miles.

Lots of things both big and small have to be perfectly in place, for this all to happen. Laps have to be counted, clothes have to be cleaned, and bodies have to be patched up, and coaxed and prodded to keep going.  All the little details and all the bits and pieces of an event like this are crucial.  Very little is left to chance.

But certainly the most important thing the runners need besides strength, determination, and a cheerful spirit, is food.

Lots of food.  Nutritious, digestible, energizing, and packing enough calories to get them each through those long hard 60 mile days, and then back out at dawn the next day to do it all again.

And it can’t just be anything off the shelve or out of the back of the kitchen.  Runners like Sarvagata who is currently leading the race has run 1615 miles.  His body, as is those of everyone else, has now become an incredibly balanced  high performance marvel of nature.  Nobody can say for sure, but probably what each runner is doing on this brutal relentless course is not what the human body is scientifically capable of doing .  Yet somehow for the past 18 summers they miraculously still endure, enjoy, and go on.

Nirjarini has been the main cook for a lot of those years.  This summer will mark her 11th time as the master chef of the race. A job she relishes and one that just inspires her in so many ways to come back again and again.

A chef for just 14 diners would be a simple job in any other setting than this one.  This one in which the 14 diners are never seated.  Instead they are constantly mobile and often nibbling, eating, and digesting thousands of necessary calories each day for 52 days.  This very exclusive clientele may be the most finicky, delicate, and yet satisfying patrons as you would find in any hungry corner of the country.

When I enter the kitchen this morning, Nirjarini is carefully cutting up some pink sweet desert.  “It is a raw cake.”

“The raw thing started about 7 or 8 years ago.”  I ask her if the tastes and appetites of the runners is different now then it was.  “At first it was more like junk food.  They were into brownies and pudding and a lot of sugar and then it changed to the opposite.  This year I really feel that it has become a balance.  No extremes any more.  This year a little bit of everything.”

Pranjal has maintained a traditional diet, heavy on sugar, for many years.  “He is the easiest to feed.  And he knows what he needs.  And he can digest pretty much anything,”

“I feel in the race because it is so long, and the weather conditions are very difficult.  So they get extremely sensitive. So what they can have and what they can digest changes a lot. So we adjust to help them go through a hot day or a rainy day, or whatever is coming up.”

“Some have better digestive systems.  They are somehow easier than others.  We want to support them so that they can run well.  That is why I really try and cater to them.”

“I really love this race.   I am happy every day.”  It is now literally almost half way, and she says that she is so absorbed in what she is doing that she looses track of time.  “The race is like a different dimension.  I am not thinking too much about what day it is,  how many days left, or how much we have done.  Somehow I am in that feeling of ….Now!”

Harikanta is helping Nirjarini for the first time.  She has helped out at the 6 and 10 day races 3 times before.  “There is a difference.  I am very very happy in both kitchens. But here you only have 14 people but you really have to remember.  What to do for them.  What they like, what they don’t like.”  She admits to accidentally putting some tomato into one of Stutisheel’s sandwiches yesterday.

She says, “I would be upset if I found tomato in my sandwich when I don’t eat tomato.  You have to really be concentrated.  It is not as intense as the 6 and 10 day race.”

Her friend Jayasalini who is also from Moscow is doing the race for the first time.  She says at first her friends were concerned for her.  “It so hard and so are the weather conditions are also.”  But jayasalini was very inspired to come.  “She is a very strong person.  She is very dynamic, and strong and good with people.”

It was the physical things that concerned her friends in Moscow most.  “In the beginning she was going through some hard times and adjusting.  But now she seems to be very happy. For me it is really really amazing to see her and I love to do a lap or two with her.  Just to speak with her.  She told me I would be happy to see more familiar faces when I am running.  So I felt I should come.”

Nirjarini adds, “I am very happy she is wonderful to have.  And she is fantastic too.” Nirjarini points to Hastakamala from Perth who at that moment is working some wonders with some Nutella.

“They are chocolate chip pancakes filled with Nutella.”  Hatakamala says this is her first time working full time in a Self-Transcendence race kitchen.  Previous to now she had only helped out she says for about 2 hours once in a race in Flushing Meadow.

“Nirjarini asked me to come.  She said that you are the one.  I said, no, no, no.” She laughs as she recalls this earlier conversation that took place back in April.  Time has passed and she believes that it was the right choice.  “I think she was right.”

“It is really great to be here.  And it is so true what she is saying about time.”  Meaning she too is really enjoying being in the moment.  In her ordinary life she says she thinks, “How much time before I come back to New York.  But here it is very different.”

She is a runner and for her the race is, “incredible.  On Sunday I was running for about 4 hours.  It was getting hot and when I stopped I felt a bit dizzy, all the things that would be 10 fold for them.  It is a real honor cooking for them.  We have a great team.  Everyone is beautiful.”

Click to Play Interview:

Cooks

Sri Chinmoy, Transcendence-Perfection, Agni Press, 1975

Continue reading “July 8: Food For The Soul”

There are lots of good reasons why we love to watch and play sports.  Humans have been engaging in competition from the moment we could throw a rock or kick a ball.  There is a natural instinct in all of us to challenge ourselves to be as good as we can be, and also from an inner view, becoming all that we are within.

Those who we think of as naturally gifted and abundantly talented are admired and often described as being superior athletes.  But to excel means mostly that they have practiced and trained and prepared to perform as well as they have.

Sri Chinmoy says.

Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 15, Agni Press, 1999

At this momentous time of year there is an unusual confluence of many of the great sports all happening simultaneously.  Football, tennis, cycling, just name it.  Even if you are not an enthusiast there is probably some sport, some team, at least one athlete, or competition that will catch your eye sometime this month.  It is an extraordinary time to enjoy sports and be inspired by them.  To realize even for a moment what our bodies and spirits can individually and collectively accomplish.

Sometimes there are moments in sport that are truly historic.  In late September of 1941, Ted Williams was attempting to get his hitting average up to .400 for the entire season. A rare and spectacular thing.  Going into his final 2 games, a double header in Philadelphia, his average was .397.  A number that would have gotten him .400.  Because at the end of the season it would have been averaged upwards.  But that was not how he wanted to measure himself.

“If I’m going to be a .400 hitter, I want more than my toenails on the line.”

Before these games he said: “I kept thinking about the thousands of swings I had taken to prepare myself,” Williams said years later. “I had practiced and practiced. I kept saying to myself, ‘You are ready.’ I went to the ballpark the next day more eager to hit than I had ever been.”

In those 2 games he not only played all the innings, but he also managed to hit fairly 6 out of 8 times at bat.  This meant he finished the season with an average of .406.  Something the then 23 year old ball player, as well as no one else in all of professional baseball, has ever managed to repeat in 73 years.

“It was something that required a kind of nonstop consistency,” Williams said on the 50th anniversary in 1991. “I never thought of it as going 2 for 5 every day, but that’s what it adds up to. I had to maintain my focus throughout. Although I never imagined that all these years later, no one else would do it again.

Long after the World Cup, the tour De France, and Wimbledon have finished 14 runners will be still diligently circling this block in Queens.  This morning around 10am one runner, Sarvagata became the first to pass 1550 miles, the momentous half way point.  As he came up the course to the scoreboard the picture above was how he looked.

For just a moment he paused.  “There are a lot of nice numbers, inspiring.  Today 1550 is shining even brighter than 3100.  Because now it is there on the wall.” Then he continued on his way to reach a goal still a long long way off.

Question:  What is the purpose of competitive sports?

Sri Chinmoy: Our aim is not to become the world’s best athlete. Our aim is to keep the body fit, to develop dynamism and to give the vital innocent joy. In competitive sports, our primary aim should be not to surpass others but constantly to surpass ourselves. In the outer life, when we run with our friends, we are seeing who is actually the best. And we cannot properly evaluate our own capacity unless we have some standard of comparison. But we compete not for the sake of defeating others, but in order to bring forward our own capacity. Our best capacity comes forward only when there are other people around us. They inspire us to bring forward our utmost capacity, and we inspire them to bring forward their utmost capacity. This is why we have competitive sports.

If we can learn to participate in competitive sports devotedly, then we will get real joy and make real spiritual progress. But if we compete egotistically, then we are bound to suffer both inwardly and outwardly. In that case, even if we stand first, we will not obtain blessings from the Supreme, and if we do not stand first we will curse ourselves.

Sri Chinmoy, The Body: Humanity’s Fortress, Agni Press, 1974

Continue reading “July 7: Surpass Ourselves”

“Now I am experiencing first hand what the New York times calls the World’s toughest foot race.”

This morning I saw Tarit writing a story on his lap top.  He has been here since yesterday helping William.  A job that you might consider trivial, but it is one in fact which is far from simple and robotic.

It is no small task setting out drinks, fine tuning supplements, checking shoes, and generally sorting out a lengthy list of errands for this great Scottish ultra distance runner.  But the most important part of it all is to be a friend.  To be kind, to be patient, to be supportive, and to anticipate just what you have to do to get William Sichel to 3100 miles.  And also grabbing hold of a world record or two along the way.

Between helping William on his clockwork trips through the camp, Tarit has been sitting on a plastic folding chair.  There with his computer perched on his knees, he is trying to bring to life the rather interesting combination of encounters and events that began first when William made a phone call 20 years ago. To his Run and Become store in Edinburgh.

For him right here and right now is the perfect opportunity to sort some of the special threads and moments of their long relationship.  Look at the little things, that didn’t seem to mean so much at the time, but over the years the fabric of something larger emerges.  Discovering a friendship that is quite fine and profound and one well worth traveling across an ocean to support.

Many lives intersect briefly for special moments in time, but once in a long while, a special bond is formed like it has with William and Tarit.  Starting with phone calls, and packets of running shoes mailed off to the Orkneys.  Somehow from this a true friendship began to form.  One which has now brought these 2 enthusiastic talented Scottish runners both thousands of miles across the Atlantic to a steamy little oasis in New York.

For a week at least Tarit will be sharing this half mile block in Queens with William. Writing a new chapter of their friendship and perhaps Scottish sports history as well.

“Whenever I have tried to explain the event it is usually met with curiosity, bewilderment, and bemusement.  And even….No Way!”

“It taxes the imagination just thinking about it.”

Tarit has been managing the Run and Become running store in Edinburgh for many years.  So for most Scottish runners it was the place you had to go to pick up a pair of shoes or running gear.  William lives in Sanday, in the Orkney islands.  A place that is now of course well connected to the rest of the world electronically.

But 20 years ago when he needed a pair of shoes it wasn’t step out the door and hop in the car and drive to Edinburgh.  It was a seriously long trip, so when he needed gear he would have to call up the store in Edinburgh and purchase things over the phone.

He liked to call the store from time to time and ask questions about products that he had only heard about or seen pictures of in running magazines.  Through a couple of phone calls, “I found out he ran marathons.  He found out I ran ultra marathons.”

It didn’t take too long for this ex table tennis player from the Orkneys to become a good marathoner and run a time south of 2:40.  “He called the store one day and asked me.   Do you think I can run an ultra?  Of course you can.  You just have to want to do it.”

So in the spring of 1994 William ran his first 40 mile race in preparation for the Scottish 100km championship in July.  He won the race and became Scottish champion of the event that Tarit was organizing.

“Over the years our paths have crossed many times.”

They have competed against each other and also been part of ultra distance teams.  “The 3100 mile race represents the biggest challenge he has ever taken.  And as I feel an instrumental part in his burgeoning ultra marathon career.  I found myself compelled to come and help him.”

Click to Play Story:

tarit

Run and become.
Become and run.
Run to succeed in the outer world.
Become to proceed in the inner world.

Sri Chinmoy, Run And Become, Become And Run, Part 2, Agni Press, 1979

Continue reading “July 6: Experiencing First Hand”

“There is no place else like here.” Ananda-Lahari has spent each of the past 10 summers of his life coming here.  Here to this little half mile block in Queens.  One which looks very much like thousands of others tucked unevenly in and around New York’s often untidy urban sprawl.

A place in which the cars roar past on one side.  Endless waves of kids zoom around in and out of the little park.  Splashing in the fountains, inventing games and making noise, being silly, but mostly having fun just like kids are supposed to be.

And a regular wave of older athletes.  Playing handball, basketball, within the noisy sometimes chaotic confines of the playground.  Or else their games spilling out onto the the great swath of artificial turf, where baseball, soccer, and something resembling cricket seems to be going on at all hours.

In a place not like any other, at first glance, it doesn’t look special at all.  In fact it looks a whole lot like a big undulating block that you might find in many many other places, in many other cities, and maybe in many other countries.  Yet this reasonable logic immediately vanishes.  It disperses at practically the instant you come here and see it for yourself.

Certainly when you spend any time here, or you move about the course, you feel something happening to you.  There is an experience you get that is similar to that of waking up from a life time of deep slumber. Or perhaps you can interpret it as a sensation that the long shuttered windows and doors within you somehow get nudged open, if even just a crack.

And if your experience is not described to you in such a dramatic way, than it is safe to say you will feel energized and inspired here.  No matter what your mind might tell you.

When you get even a hint of that feeling or experience than it becomes clearer just why Ananda-Lahari has done so many many thousands of miles over 10 summers right here..

There are countless different ways that a person can connect with or experience the Self Transcendence race 3100 mile race.  Each person who genuinely is inspired by what they see happening at the 3100 can make a deep an inner connection to it, even if their feet cannot bring them.

And in so doing begin to feel and maybe understand even for a moment just why, there is, No place like here.

For him he says being here, “is like entering into another world.  It surprises me every year.  It is really intense from morning until night.”  Running he says on the course, “brings forward what I am here for.”

It all comes down to as Ananda-Lahari describes it, his spiritual life.  Something he takes seriously all year long but when he is here each summer

“It is like Come On.  You Have To Do Something.”

Part of a Longer Answer:

There is no ‘inwardly’ and ‘outwardly’. If we feel that there is any difference between the inner life and outer life, then we shall always be failures. There should be no difference between the inner life and outer life — not even an iota.

If we have a good thought, that very good thought we have to manifest in the outer life. Inside and outside we have to take as the obverse and reverse of the same coin.

A coin has two sides, but no matter which side you are looking at, the coin has the same value. Each side is equally important. Whatever you have inside, whether it is a good thought or a bad thought, automatically gets expressed.

Sri Chinmoy, Run And Smile, Smile And Run, Agni Press, 2000

Continue reading “July 5: No Place Like Here”

Today is the great American Holiday, Independence Day.  From coast to coast and through all its 50 states  people will be celebrating, enjoying themselves, and perhaps reflecting, if even for a moment what this country at its very heart represents to them.

In the grand scheme of time it is a new country compared to many.  Its history just a brief flicker compared to that of much of Europe and Asia.  Yet nearly 230 years ago something new and profound was created here when the 13 original colonies came together and established something the world had never seen before.

As written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–”

Now these words and ideas that the founding fathers hoped to establish have influenced governments and continued to inspire people everywhere.  It was something that had never happened before.  A new country created by those who wanted to make a world in which all its people would have freedom, equality, and that all voices could be heard. Thus to create an even more perfect home for all who lived there.

There are many, both those who live away and even those who call it home who say that America could be a better and more perfect place.  That the vision of the founding fathers has to yet to be realized and manifested.  Scholars can argue and the average person can either reject or deny such claims.

The truth is that great dreams take time to reach fruition.  That the loftiest vision is not always brought forth in an instant, in a year, or even through several long centuries.

The 14 runners here today know all too well how long and hard some journeys can be.  For each, their goal is still so far off and so distant that they can barely see it, though in their hearts they still believe that it will one day come.

America does not claim perfection, as far as I can see. America does not claim illumination, as far as I know.

Now, does America claim anything? Yes, America does. What does America claim?

A colossal preparation: not only for its own illumination and perfection but for the illumination and perfection of the entire world.

Sri Chinmoy, The Liberty Torch, Agni Press, 1976

Continue reading “July 4: Continuous Self Transcendence”

Have you ever owned a piece of clothing that you could simply not bare to part with.  Perhaps a great pair of shoes, a hat, or for my generation a pair of blue jeans.  Pants that took weeks of wearing to break in.  To finally feel as though they had become  part of you.  Then they became even better when they faded to the point that they were still blue but only just.

Beads, baubles, and bangles will last a life time but clothing never lasts beyond a certain point.  No matter even if it is your most beloved wearable item.  It will inevitably one day expire from fashion or from function.  Classic fibers, cotton, wool, and silk, simply start to fall apart over time when worn.  Even new high tech clothing will work wonders for perhaps a brief while longer.

Then there is the problem of your own personal dimensions.  Perhaps asking the clothing to continue to do what it was supposed to do when you were a size b and now your horizons have expanded to some letter just a little too far down the alphabet to look decent or remain modest.

Then there is that special purgatory when the clothing sits befuddled in a closet or in a drawer waiting to make at least one more appearance.  You can’t wear it and you can’t throw it out.  What do you do?

Yesterday Ray wore a shirt that most folks would have simply thrown out a decade or more ago.  It is worn down to the point where the cotton is almost translucent and to be honest it is just a little snug.  You can still read the writing and it is clear, that even for a guy who never wears a shirt, he has taken extra special care of this particular running singlet.

30 years ago this week Ray was given this shirt for taking part in the New York Road runners 6 day race on Randalls Island.  The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team were also there as volunteers to assist with the scoring of the race.

As Ray describes its story now, “It is a silly little thing.  Earlier in the run I had worn that shirt.”  He mentions the obvious.  He doesn’t like to wear shirts.  So at some point in the race on the first day, he took it off and threw it at his chair.

“When I threw it I missed the chair.”  He tells me that Sri Chinmoy who was near by noticed  this, and so went over and picked it up and laid it on the back of the chair.  “I thought that was really cool so when I came around I thanked him for it.   So we just started talking.”

There is a look of reverence in his eyes as he says, “Guru touched this.  That shirt has been very protective for a long time.”

“Maybe it is like Jesus washing his disciples feet.  For this great man to bend down and pick up the shirt of a competitor.  And just take care of him.  In his heart, in his essence.  It said a lot to me about this guy who I didn’t know a lot about.”

“Every day he would come out and walk for the rest of that 6 day and I would talk to him every day and that is how I got to know Guru.”

Over the years their paths would cross many times at different races.  A relationship that continued even on and up to his passing in 2007.  Ray never stopped cherishing his moments with Sri Chinmoy. His fading singlet just reminded him of the very unique and sweet relationship that they had.  When he did poorly at one race he would try and give something back by doing better at the next race.

“A week ago when I was going through my clothes I knew I was going to wear that shirt.”  He just wasn’t sure which day he would wear it.  Whenever it came out earlier,he just knew, “this is not the day.”

“Guru always talked about that you would know when the time is right.”  Yesterday was the day, day 19.  “I had huge blisters, I got up in the morning and just wanted to focus on the run.  While I was running people would speak to me.  Wow, you are doing great.  It was a surprise to a lot of runners.”

Yesterday became Ray’s gift.  A gift to the other runners, a gift to himself, and a gift to a spiritual Master who bent down to pick up a carelessly tossed shirt 30 years ago this week.  Ray who had done 58 laps the previous day ran 114 laps yesterday.  In the heat, the thunderstorm, and all the torments that come when you try and run for 18 hours in New York.

“I think the message was.  You can feel terrible.  You can be half dead, and you can be out here not at your best.  You just never know when good things will happen and you will put together a great day and a great performance.  I think it was a message for everybody.  Through my shooting star day.”

Click to Play Interview:

ray

Continue reading “July 3: When Good Things Happen”

“I think it was on day 11 when I passed the point of 673 miles.  From that point new horizons started to open up.  I have never run further.  Today is day 18 and yesterday I got to the point of 1000 miles.  Then I realized that this was 1,600 kilometers.  It really struck me this number, really.”

“Of course I was waiting for this point.  I was wondering how I would feel afterwards.”

Nearly every runner would love to accomplish a world record, or a country record, or even a personal best each time they compete in any of the Self-Transcendence multi day races.  It is only natural.  Most of us have an incessant appetite to digest understandable facts and crunchable numbers and to improve.

Each of us, in one way or another have had bits and pieces of our lives added up and analyzed and scored in more ways that we can even imagine.

For Jayasalini, much like it is for William Sichel, every new day here on the course, and with each new milestone crossed,  she will be setting a new mark in the Russian record books.  Smashing the marks set by others and also most likely creating a whole new catalog of new distance running records.  This will be a tremendous achievement without doubt, and one very much deserving of this champion Muscovite runner.

But to actually see this young, smiling, running phenom, you quickly realize that she is not running this, the hardest and longest race in the world to break records.  She runs inspired by something else.  Something she cannot see or even measure.  Something she feels with rich sweet intensity in her heart with each new step she takes.

This morning she also received a huge card and gifts from other members of her mediation group back in Moscow.

“I am running not alone.  One of the messages I received said, just know.  We are running with you.  The whole Oneness-Dream-Boat-Shore is with you.  You are not alone there.  It is a great help.”

One of Sri Chinmoy’s final trips in late 2007 was to visit Oneness-Dream-Boat-Shore.

Question asked in 1991:

What do you think of the soul of Russia and of its role in the development of the earth’s consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: For years and years the soul of Russia has suffered a lot inwardly. Now the inner problems have been solved and Russia’s soul is awakened; it is fully responding to the higher light — the light that can change and, as a matter of fact, has already started to change the face and fate not only of Russia but also of many, many other countries.

Now we see many political problems and other problems, but these are all outer problems. What we notice now in Russia is the outer struggle. When the soul of Russia wants to act in and through an individual, it does so according to the potentiality and possibility of the individual.

The soul of Russia acts swiftly, confidently and self-givingly. It has many, many divine qualities, but its main qualities are tolerance, patience, determination and a one-pointed will to achieve its goal, whatever that goal may be. The goal can be higher than the highest, or it can be not so high.

Instead of using the word ‘Russia,’ let us speak of the soul of the Soviet Union. When the soul of the Soviet Union says “Yes,” it is positive in every sense of the term. Some other countries, on the other hand, may also say “Yes,” but inside their “Yes” the word “No” looms large.

Sri Chinmoy, Russia And Russia’s God-Blossoming Heart, Agni Press, 1991

Continue reading “July 2: New Horizons”

“I don’t really look at the board.”  Early this morning I congratulated Sarah on her great achievement from late last night.  Sometime in the depths of a pleasant New York evening she became the 5th runner to pass 1,000 miles in the race. It is usually a great moment for the runners, but one that is also tempered with the shocking and unavoidable reality that you still have another 2000 more miles to go.

So celebrating to access,  when she still has an unhorizoned view of the task yet to be accomplished is obviously premature.  If Sarah didn’t put on a hat and blow a whistle it is not too surprising.  She simply has too much respect for all the effort that got her this far and even more for what lies ahead.

A bit puzzled I suggest that it would be hard to not trip over such a milestone.  “Seriously I didn’t.  Everybody kept yelling at me, and I was wondering what was going on.”(laughs) “But that was very nice.”

Sarah has wanted to run this race for a very long time.  It was always a sweet dream that seemed to exist just beyond her reach.  That is until last year.  Last year when at last the opportunity came but a fully healthy body did not.

Determined to find her way to the finish line any way, she set off in what would have to be one of the most testing, difficult, and yet in some ways fulfilling experiences of her life.

By day 17, the same time last year, there was already literally no mathematical, physical, or any human way that she would be able to make 3100 miles within 52 days.

In all our lives we each have to face tests and challenges for ourselves.  To plumb the depths of our capacities in all kinds of difficult things.  But I wonder how many people would have had the strength and courage that this 38 year old lady from Adelaide had here last year.  How she came to the starting line at 6 o’clock and kept moving every single day.  Knowing each mile she ran would never be enough to allow her to cross that 3100 mile finish line.  The one that she had sought for so long.

And so she went home to Australia with 2696 miles.  A number that probably has little significance to her now, just as the big fat glorious 1000 miles had for her last night.

“In the back of your mind you are always thinking that you want to finish the race.  You have to keep some sort of balance.  Sometimes I can be joking with someone and you know there is a time to be serious as well.  Every day is important.  Just yesterday I felt an injury coming on the whole right side of my body started to ache.  So from one day to the next you don’t know what is going to happen.”

“So every morning you sit at your shrine and pray.  You hope some grace will pull you through some how.  Every day is different.”

Sri Chinmoy, Transcendence-Perfection, Agni Press, 1975

1989 24 hour race.  Ray Krolewicz standing on left

Continue reading “July 1: Fulfill Yourself In the March Of Time”

“I am doing so phenomenally well that, I shouldn’t be allowed to be here.”

Over all his long and joyful years of running, Ray Krolewicz has run more miles, gathered more friends and admirers, and found more joy and fulfillment in his life than just about any person you will ever meet.

He has been here on this rugged little track now for 14 days and if the Ray K’ites haven’t come out here at one time or another to run and walk with him, then he has talked with them on the phone, been texted, or he has been sent regularly a thick wad of, ‘Way to Go Ray’ emails.

There is an infectious charm and wit to this bearded, shirtless, wonder from South Carolina.  The exact numbers of runners that he has encouraged, trained, and entertained has never been recorded or made note of.

But even after just a few days out here in this distant corner of Queens there has been a constant trickle of Ray K fans and followers that have thread their way through the 5 boroughs, and numerous nearby states to come and be at his side.  To run, to listen, to maybe get a word or two in, but more to just enjoy being with Ray who is now doing what he likes most to do in life, and that is run.

He makes no bones that by nature he is competitive, but he also wants others to do their best and to also find their own joy.  His is a happy life and he is also one who is generously trying to make a happier world.

Some time today he will pass the 1,000 km mark.  A great point of reckoning for most ultra runners but it is also one that bluntly reminds Ray that there are still another 4,000 unforgiving kilometers still to be endured.  “I am suffering probably less than anyone else in this race.  But also more than I can transcend.”

There is no runner here who does not at one time or another have to confront their perceived limitations.  Whether it be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual.  For a few days now Ray has found his pace diminished to something that looks like a shuffle and at other times like a walk.

He is tired, he is hurting, and he knows that it isn’t going to get any easier any time soon.  Why this is so he says, “maybe spirit over physicality.  Maybe I am afraid to dig deep and find out if I can be as cheerful, if I were in more pain.”

“I have been asking myself these questions for several days.  If I were hurting as bad as some of these other runners.  Heh, I have foot pain, I am not using that as an excuse.  I am trying to let some things heal. People say, it takes time. Ok.  If it takes a couple of weeks for guys who have done it before maybe it will take me 3 weeks.

So I am trying to take care of myself.  But would a Ray Krolewicz who has a 1000 miles in and was grumbling, cross, and irritable. Be more of a preference than a Ray Krolewicz who has only 600 miles in and has a smile, a song, and a story to share, each time someone comes by.”

 

A Question that was asked of Sri Chinmoy about his ultra races.

Sri Chinmoy: This creation is not mine. It is God’s creation. Again, I am absolutely sure that God does not want anything that is good to disappear from His creation. Today He has inspired me to serve ultra-distance running. But if He sees that I am not doing well, or if He has had enough experiences in and through me, then He can easily choose another instrument. But I am absolutely sure that God will not ask human beings to give up long-distance running.

“Run and become, become and run” — this is the motto of our Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team. Something that is good in God’s creation will always last; it will only make progress. From time to time we may see setbacks, but eventually it is bound to flourish.

Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy answers, part 32, Agni Press, 2002

Continue reading “June 30: The Inner Race”

Matt’s path has brought him here to the race quite a few times over the past 5 years.  He has been to the start of the race at least a couple of times.  But in all the previous occasions he had come out to this little corner of Queens he had never been here at the start of the race on an average day.

A day when it is just 14 groggy runners, a handful of official types, and of course the sun.  Rising magnificently up over the far eastern edge of the great city.

He tells me that he had seen photos of the start of one of those average days. “They uniformly looked very peaceful and beautiful.  I wanted to experience that at least once.”

At precisely 6am as Rupantar calls out, “Go.” Matt takes his own picture of the start with his camera phone.   Then the two of us set of to follow the runners for one full loop at Matt’s pace.  Which is a steady even stride that moves at a pace where he can see and enjoy the world around him.  Not a dawdle and certainly not a sprint, but at a tempo so as to take in and absorb the world around him as much as he can.

And today he sees for himself the distant dawn light spilling across the hard cement rectangle loop.  The little weeds and flowers bathed in light, and all 14 the runners.  Each basked in radiance themselves, now shuffling off in front of us.

Matt is one of those rare sorts of persons who you might perhaps classify as an original adventurer.  It is not a perfect label but it just might stick long enough to get to know him a little better and get some idea of the kind of task that he has set out for himself.  It is one that began close to 2 and half years, and hundreds and hundreds of miles ago.

Back then he decided he would walk on every single street of the 5 boroughs of New York, something that has never been done before.  It is a distance of something like 8,000 miles he reckons, but one that has taken him far longer than he expected.  Which in a way turns out to be its own reward for he wants to see and enjoy the city, the world, and life itself for himself.

He says that we are too often blindly accepting the world around us through somebody else’s interpretation.  So some years back he decided to see it for himself.  He doesn’t call it all some great spiritual or existential quest.

Instead he recognizes that it his life after all.  He could still be a civil engineer that he once was, but being stuck behind a desk, no longer became an option for him, a long time ago.  Many of us dream of all the things we would like to do or accomplish and then there are those who simply get out of the chair and go out the door and do it for themselves.

So Matt has sampled a lot of life over the past few years first hand. He has ridden the length of every track of the New York city sub way system.  Which if you were wondering, you just might be able to accomplish in a little over 24 hours.  He has walked across the country doing about 20 miles a day, and now he is chronicling  his quest to walk down every street in the city, and keep meticulous record of his journey as he goes out walking every day.

Question: When you are running a marathon, are you experiencing suffering?

Sri Chinmoy: I get two kinds of experiences. On the physical, vital and mental planes, I get the experience which you can call suffering. It is an unpleasant feeling. From the beginning to the end, the body is being tortured. Again, there is also the inner experience. I feel that the outer experience which I am going through is something that my Inner Pilot wants me to do, and I surrender the results.

I know it will take me more than four and a half hours. But if I can offer the results to Him, then I am getting a divine experience, the experience of surrender. One experience I am getting on the physical, vital and mental planes, and another experience I am getting on the psychic plane. Whatever I achieve, cheerfully I will give to Him; this is my inner experience. The outer experience that I am getting is torture, right from the beginning to the end, but that also I am offering to Him. Both the inner and the outer experiences I am offering to God, my Inner Pilot.

Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy answers, part 29, Agni Press, 2001

Continue reading “June 29: Experience That”