Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race. – Page 64

June 26 Can Only Happen Here

At one time, in the early 1950’s, Jim Peters was the best marathon runner in the world. This English distance great broke the world record for the marathon 4 times. He was the first to run under 2 hours and 20 minutes. In this race he ran 2:17 which was his personal best. He was well known for giving all that he had in each and every race that he ran.

Most athletes understand this attitude. Holding nothing back in competition is what all the finest sports figures do. In distance running however the consequences of this can be devastating. In the commonwealth games marathon in Vancouver in 1954 Jim Peters collapsed from heat stroke just before the finish line. At the time he was leading the next competitor by 17 minutes. Some years later, when the Commonwealth games returned to Vancouver, he was invited back to complete his historic last lap of the track. Continue reading “June 26 Can Only Happen Here”

June 25 Like Being On an Island

From space the Google map can easily take in the entire course. From this vantage you cannot see any pain, nor fatigue, nor heat, nor damp. You are not aware of any challenge of any kind. In fact, what you see from way up here is almost unreal. The buildings and cars look like toys frozen in time, on some child’s playground. They say every picture tells a story but this one speaks so little.

Continue reading “June 25 Like Being On an Island”

June 23 The Good Runner Inside You

Taking care of the feet is a daily ritual for Ananda Lahari, Pranjal, Pranab, and Pavol. It will take each of them about 15 minutes to tape and prepare their feet before the start. With the many days of rain it was particularly important to do this as the wet conditions made it easier for the feet to blister

Suprabha is one who comes ready to run. She is less than 10 miles behind where she was this time in last years race. Like nearly all here she has passed the 500 mile mark.

Continue reading “June 23 The Good Runner Inside You”

June 20 Best Place to Be

His arrival this morning is both equal parts, a surprise and to be expected. Pranab has not recorded any miles or covered any laps for 2 days prior to yesterday. One cannot say that, either he is cured of his rash or, that it is getting any worse.

Yesterday he ran a very respectable 57 miles. As the day begins he is 200 miles behind Ashprihanal and more than 70 behind the next to last runner.

Rupantar inspects his condition and gives him the go ahead to go on for another day. Many might not understand why he perseveres, when clearly no one would blame him for just giving up. He has, in every respect, just begun his journey, and has 2860 miles to go. Yet to surrender to defeat is not in the heart of these champions. Their journey here is so much more than the sum of the miles run. The intensity of the experience here is like no other just as there is no other race even remotely like it. To be on the course with them is to feel just a fragment of the powerful, and the divine forces, which push and call them onward. What will happen to Pranab in the next few days and miles is anyone’s guess. Just as it is impossible to ponder the experiences that will arrive, and both bless and challenge all the others. For all of them there is no surrender to failure. Only surrender to the light that burns most powerfully within them all.

My morning begins

And I give God

My smiling heart of newness,

While God gives me

His dancing Breath of Fullness.

Excerpt from My Morning Begins by Sri Chinmoy.