Multi day races have been with us a long time. There are some records that show it was a sport as early as the late 18th century and certainly it continued on, well into the 20th. There was a time when it was considered a popular spectator sport. It was something every body could identify with, because for just about everybody, walking was the only way you were going to get anywhere. You were probably very lucky to have a horse in the early days, and to have the capacity to cover great distances on foot was practical. It was also probably pretty entertaining for those who couldn’t make it so far.
Eventually it became a real spectator event, and sometimes people would come by the thousands to watch, and perhaps make a little wager now and then. Well there are no bets on the outcome of the Self Transcendence race here in Flushing Meadow. No world records are likely to be broken and yet some pretty wonderful things are happening here just the same on a regular basis. Though mostly they are very personal and very private experiences happening from time to time to each and every runner. The little miracles that make such a difficult challenge as this so rewarding to those who undertake it.
Many helpers flow in and out of the camp at all hours of the day and night 
but you would hardly say there were any spectators. It is a happy place but it is also a busy place. The runners are trying to do their best and the many helpers are trying their very best to make this experience as perfect as possible for them. I have heard stories of multi day races in which there are in fact very few helpers at all, particularly at night. Technology in these races is used as best it can to keep score and track all the data. There isn’t much high tech equipment at the Self Transcendence race. It is very much about people working and sometimes playing together. Achieving goals that aren’t virtual but are real. All happening both outwardly and inwardly, creating true experiences that just might change your life.
It is really nice to know that there are so many people all over the world who are trying to follow what is happening here. Thanks to the internet you can pretty much see who is trying to tap into the race from afar. In Denmark there are a lot of folks following Lars and in Australia there are those who are routing for Martin, Sarah, and Dipali. There is one red dot in the middle of Russia that really has me baffled. Many of these people are more than icons on a map. They are family and friends and fellow runners who just couldn’t come, but are really interested in what is happening here.
The Self Transcendence race is only a click away via the internet. All the results are available every day, hundreds of photographs, and yes blog posts. As I look at those dots, I sometimes like to imagine the faces of those who are staring into computer screens to watch. I have a hope that for all you who take the time to visit via the internet that you remember how wonderful it is to just to stand on a great green field of grass here, blazing with golden flowers and feel the runners pass by. See their brilliant smiles and sometimes, if only briefly, the other side. Expressions that come from a place that exists on the distant shore away from joy.
There are fires burning in the hearts of all who run here. It is powerful and it is inspiring, and I hope that maybe just maybe you too might really feel that Self Transcendence is taking place not just in a breezy park in Flushing Meadow. That maybe you can identify in a way in which it is real for you as well. That in your identification with those who are trying so hard you become much more than a little red dot far away. That you too feel the fire within.
For much of humanity the only thing that really matters in their lives are the numbers. We can try sometimes and define who we are by what we have, what we know, and yes, by what we do. This simple math can reveal rudimentary aspects of our lives but certainly not the totality of who we really are. The 6 and 10 race is an extraordinary place to find and reveal aspects of your being that perhaps you didn’t even know existed. Peel back the exterior bits of how we generally see ourselves. Then you can confront the tigers lurking within. Maybe as well become better acquainted with the glowing core within each of us and ultimately allow transformation and self transcendence to become the real goal in our lives.
“The biggest challenge I thought, as I looked at the weather forecast is the weather.” We are running together in the pitch darkness of the night. The first tender hours of Sunday have barely begun and for the moment the conditions are still and almost perfect. At this point Dipali has been running for a little more than 36 hours. “It was freezing when we started, and when I came out at 3 am this morning it rained right up until about 2 in the afternoon, and I mean it rained. I think we are doing pretty well,” she says, and laughs lightly.
I actually prefer this time of night, after 9 o’clock, when most of the runners go to bed. And I actually indulge in the quietness. Everybody has kind of gone, and there is just a handful of people. I find it very peaceful and I stay out here to about 1am. I probably won’t be resting for very long. Maybe a couple of hours off the track and then I will be back out again. That is just years of practice.”
Dipali Cunningham now at age 52 is tremendously knowledgeable about distance running and has achieved numerous victories in her races and on occasion, has not only won the women’s division, but been the leader overall as well. With all her success she ultimately gives credit to her late teacher Sri Chinmoy, who she feels taught her the inner lessons that she could apply not just on the road but in her life as well. “The inner courage, the inner determination, and the wisdom.” The race is incredibly difficult and she tries to always focus on the positive. Use the opportunity of running to not only add up the miles but find the route that will as well lead to her own spiritual progress.
“These people inspire me. They are bringing me this newness freshness, that you don’t want to disappear in your own consciousness.” She has after all done 32 multi day events in 20 years. This year, in almost a complete change to her usual schedule, she ran a 24 hour race in Ottawa in the fall. “I was really inspired to try it, and I had a great time. I couldn’t believe how it was so different, and yet I feel that I can improve at it. That next time I can do more.”
It is simply my favorite time to be at the race. Right now, it is either very late at night, or early in the morning, take your pick. The air is absolutely still, and a soothing warmth has ebbed back into the camp. At 2 o’clock in the morning New York is still a very busy place. Cars continue to dash by on the freeway, but there are many fewer at this hour. Planes don’t scream in and out of La Guardia. The constant rumbling stress and urgency of the outer world has receded into the night’s gentle shadows. For now, the world in Flushing Meadow Park is just about the runners, making their methodical way around the course. Chasing after very real dreams that don’t come as easily to those who sleep.
Sometimes you hear their steps before you can actually see them emerging out of the darkness.
Nobody might really notice if you have let a mile slip away here and there from your daily total. But you will know. You will, as soon as the results are posted, recognize a nag and torment of the, ‘if I had not slept so long.’ Some of course at this Self Transcendence race move relentlessly and with a kind of precise efficiency. That is the veterans and the record holders of course. Experience has taught them clearly, when the mind and body simply no longer tell the truth. When aches and fatigue cry with such alarm that they can scarcely be denied. But these are voices that need to be reckoned with, just as you would answer a small tempestuous child. Somewhere within the heart of each runner, they know what they can and must do. Reach beyond the limitations that seem so real. Push further, add another step, and still another, until hopefully you push beyond all the things that hold you back. Emerge on the other side of dreams into the sun bright light of your heart’s reality.
“I am probably still a rookie in this game.” Maybe it is the very nature of multi day running itself that allows very talented runners like Lars Christoffersen to be able to be so humble. Even the very best can achieve little if any fame in this most challenging of endurance sports, and, if you are looking for a fortune, you will never find it at the end of the long 6 day road.
Lars had done just 2 6 day races prior to coming here. His first was in Sweden just 3 years ago. He tells me, “it was a pretty good race but it was raining 5 out of the 6 days.” I remind him that those kind of conditions pretty much described the race here last year. Currently the forecast is predicting some wet conditions over the next couple of days.
He decided that he would just run, “because that was the easiest way to loose the weight.” With this new training regime he lost 15 kgs. in half a year. He was impressed with how quickly his weight dropped and at that time he ran his first marathon in 3:45. He tells me that his experience in the race was pretty hard, but just the same he thought, “if I can do this maybe I can do more. I heard about a 6 hour race and I think. Let me try that.” That race was in his home town in Denmark. Surprisingly, “I broke the course record the first time with 72km.” With this run, the door opened wide to the world of multi day running.
Most days when I visit the course I generally have no fixed plan of who I am going to speak with or what pictures I need to take. I try and be as spontaneous as possible, and if inspiration calls out, I just hope I can move fast enough to catch up with it. I am never going to have the constant intense experiences like the runners, but I know that even in a short visit something profound and meaningful can happen when you least expect it.
There is no retirement, in the classic sense for Nirbili. For retirees, who just enjoy sitting back in their rocking chairs, she says, “they are missing out on a awful lot. I couldn’t do that.”
20 miles into her first marathon she was not certain that she could even finish it. If there was anything certain to Grete Waitz at that moment, on a cold October morning, was that most definitely she would never run a marathon again. Yet she did in fact complete the race that day. The second half of her race would turn out to be faster than her first. She not only completed running her first New York city marathon in 1978, she broke the world record as well by running 2:32:30.
