Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

Utpal’s blog from June 28, 2010 The runners have barely even stumbled and staggered through the first lap of the day and already most are sweating.  Not just a moist sheen on the brow kind of perspiration.  Instead visualize the sticky clammy free flow of moisture bursting out from within kind.   The molecular geyser sort that gushes out out onto the surface of one’s body, in order to do the only thing nature has shown it what to do, in order to try and keep us cool. The crazy thing is, that it is not even really very hot, at least not yet anyway. Read more

4:20pm.  I am at the race counting laps. It’s 36C in the shade. At midnight yesterday it was 28C. It’s been an extreme summer. Asprihanal has bounced back and is leading the race again. He is in a fabulous mood, his confidence is back and it couldn’t but tell on his speed. Looks like he is being immune to the heat.The same is true for Pranjal and Galya. The gap between the two is closing. I always find it unbelievable: the runners have covered 2,300 miles and the gap between them is just a couple of miles! Dharbasana has got problems with a ham string and he has to switch into a walking mode. Baladev has been walking the whole day, too. Purna Samarpan is getting close to the mark of 1,884 miles which was his total mileage in 41 days of the race last year. My knee is slowly but steadily getting better. I even can walk in a certain posture. It turned out I had problems not only with ligaments. It’s a bunch of other issues I need to tend to.

I asked Galya at what time he had gone to sleep the previous night.

He said: “Shortly after 2am. I ran until 11:53pm (68,6 miles) and reached home at 00:15. I was hungry as usual. Fixed some sandwiches and a hot cereal. Then I took a shower and sat down… Guess at what time I became conscious again? Around 2 a.m. :) And realized that while doing the last laps I was thinking of coconut ice cream. So I decided to acton my cravings.  I had some ice cream and went to bed only at 2.30am. Thank God I made it to the start on time. So no regrets about the ice cream thing.

1:20 am. Galya  Balatskyy from the Ukraine led the day with 69.14 miles yesterday. For several days in a row he’s stayed at the course until midnight. He’s already in the finishing mode where shifts in top gear. However, he and Purna-Samarpan didn’t show up at the start at 6am and started at 6:04am. Galya is complaining that since my drop-out nobody has been reading him jokes and anecdotes :) Pushkar has just crossed the 2,000 mile split. Dharbasana is expected to do that tomorrow. Asprihanal has finally bouncedback. Moreover, his brother is coming to help him. The race has successfully made it to mid-summer.