Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

Utpal’s post The Hour Has Come is available here

Utpal’s post is available at: Now It Is Summer At Last

Archived – click Post Title to view all. 7.40 pm It’s the first day that life’s been getting better. It looks like the transition is drawing to its close. I’ve been running in a more confident manner, a little faster and, most importantly, with no problems. Almost painless. I am still having problems with night sleep. From previous race experience I know that it takes from two to three weeks to get a sound restful sleep. Nevertheless, I was full of energy this morning. The energy comes into motion. I mean it. Energy does come into motion. Others are OK too. No major injuries and failures. Surasa is still fighting her shin splints. It’s like treating a runny nose: when you treat it, it takes 7 days to get better; when you don’t, it takes a week. Volodya’s got swollen feet, and he’s wearing special knee-length socks to tighten up his gastrocnemius muscles. The body has all kinds of reactions to the transition. His legs look like those of a body-builder. He is being stable, though. Dharbasana is being enthusiastic. We noticed that he was running in regular marathon shoes. One does need a better strategy for the concrete. He won’t listen to our advice. I guess he has to figure it out by himself soon. Our race was on the verge of being closed down. We were attacked by terrorists. The brave American police defended the longest race in the world just brilliantly. The thing is we really saw a suitcase under the tree. As it…

Archived – click Post Title to view all. Fifth day, 5:55 pm. All runners are moving forward, not too fast, but steadily and confidently. Today Asprihanal initiated me into the elite club of space cadets and he had two reasons for it. First of all, around 1 am my alarm started ringing for me to wake up and prepare for the new day of the race. And the second reason is that I indeed woke up and was about to leave for the race! The story started as follows: Yesterday Asprihanal left the course around 11 pm. I got back home where we live together at my usual time around 11:45 pm. He already was asleep. When I entered the room after having a shower, my alarm had been ringing for about 5 minutes. Asprihanal was tumbling in his bed. Later I realized that for some reason the clock had switched to the Ukrainian time and the alarm started ringing as if I were in Kiev. The second part of the story happened at 4 am. I do not know why, but I woke up and started getting ready for the race. I went to the bathroom, shaved, then I packed everything to take to the course and was about to leave. Suddenly I took a glance at my watch and realized that it was 4 am only! I was happy because it meant that I had one extra hour before I had to wake up. Of course,…

It’s 16 June, the fourth day of the race. 19.43. A transitional stage at its best. Volodya and I thought that day 3 would be the hardest. As it’s turned out there is day 4 which is even tougher. I couldn’t get a nice sleep. No matter how comfortable my sleeping position throughout the night was, I got muscle pain anyway. So, I had a hard time staying awake on the course. I felt better only close to the evening. I am even having a good run now. Everybody is cruising at a slower pace. Even Ashprihanal is functioning in an energy-saving mode. In spite of her shin splints, Surasa is quite active in her running and walking, although she could do faster. My friends keep sending me jokes, anecdotes and picture funnies. It does cheer me up.

Surasa is running with a cabbage wrap around her ankle to cure her shin splints. She stops at a fence to do some stretching-up. Ashprihanal runs by and comments: – I wouldn’t advise you to do so much stretching – ?? – In this way you can attract rabbits. It would make it worse

Archived – click Post Title to view all. It’s the third day of the race. 9.23 am. It’s a little hotter today. The sky is clear which promises a sunny day. As usual, all the runners started at 6am and by 12pm they will have tried to do their utmost. On the second day at about 6pm I felt that I didn’t have to struggle so much and it was easier to run. There’s less pain and pushing. It felt as if I had passed a certain barrier. I still need another two or three days for my legs to get adjusted. Yesterday when I was leaving for home at 11.30 pm, they were aching. The mind though is absolutely lucid. I felt good after the whole day. I went to bed at 0.30am and was up at 5.10am. I woke up totally energized. Yesterday I made 120 laps which as a little more than 65 miles. I am very happy. Surasa who has slowed down a little bit is having problems with shin splints. When I caught up with her, I asked, “Do you know what to do about that?” She answered, “No idea. I’ve never had shin splints”. I said, “Great. Neither have I”. I recommended her a certain stretching technique which I resort to when feeling discomfort in periosteum. Purna-Samarpan is a birthday boy today. He’s turned 33. I guess it’s a very special thing to have a birthday on the course. We are having two more birthdays soon those of Petya’s and Volodya’s. But we…