July 24, Utpal: Constant Blessings

“I never broke the record before today.”

This is the 13th time that 44 year old Finnish runner Ashprihanal has run the hardest, longest race in the world.  The Self Transcendence race record books are full of his accomplishments, but today he has set a very unique record when he won the Self Transcendence 3100 mile race and set a new incredible record. One that was apparently years in the making but today took just 40 days, 9 hours, and 6 seconds to accomplish.

“It feels very nice.  I feel that I did it for Guru.” As Ashprihanal is saying these things he is sitting in a chair as relaxed and content as it may be possible to be.  He has not had this opportunity to relax for more than 40 days.  If offered he also would not have taken it.  He never once slipped from his relentless pushing over the 3100 miles he has run.

In the background Sahishnu, one of the race directors calls out.  “You did 3 kilometers a day more than Madhupran did.”

“That is good.” Ashprihanal’s time is 23 hours faster than Madhupran when he set the record in 2006.  Recently he sent this message to Ashprihanal

I am tremendously happy for you - you deserve the world record! Your constancy and focus is spectacular. I have always admired you for your ease. You run like a feather. This is self-transcendence par excellence. You are the greatest! I am happy for you with all my heart.

Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk

When asked if he had been thinking about the record from the first day, “absolutely.  It was definitely my plan, right from the start.  I had a funny experience my first day.  Mdhupran’s first day was 85 miles.  My best first day so far was 90 miles.  So I was thinking I would do between 85 and 90 miles the first day.”

“Than some voice in my head said, stop that false modesty, and so then I did 94 miles.  I stopped thinking about what I was doing, and just went for it.  It worked.”

tape

Read more 

Comments are closed.