photos – Page 65 – Perfection Journey

Day Two: I Always Had Hope

It is certainly a most difficult thing to run a 10 day race and yet sometimes the journey just to get to the starting line can be longer and even more difficult. Nidhruvi Zimmerman is now well into her second day on the course and she is running comfortably and confidently just as one would expect this tremendously gifted and experienced multi day runner to do.

At 46 she should be at her peak but instead this race represents a comeback for this lady from Vienna. The past 10 years have been much tougher than the 10 days now slipping comfortably away beneath her relentless strides. Over that long decade injury made it impossible for her to compete in any distance events at all. She says now though, ” I could never get rid of the running world. I always loved the long distance running. But because of injury I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. But after many experiences. I decided just to do it any way. Doesn’t mater what. Just to be ready and see if I still belong to the long distance world. Why not”

From 1995 until 2002 Nidhruvi appeared regularly at the races here. Her accomplishments at events above 6 days are extraordinary and yet now she runs with quite a different perspective. Those long lean years that must have at times felt like an eternity are now clearly over. “I am just grateful grateful, from the very depths of my heart.”

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Day One: The First Day of the Rest Of My Life

There are some things that are just so immense, so challenging, and so confoundedly difficult to grasp, that human description usually falls woefully short in shedding any light upon it whatsoever. This afternoon I ran less than a lap of the 10 day race with kaneennika Janakova and was painfully aware from the moment I took one step, in order to match the rhythm of her stride, that I had no idea of just how strong and talented she really is, and more importantly, how she can possibly keep on maintaining this effort mile after endless mile for 10 straight days.

Ultra distance running is in many ways the world in which she is most comfortable and in tune with. This 42 year old lady from Slovakia seems to run here with such poise and ease it is almost as though she could be doing this every day of the year and not just for 10 days in Flushing Meadow every spring. Last year she conquered the overall first place and set a course record of 724 miles. Yet Kaneenika is just one small piece of this unfathomable puzzle. Also with her, and sharing the same journey that winds around and about through Flushing Meadow, as the cool overcast afternoon dissolves into a hard dark night, are 35 other runners who will attempt to discover and accomplish their own unique goals in the coming days.

Then you have to acknowledge the crew that worked for days to set up this miraculous but O so temporary community, and the additional crew of helpers who shuttle back and forth many times a day in order to maintain the practical workings of the race. Sometimes there are striking moments of clarity when it just seems possible in being able to take it all in. Rupantar, who is the Sri Chinmoy marathon team race director said to me the day before the start, “if people want to see a real miracle all they have to do is come out here to the race.”
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The 47 Mile Race, 2011: A New Generation

The passage of time is usually never very kind to the human condition. As the calender keeps shedding each worn out month the discarded pages pile up into stacks of years. It is then that the tap tap of age upon our shoulders seems to grow ever more insistent. Trying usually, without calling upon much effort, to convince us that we can and should go slower and do less as we grow older.

Guru-47-1980 — Sri Chinmoy 1980 photo by Bhashwar

Yet Sri Chinmoy himself never surrendered to age and certainly hoped that his students would not listen to the braying frailties of our bodies, or the gibbering reluctance of our minds. There can be no better examples of this philosophy in action then Gaurima, Arpan, and Dipali who even after 30 years of continuous competition have never found any excuse not to still step up and enter this most special and uniquely challenging midnight run. Their memories are rich and full with moments when Sri Chinmoy not only watched with admiration from the sidelines but even back to the 2 years when he ran this race himself.

The 47 mile race has never lacked having an enthusiastic crowd of eager young participants. All willing to step off into the unknown realm of distance running and discover their own precious experience. Some dreaming and training just for that moment when they can push off from the starting line at midnight on August 27th.

Now over more than 33 years the track and road around Jamaica high school have tested and taught hundreds of runners some unique and fulfilling hard fought lessons. Each participant is inevitably confronted with not just the challenge of running an ultra distance but more importantly they are inevitably confronted by the simple truth, that by going deep within is also the answer to succeed in going not just 47 miles but also covering the total distance of one’s life.

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The 47 Mile Race, 2011: Pioneers

During the early morning hours of August 27 1978 some wonderful and historic super 8 film footage was captured by Abakash. The very first 47 mile race had begun in the pitch darkness starting at midnight hours earlier. At that time 38 nervous young runners stood motionless at the starting line, having no real idea of what was before them or even certain whether or not they could complete the distance. Yet much stronger than all our fears and doubts combined was our love and admiration for our spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy who had created this unique race, 47 miles long. He had invited us all to run and as he now solemnly stood before us as we anxiously waited for him to personally start the race at 12am.

This all happened more than 30 years ago. Time has removed the sharpness and clarity of many moments of my life but the start of the first 47 I am certain is etched so deeply into my heart and life, its sweet memory has yet to fade or dim. I can still clearly remember as Sri Chinmoy stood in powerful silent meditation in the darkness. An almost indefinable outline, illuminated barely by far off streetlights, and a couple of dim flashlights. Yet where our eyesight’s failed, another part within us was acutely aware of his presence and his gratitude that we should participate in this great new undertaking. On this night and at the moment as the clock ticked past 12 it became his 47th birthday and the race began.

What we did not know then was that this race was his gift to us and to future generations of runners. An unprecedented 47 mile long spiritual journey whose goal was infinitely longer than 40 laps of Jamaica High School. Yet for each and all who participated it would also be in turn a powerful opportunity to bring to the fore some small measure of our own self offering. The very act of running a perfect gift to him who inspired us in the first place. It was and remains to be both an unprecedented sporting event and a unique spiritual exercise, that many continue to take advantage of, and seems destined to remain as a timeless tradition.

In the weeks leading up to that midnight start he had made clear that the 47 mile race was going to be something new and challenging like nothing before. We simply had but to let go of our doubts and fears and surrender fully to the experience. A short while later he coined a unique expression that clearly and beautifully defined what this sport of running could offer both outwardly and inwardly, “Run and Become, Become and Run.” Spiritual progress and athletics and fitness can and must go together. Continue reading “The 47 Mile Race, 2011: Pioneers”

August 4: Fulfill A Dream of the Soul

They assemble on the starting line one last time. Now there are but 3 champions left on this hard but sacred ground. They have covered many thousands of miles these past 53 days. Yet they remain in the exact same spot as where they began. An irony most certainly not lost on those who seek out and crave outer adventure. For a spiritual athlete however the quest is not for victory without, but to try and achieve a self transcendence victory within. Something intangible to most, but no less real than a gleaming trophy sitting in a case.

The journey is not about the number of signposts that you have passed along the way, or who you have left behind. It is more that you have been attentive to your own inner voice and just how many you have inspired and gathered up with your heart’s oneness. In so many areas of life we judge and measure and attempt to balance all the conflicting and self important bits of who we are and who we think we are.

Here the playing field is flattest for those runners who can somehow manage to toss away the nagging conflicts that erupt between a lethargic body, a restless vital, and a mind tainted by doubt and fear. It never becomes effortless and yet the greatest burden a runner here has to bear are those stubborn bits dredged up from the shadowed places we all have within.

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August 3: My Soul Was Pleased

Early this morning a young runner got up and set off for a training run with a special lightness in their step and a sense of eager anticipation in their heart. They left before the day became heavy from the sun”s heat. They found cool satisfying steps that led down a familiar country lane, or beside the bright waters of the Black Sea, or maybe it was even on the still streets of Kiev, before the cars filled the city with their confusion and their haste.

Somewhere in the Ukraine or maybe even in the Russian Federation a young runner went out running knowing that by tonight something significant would at last be realized. Something that would take place far away but still be able to uplift their own dreams.

For no matter how you look at it, Stutisheel, over 8 years has been a consistent and true inspirer of distance runners throughout the region. Tonight in what is most certainly an historic event, he will complete the Self Transcendence 3100 mile race for the 8th year.

They may have never met him, perhaps only read one of his books, or attended one of his talks. They may have never even fully committed themselves to the spiritual life, or maybe never even run as far as a marathon. Yet still they have somehow heard of his historic accomplishments and felt in themselves an unmistakable inner thrill.

We know this to be true because once upon a time a young runner from Berdansk, Ukraine, felt this same thing. His name is Sarvagata. In Vinnitsa, also a young runner named Igor was dreaming of the 3100. Both thinking it was impossible, not just to run 3100 miles, but also to spend such a lengthy time here in New York so far far away from home.

Yet in their admiration of Stutisheel they found that the impossible was possible. That he was just the first of many who would follow in his steps and find their own places on the starting line. Find that transcendence is not to be taken lightly but with absolute willingness, cheerfulness, and surrender to whatever the inner experience commands that you do.

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August 2: Then I Knew I Was Going To Make It

There is some strong anecdotal evidence that suggests that at one time there was a sect of Buddhist monks in Tibet called the Lung-go-pa. Theirs was a life of absolute austerity and spiritual discipline. By practicing meditation and pranic breathing exercises they were able to perform incredible feats. It is said they could run tirelessly, for incredible distances across the barren landscape.

To observers it was so effortless it was almost as though they barely touched the ground. Their faces continually turned up to the sky, focusing on a single celestial object.

In her book, “Magic and Mystery in Tibet,” the author Alexandra David_Neel, wrote

“By that time he had nearly reached us; I could clearly see his perfectly calm impassive face and wide-open eyes with their gaze fixed on some invisible far distant object situated somewhere high up in space. The man did not run. He seemed to lift himself from the ground, proceeding by leaps. It look as if he had been endowed with the elasticity of a ball and rebounded each time his feet touched the ground.”

Less mythical and certainly very real are the marathon monks of Japan called Kaihigyo, a Buddhist sect based in Kyoto Japan. They are recognized as spiritual athletes and train extremely hard both in their exercise regime and in their meditation. Their ultimate goal is to one day complete a 1,000 day challenge. Only 46 men have completed this feat of fasting, chanting, and running in the last 130 years.

There is no simple all encompassing description for anything to do with the self transcendence race, other than the two words that make up its name.

After that the mental world flounders at trying to grasp the enormity and significance of how the runners do what they do, and more significantly just how powerful, peaceful, and transformative it is to be there and identify with it.

*Yesterday the injured Surasa increased her mileage once more and completed 106 laps (58 miles) She has 3 days to complete 168 more miles*

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August 1: Inner Fulfillment

A little more than a year ago scientific researchers finally calculated just which bird had the longest yearly migration route. Prior to then their instruments were just too cumbersome for some species to wear and thus make their calculations. The winner of this dubious distinction is a very small 4 oz bird called the arctic tern. Each year flocks of them travel back and forth from the Arctic to the Antarctic, a journey of some 44,000 miles. Nature has no doubt given them good cause to do this. Their path way is also not a straight one. They often follow special seasonal shifting wind patterns and stop here and there along the way to feed and prepare for extra long legs of the flight.

The runners who come here to the 3100 each year do not have the singular excuse that human nature can provide, to do what they do. Their journey goes no where but around and around. It is a task in which though they are never hungry they are however almost always continually sore and tired. All their human needs and wants could easily be fulfilled back home in their own countries. There is no incentive to do this other than one that is indescribable and is generated by a deep and inner source.

Atmavir today will finish the race for the 5th year in a row today. “I feel very grateful to be here this year, though it was a very difficult year for everybody. For me it was absolutely the toughest one. For me it was a miracle that I was able to compete the race this year.” He says that on the very hot day 2 weeks ago, that when he left the track that night he went home and had tremendous problems. “I felt it might be over.” He says that it was only through divine grace that he was able to complete the race this year. “I am very grateful.”

Despite being so difficult he says, “I got inner fulfillment. There are more things than miles and laps here.” He feels as though he made real progress towards his goal. He then reads a poem which he says helped him tremendously.

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July 31: To Make Progress

Perhaps if one had the ability to truly listen then you could always somehow hear the sands of time as they slipped away forever. But how does one soberly comprehend this, when you are caught up in those precious moments of glorious celebration, such as when the race began here 50 days ago. Each day that followed a turbulent mix of hope and pain and yes, progress.

Runners, helpers, well wishers all caught up in a dizzy swirl of anticipation. Who dares or wants to see that an inevitable stone faced conclusion was going to simply march forward to end it all. Perhaps not to mortal ears but certainly to some, the distinct discordant note of finality could always be heard, even when the calender made it all seem so so distant and so endless.

Back then certainly I could not peer forward into the murky mists of time. Now of course you don’t need any telepathy, or crystal ball, or conjuring spell. An ever increasing weight of quietness, and a sobering lack of energy is tangible and real here now. The great fat luxury of what appeared to be endless time has now been reduced to just 5 stick thin days.

Four runners have retired victoriously from the course and one was felled by injury. The math is clear, that leaves but 5 gallant souls to continue the great odyssey on their own. The board is static with victory banners, a few are still creeping their way up there as well. But 5 less bodies means 5 less footfalls, 5 less smiles and cheers, and all who are left are more alone on the half mile loop than ever.

Then you have the incomprehensible saga of Surasa. The luxurious reservoir she had in order to reach the goal has been reduced to vapors. 2 days ago she completed just 12 miles and yesterday 27. In front of her is 261 more unflinching miles and 5 hot days in which to do it.

The Las Vegas odds makers certinaly wouldn’t put any money on her chances here, and yet.

And yet today she begins to tentatively run once more, if even for a few steps here and there. To push and prod her way back from the brink of disaster. How this story will conclude I cannot yet see or hear. It is only on the tablet of her heart that it is etched clear. Eventually time will be forced to share it with us all.

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July 30: The Way To The Goal

At the end of its life the Phoenix bird would go to its nest, and once there, be consumed by flames. It is a mythological bird and its story seems to exist in many cultures with some variations.

What is similar throughout all the variations of the tale is how, once it is reduced to ashes, it rises up again to take flight. It somehow lives again as it did before.

Surasa has amazingly reappeared on the course again this morning. Maybe not rising out of the ashes, and certainly not immortal, but just perhaps maybe unstoppable, as she refuses to give up her flight of self transcendence.

“I am just trying to see if I can walk properly. I like to be here and to be out, and not to lie down. I just came and I will try and see if it gets better.

The first Doctor said that it was a very deep muscle inside my calf and it was injured, and I have to rest for 3 days. Then I should see her and she would tell me if I can walk or run.

After this I thought, I have to try everything.” Then she visited a local auyervedic Doctor who gave her some pills and a massage oil. “Ahh, in 3 or 4 hours you can run.” (Laughter) “And I was looking at him, hunnh? He was absolutely sure, yes. Of course. In 3 or 4 hours you will run.”

After this she went home and applied the oil, took the pills, and came back to the race. So she continued. Not flying, not running, but at least she is walking. “What can I do? You have to take it and accept it. That’s life.”

Click to play Surasa interview

[audio:http://perfectionjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/surasa3.mp3|titles=surasa]

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