Perfection Journey
The Ten Day board after 5 days
Budjargal leads the 10 Day Men
Makula leads the 10 Day women
The Six Day board after 1 Day
Joe leads in the six day
Susan leads in the 6 day
Continue reading “Day 6 Ten Day Race/ Day 2 Six Day Race 2019: Let Us Go Forward”
The Start of the 6 Day race begins at noon
The Board after 4 Days
John Geesler and Joe Feles arriving for the 6 Day race
Saranyu registering
Nikolaus running for the first time along with veteran Joe Cleary
Annabel Hepworth, Australian ultra runner of the year
Susan Marshall
Sahishnu introduces the runners
Continue reading “Day 5 Ten Day / Day 1 Six Day Race 2019: A Higher Power”
The Board after 72 hours
Budjargal remains the overall leader with 276 miles
He ran 76 miles on his 3rd day
Mahasatya is tied with Takasumi for 2nd with 220 miles
Feet still looking good
Vinati is in 2nd place in the women with 182 miles
Tomorrow the 6 day race starts
The Board after 48 hours
Budjargal is leading overall with 200 miles his goal
Makula taking a break leads the women with 140 miles
Fernando is in 2nd with 167 miles
Giribhu is 2nd with 125 miles
Georgs who won the first 10 day race in 1996 with 721 miles. He is 76
Flower
Continue reading “Day Three, 10 Day Race 2019: An Inner Experience”
The Board for the 10 Day Runners after 24 hours
Budjargal leads the men with 110 miles
Mahakula leads the women with 80 miles
Andrea Marcato
Takasumi is 2nd
Giribhu is 2nd
Anna
Continue reading “Day Two, 10 Day Race 2019: Do Good Things”
The board of course at the start of the day is empty
Budjargal will be wearing number 1
I had a chance to talk with him before the start
Tents are still going up
The phone never stops ringing
Continue reading “Start 10 Day Race 2019: I Must Challenge Myself”
A view of the camp with 24 hours to go before the start
Runners are arriving
Welcome back Huang Lan Yang and Wei Ming Lo and
The building of the camp is on schedule
Daulot
Vasuprada’s tent
Continue reading “Day Before 10 Day Race 2019: Tomorrow’s Perfection Will Come”
“I am happy,” Kaneenika tells me this morning.
It is hard to imagine that it is even remotely possible for Kaneenika to be happy and yet she is. She starts once again another hot and brutal day pounding along a Queens NYC sidewalk with 59 hard miles still ahead of her. Yet in the whispering moments before midnight she will have reached her goal and run 3100 miles here once again.
I make a statement that I wonder how she will respond. That the race asks of the runners more than they can imagine and yet gives back more than they could ever dream. “Yes, I think that is a very true statement, and I think this race proved it to me more than any race I have run before.”
“I have had hard races even before I started running the 3100, but maybe because this one is so long. I really wanted to finish. This race was pretty hard.”
Kaneenika had told me that she had been working on staying happy and says that like in all things, “there is always room for improvement for everything in life.”
“What I have received from this is that I feel closer to my source. With each step I feel as though I was getting closer and closer. Yesterday it was so hot and humid, and I was trying to push so that I could finish.”
“But there was a part of the day when I felt like there was nothing left in me. So I felt that the Supreme was trying to show me that this race is not about the physical. It is actually more than 100% the Supreme’s grace that we are able to do this race.”
“This morning I had 106 laps to go. I have just done 6 so there is just 100 more to go. Today though I can really see the finish line. Yesterday was really hard for me. It wasn’t that I was doubting that I would make it but it was certainly hard for me to imagine it. To run 2 more days in conditions like this, and really having to push.”
“It is all the Supreme’s grace.”
The Board at the Start of Day 52….*Note the totals may not be accurate…Magic number is 3,039*
A great finish
People came
For some their time comes soon
Singers practiced Sri Chinmoy’s Austria song
The Board is changed
“I am happy of course that soon it will be over. This last week is so long. It feels like it will never end.”
On this the 50th day of the race Surasa is 157 miles from the finish line and has a full three days in which to do it. But unfortunately the weather between now and Tuesday when she should finish could well be as hot, humid, and miserable as a New York summer can be.
“Each race is different for me. I have had those in which there was a happy ending, in the last days and so on. But this time, and maybe because the weather was so challenging.” When I mention the grim forecast that lies ahead she says, “that is good. We get everything until the end.”
“I have great helpers. They help me each time I race. Most of the time I have the same helpers, for many many years. They know me and I know them. It is perfect. I have very good helpers.” Surasa says that to perform as well as she does she just couldn’t do the race without help. “I need so many things. Without helpers you lose so much time.”
Surasa is encouraged when she receives letters from friends and supporters. She really appreciates when people around the world send her best wishes and encouragement. “When they are praying for me it touches me always, very very deeply. It helps me. The concern I can feel. That they make the effort to write.
“When I get messages I am always so grateful, that I have so many nice sisters and brothers around the world.”
“This race was challenging because of the weather. In the end I am so happy and only grateful that I have done it. You know at the end that it was worth the struggle. I am just happy that I took the challenge and I could do it. So at the end there is always gratitude and gratitude.”
