Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

Archived – click Post Title to view all. Day , 25 Wednesday, July 7, 2010 It’s 11:20 p.m. At first, a few words about yesterday. Now looking backward at my knee pain, it’s clear that it was getting worse and worse day after day. The first lap in the morning of the 24th day I walked for 19 minutes, although I did it for 15 minutes on my worst day. Several times I had to stop, because my right knee just did not allow me to move… When at about 3 p.m. I decided to take pain killers to somehow move on, on my next lap I felt a great stabbing on the other side of the knee. Absolutely wet I made it to the tent. It was my last 33th lap on the 24th day. The air temperature that day was around 40 degrees Celsius plus a horrible humidity. I was sick several times from the heat. So, all eggs in one basket! Later, Pupantar and Bipin came into the trailer and we took a decision that I had to take a break my knee got better. On the 25th day I did 0 laps. Today Rupantar took me to another chiropractor for procedures. I felt better afterwards. But still I cannot walk without crutches. Tomorrow he is planning to take me to a physical therapist who had treated Suprabha. I hope she will clarify what’s wrong. On the 25th day Asprihanal was also missing from the course. He had a dehydration and inflammation of the nail . At the…

entire post by Utpal is available here When I shook Ray’s hand early this morning it was clear that it unmistakably belonged to a big guy who worked hard. It was about the size of both of my hands put together. He was driving one of the jumbo dump trucks that is currently hauling the last of the huge loads of dirt out of the nearby field. The gate was still locked, so he came by to find out who could possibly be up and working earlier than a guy like him, who made his living getting up early and working hard.

Results from the day 23, miles. Asprihanal Aalto 65.31 Total 1611.83 Pranjal Milovnik 63.12 Total 1543.23 Galya Balatsky 61.46 Total 1517.43 Petr Spacil 43.9 Total 1475.17 Pushkar C Mullauer 61.47 Total 1456.52 Ananda-Lahari Zuscin 55.98 Total 1401.09 Pavol Saraz 58.17 Total 1381.88 Dharbhasana Lynn 63.66 Total 1370.35 Stutisheel Lebedyev 37.87 Total 1368.16 Purna-Samarpan Querhammer 55.43 Total 1253.46 Surasa Maier 47.19 Total 1228.21

10:14 pm. It’s my fourth walking day. I did run in the morning for a while but after I had taken a pain-killer which lasted only 3 hours. Generally, I resort to pain-killers only in extreme situations… In the afternoon, two chiropractors tended to my knee. They both said that there was nothing seriously wrong with it, just a little swell. Looks like it’s my inner task to transcend the pain threshold and start running again. It’s always like this at the 3,100-mile race: unless you solve an inner problem, you won’t be running. The weather’s been hot – 37-38С. Today I saw Purna-Samarpan and Petya bathing in the fountain on the playground. In the early morning, Asprihanal crossed the half way mark (1,550 miles) and celebrated it with half a glass of water.

Results from the day 22, miles. Asprihanal Aalto 68.6 Total 1546.52 Pranjal Milovnik 68.05 Total 1480.11 Galya Balatsky 61.47 Total 1455.97 Petr Spacil 53.78 Total 1431.27 Pushkar C Mullauer 60.37 Total 1395.05 Ananda-Lahari Zuscin 63.11 Total 1345.11 Stutisheel Lebedyev 33.48 Total 1330.29 Pavol Saraz 59.82 Total 1323.71 Dharbhasana Lynn 62.01 Total 1306.69 Purna-Samarpan Querhammer 40.61 Total 1198.03 Surasa Maier 52.14 Total 1181.02

It’s the Fourth of July when Americans celebrate their national holiday Independence Day. It’s mostly quiet on and around the course on this day. There are only a few people playing basketball or softball. Individual fireworks are banned, but people will shoot a lot of firecrackers later in the day. Some started rehearsing yesterday .

They were so loud that the automobile alarms went crazy all at once. In the morning, Parvati’s group sang “America the Beautiful” and a few other patriotic songs. Inspired by Ashprihanal we decided to entertain them and give a little performance to celebrate Independence Day. It was a kind of a game. We gave them a list of running styles and they had to guess which style a runner is demonstrating. We had Suprabha’s style (Stutisheel), a drunken monkey style (Ashprihanal), a military style (Pavol), chi-running (Purna Samarpan), a football style (Galya Balatsky), a singing one (Surasa), a soulful one (Ananda-Lahari) and some others. Some were really funny. There’s no holiday without gifts. The temperature is 35-36C. Purna-Samarpan is walking. Petya is struggling with heat. Surasa is dealing with her shin splints (“I felt a sudden stab”). My knee has prevented me from running for three days is a row. Petya commented on the situation that last year we demonstrated that we were good at running, and this year we will be working on our spiritual progress . Ashprihanal is likely to pass the half way point in the race tomorrow morning.