“No Matter what’s happening I just want to be grateful to be out there.”
“I definitely know at the end of it. No matter what shape or form I finish, to even to attempt to challenge something like this. The sense of satisfaction you get out of it. You can’t put a price on it.”
When we spoke, Nirbhasa had just a few days left before he would be running the longest race in the world, The Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile race. Beside him is a mysterious green beverage and in front is his lap top computer.
After I leave he will be spending hours working on it, taking advantage of the abundant wi fi in the cafe and making changes to the 3100 mile website. He is calm and at peace. To be standing on the starting line on Sunday with the 11 other runners is something that he has visualized for himself for the last couple of years.
Prior to that slim 2 year window, the sport of ultra distance running was not something that he had given much thought too. “If you had asked me maybe 3 or 4 years ago that I would be doing multi day racing at all, I don’t know what I would have told you.” Despite this in the Spring of 2013 he ran his first 10 day race.
“I started that race not knowing what to expect.” He says that he had no real goal of what he would achieve in that time. “after four or five days I was still running and I was on course due to do 60 miles a day.” This he knew was the standard necessary to be able to complete the 3100 mile race before the cutoff.
“In the middle of that race I first started thinking about doing the 3100 mile race.”
We can never really know when exactly it is that our own thoughts can catch up to the inspiration that flows and moves within us. Nirbhasa had heard from many others just how profound and trans-formative experience it most often is when a runner commits themselves to running in a multi day race. His decision however to run the 10 day race instead of the 6 came from someplace deep within. “It just goes to show the difference between the mind and the heart. The mind likes to do things in increments. Sometimes the heart gets a feeling and just wants to go for it.”
On the last night of the 2013 race Nirbhasa put on an astonishing display of running when he ran 90 miles for the last 24 hours. He had talked to a veteran runner who described that strategy and he says, “that is what I thought you did. My mind wasn’t looking forward to it. But at the same time I thought, that is what everybody does.” The next closest runner was something like 20 miles shorter for that final day. He made 1000 km for 10 days.
Click to Play Part 1 Interview:
