” When I look at it from the stand point of that it took 26 days to complete half way It feels that it has passed so quickly. But when I look closely at each day, the day feels like a whole month or even a year.”
“Back in my university days my aim was to be selected to be a member of a team which competes in the Hakone Ekiden.( very popular relay marathon competition.) “But I was not selected. I was so beaten by that fact that I stopped running altogether.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“But then I wanted to have a new goal in my life and that is when I first started thinking of ultra distance running.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“Now finally to see myself here in the ultimate race in ultra running has become my goal in my life.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“It is very difficult to say right now at this point whether or not what I will gain when I cross the finish line. Then maybe even when I cross the finish line I still may not know what I have gained. Maybe it is something that I will only realize after some months or even years. At this point I don’t know anything.”
“I feel so much warmth here and the people are so nice.”
“I qualified for the race and was invited.”
“When I first arrived I thought that I would compete but now I no longer feel like a competitor. Now I just want to be part of it.”
When asked if the course felt like a new home, “Taiwan is home of course, but many people are coming to meet me here. Strangers are coming to cheer me up, and right now my condition is very good. I don’t have any injuries. I am very happy here.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
” Before I came I thought that breaking records was very important. But now I realize that doing my best is just part of the process. I just want to cherish the experience of being here.”
As for returning and running the race again Wei Ming responds humbly that he would like to but since there are so few places he doesn’t want to take away an opportunity from some other runner who also would like to run.
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“I feel as though I am living in the moment. I really like my day to day experiences.” Wei Ming adds that if he was unable to run here again he might like to come back and volunteer.
“I am really enjoying the moments here. If I come again I want to make every moment meaningful.”
This morning a mysterious moment came when Wei Ming brought out a pair of sandals and wrote 3,000 km on them and then tied a balloon to them and placed them by a chair. In a short while it was realized that he was subtly and humbly informing everyone that he was about to set a new standard for that distance and this was his method of letting all of us to know.
The board of course is set up in miles and without Sahishnu present the race statistician the mark in kilometers was not easily visible.
Sahishun was aware of the mark and recorded Wei Ming’s time ws 29 days, 1 hour, 18 minutes, 12 seconds
“It definitely works it just depends on how totally sincerely you can do it.” A week ago Harita started having some problems with a sore Achilles and I had heard that one of her solutions was to treat the issue with normal therapies but as well focus on her happiness.
“Sri Chinmoy gave a lot of importance to the quality of happiness” Harita adds that she grew up in a family that strongly supported optimism and happiness.”
“Sri Chinmoy said that even if you don’t feel happy. If you smile and pretend to be happy it actually helps to make you happy. It really does. You can be feeling kind of miserable. You just force yourself to smile.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“Usually there is some little thing to look at. You can look up at the sky. It is so beautiful it looks different then it did 10 minutes ago. There are so many beautiful things if you just look for them. It will help you identify with something vaster, and outside your own small world.”
“Remember I chose to be here. I chose to have this experience. No one is forcing me to do it. Though it may be a difficult time just now it is the difficult times that where the real blessings are more evident also.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“Physical ailments are complicated. To a large degree they come from your state of mind.”
Harita says that when she started having achilles problems she wasn’t surprised. “The more you can have peace and equanimity, and positivity inside your being. I think people know that.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“It is just a case of making it happen and remembering it when things get tough. Keep an optimistic and positive outlook. It makes a big difference in your physical well being and state of health.”
“There is always something to learn, but I believe people need to be interested or have a connection to what they are watching.” Stutisheel was referring to the possibility of people who are observing this race from far and wide can learn something about themselves and be inspired.
“It is such an unfathomable race, an unfathomable inner journey. Of endurance, of coping with challenges, and of staying positive no matter what comes.”
“When Sri Chinmoy invited me to do the race in 2004, I had only a slight idea that I could do 5,000 km after my previous longest distance of 100km. But it somehow became possible.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“I see that many obstacles we have are just in our own minds. That we limit ourselves. By nature we are limitless, because we are soul, we are spirit. If we are able to connect with our own higher force I believe there is nothing we cannot do.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
Before the interview concluded Stutisheel told a story from 2006 when, his wife Atandra received her spiritual name from Sri Chinmoy. “We were so happy.”
“We were just like kids. Walking together and smiling like we were in the 7th heaven.” Stutisheel describes Sri Chinmoy’s unique ability to connect to and inspire people.
“I remember this moment every time I have hard times. Sri Chinmoy’s smile. He wants us to be happy, and it’s easy actually.”
The board at the start of day 28
Camp
Clock
Soap bubbles
Stutisheel
Wei Ming
Harita
Andrea
Start Day 28
Andrea did 72 miles
His 14th day above 70 miles
He now has 1915 miles
Flower
Swamiji
Wei Ming did 63 miles
He now has 1731 miles
Running well
Flower
Guess who wants to play
Vasu did 62 miles
He now has 1670 miles
Flower
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
Medur marking a laundry bag
Harita did 60 miles
She now has 1657 miles
Doing well
With Brahmata
Flower
Counting
Jason
Takasumi did 58 miles
He now has 1609 miles
With Nina
Flower
Some of the boys after 2 mile race
Sahishnu
Ananda-Lahari did 48 miles
He now has 1534 miles
Flower
“I hope all the runners see me in my new 3100 mile race shirt.”
We are all truly unlimited, if we only dare to try and have faith.
“I take every day at a time.” Andrea is hesitant to confirm that he is having a great race. He once again had another 70 plus mile day which puts him in the stratosphere of running standards here at the 3100 mile race.
“I am doing my standard somehow. It is not extremely well but I am happy. I keep fighting to keep the 70 mile average and so far it’s been okay. Now lets see what happens.”
As for the times he established last year he knows he is close.
“Normally I put it in the background, and let nature takes it’s course.”
Andrea has a very expressive face. He says, “I think it is about my attitude.” Andrea believes he most often feels he is challenging the race as though it were a battleground.
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“So I don’t smile so much. Many time people tell me I should smile more.”
“I take it as a duty somehow and I can’t say I enjoy it so far. Let’s see later on what happens.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“I am competing not only with myself. I have this inner call somehow for self-transcendence.” Andrea confesses that at the beginning of the race that was not his intention. “I wanted to take it easy but when I learned I had the same pace as last year I realized I had to do the job.”
When asked why he sprints off the starting line, “I want to show myself that I am sharp. I am ready. I want to go all the way. I don’t want to lose time, to fool around. I take it seriously. That’s the reason why I sprint.”
“This is the longest race in the world and I am here. It is an honor and I really value it. I really love the experience, and I am really happy that I am here.”
This answer could come from no one other than Ananda-Lahari who now in his 17th straight year at the event on his 24th day has completed 1359 miles. Now most days he walks with an occasional spurt of running.
” I think for all of us we just don’t have enough gratitude. We are unable to value life at all most of the time.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
At his first race in 2004, “I was happy like anything. I knew it was going to be a super hard experience. But I was really thrilled and really happy. There was no doubt about doing this race.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
Ananda-Lahari says that during the early races he was thrilled at the nearly daily visits of the founder of the race Sri Chinmoy. “Somebody may say, ‘So what.’ But for me when I look back on my life it was really significant.”
“The significance of the race for me has not changed. It has always been to complete the distance .”
Yesterday Takasumi ran 60 miles giving him a 23 day total of 1372 miles. At the end of an additional 3 days of running here the crucial half way point will have been reached. Takasumi has just to continue exactly what he is doing now in order to be on the happy side of the math.
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“Physically I am kind of confident. I have done a lot of races. I feel as though I have trained well but in reality the race has been challenging physically. It doesn’t go in the way you suspect.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“Mentally I feel stable but it goes up and down. When I am down what I do is take a nap and then feel refreshed. Fortunately my wife is very cheerful and really supports me and that’s how I mentally cope with the challenges of the race.”
“I definitely feel I am being helped by so many people.”
The Board at the start of Day 24
Camp
Clock
The race director
Medur
Takasumi
Annugata
Wei Ming presenting me with a ‘Never Give Up tag.’
Vasu and Stutisheel
Harita
Andrea
Ready to start
Start Day 24
Andrea did 72 miles
He now has 1629 miles
Doing very well
Flower
Filling the hand wash unit
Wei Ming did 63 miles
He now has 1473 miles
Flower
Samahita with figs
Harita did 56 miles
She now has 1423 miles
Golden moments
Flower
Technical list
Olga and Anjali
Vasu did 68 miles
He now has 1423 miles
With Sasha
Flower
Sasha
Stutisheel did 64 miles
He now has 1362 miles
Flower
Camp
Ananda-Lahari did 48 miles
He now has 1313 miles
Flower
To solve my outer problems,
I take help
From many, many human beings.
“I was very willing to come to the race, but I didn’t understand its true meaning until I actually got here.”
It has been 3 weeks for all the runners now to adjust and find both the method and meaning of why they have come here to do this supremely difficult thing. For Wei Ming his success at being able to complete over 1400 miles strengthens his resolve, each day his confidence is growing. He feels now that he will succeed and be triumphant and reach his goal of completing 3100 miles.
“I have been running 100km a day which is usually over my limit so I am surprised that I can handle it. I am confidant that I can finish the race.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“I am getting into a regular routine every day the same. I am getting better and better.”
“All the runners are part of this. I watch everybody and learn from them. I get strength from all the runners. I think it is important that all of us are able to finish the race.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“In the beginning my concept was that every little step was significant as well as each lap and each mile. The process was most important not just focusing on the finish.”
“Every step I take is very important.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
Wei Ming at the end of our interview stops and wants to make one last emphatic point. “I did not come here to win and beat others. I came here to challenge myself and to be better.”
“I think we all know that our minds put boundaries on things. I think we have a sense deep inside of us, of this unlimited potential and capacity that we have. But we sometimes do not have the means to access it. Or to really believe in ourselves or to have the spiritual capacity to access that part of ourselves.”
“For all of us I think that finding that part within yourself. Giving it a go and daring to believe that you have more capacity that your mind will ever let you realize. That can be the biggest challenge in life.”
When asked if Harita has to break any of her own barriers during the race she laughs. “At every moment.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“Often we look as though everything is great. And of course things are totally great in the inner worlds. But we are dealing with the limitations of the body and the mind. And it is a real combination of pushing beyond them. Using your spirituality or this deeper part of yourself so that you can flow with the universal consciousness.”
When asked if these lessons and experiences can translate into her life outside the race, “I hope so. How can it not. Everything we do does.”
Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photo
“Being patient, treasuring each moment, and living in the moment as well.” Harita describes that she doesn’t analyze whether or not there are benefits to be gained to her life outside the concrete loop. “I am just trying to live in the moment and do the best I can. And be really surrendered to whatever happens.”
“Challenges here can come at any moment. You can be running really well, and an injury can happen.” Come what may she says all the experiences she has here are all real opportunities.
“To become the best people that we can. I think the best thing for my progress here is to be totally surrendered. Try to be in the moment. Try to be happy. Try to have faith that whatever happens has a greater purpose and significance.”
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