Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

Day 1
It’s been six and a half hours since the start of the race. So far, so good.  I feel as if I were back home and it feels right.  All worries, anxieties and problems are left behind. We are in for a simple life. Each day is a step towards the goal. With no deflections. With maximum self-giving.
The starting ceremony was nice. Many people came. It’s the second or the third time in a row that the Counsel General for Slovakia and his wife have home, as the Slovaks outnumber all other runners here. He is such a nice person. He studied in Moscow for quite a long time and speaks fluent Russian. As I mentioned before, we’ve got two new runners. They are Surasa from Austria and Dharbasana from New Zealand. Surasa is a courageous woman of 51 who is challenging the longest race. Now she looks pretty confident and is running fast. On the first day everybody has a fast run  . I started in a bandana which Sri Chinmoy had given to each runner after his trip to Japan in 2006.  As it turned out, they all had different hieroglyphs. Mine said “God-speed”. The course itself is  more or less quite today which is always the case on Sunday. They are renovating the stadium which resulted in the pavement being narrowed down and a lot of machinery around. I imagine a lot noise and dust on weekdays. As usual, Parvati’s group came to sing songs specially written by Sri Chinmoy to inspire the runners. It’s so great! There’s another project Parvati came up with. There are about 40-50 trees on the course. So she came up with the idea to plant flowers around them and water them on a regular basis, as it is going to be very hot. Now it’s 28 Celsius and cloudy. It’s good weather for running compared to what can set in mid-summer. Volunteers have chosen the trees to plant flowers and tending to them throughout the summer. I am passing some of them now. They newly-planted flowers look really beautiful  When one runs on the concrete course for days, flowers can make a huge difference. Their fragrance, refinement and beauty do help in life. Stay tuned!

48th day, 11 am

I passed the 3000-mile point about 40 min. ago. It means I am running
the final straight. The finish is tomorrow! On the first of August
which is the 49th day!

Volodya will finish tomorrow morning around 8.30 am, then around noon
is Pranjal’s turn. Then me around 5pm. So everything is going very
well. I am in a confident and calm mood.

Today we were blessed by the rain. But we got so used to it that it
doesn’t matter whether your snickers are wet or not, whether your
T-shirt is wet or not, you just run.

Supraba keeps going ahead. She runs according to her schedule. At 6 am
she starts together with us. Then in the evening around 8-9 pm she
gets a ride home. She does fewer miles than before, but she looks
quite fresh and moves ahead confidently.
Yesterday night and today morning I had a feeling that the race is
done for me. As if in the inner world everything had already happened.
What is needed to be done outwardly to get the 3100 point is to just
perm my legs. But it looks like everything is already done.
Greetings to all!
TOMORROW!!!

Funny stories.
There is one “swami” here (we call him so) doing his everyday jogging.
He always wears an orange T-shirt and orange shorts. He tries to
compete with us! It is not normal. He runs in the same direction and he
tries to leave us behind. Then another person came and began to compete
too. So, I had to put things in their proper order. This “pedagogical”
lap I ran for 4.32. My usual time for one lap is 7.30. They do not
realize that we are already trained very well. Our training has lasted
for 46 days from morning and till night. So they should not mess with
us. It is dangerous :-))))

46th day, 7.40am
In a few hours Petya is going to finish, and he is improving his time
by three and a half days. Yesterday, when Grahak finished the race, he
set a new Australian record; besides, he set his personal record which
was two day better then his previous one. Grahak became number three in
rating of the 3100 miles race. Madhupran, Ashprihanal and then Grahak.
Super! Just super! Taking into account that it is his third race and he
did not have any experience of multiday races before this 3100.
This morning we all were surprised. We saw Suprabha again at the
starting line. Perhaps she was overwhelmed with emotions being at the
celebration of the Grahak finish yesterday. It is a very special
feeling when somebody finishes. So, she is running today. Not so fast,
but she is running. So, never say “never”!
Yesterday I had a good day. One more time 69 miles. Of course, by
evening my legs are no so light like it was a month ago. I have to work
hard. And even very hard. But when at the last moment you do one more
lap, you are just overwhelmed with satisfaction which comes from
self-transcendence. It is just a flight. Just super!
Yesterday I went to bed at quarter to twelve, but a few more days left.
So, it’s OK.

45th day, 8.30am.
Well, Asprihanal finished at 10.30pm yesterday. He was so tired that
did not even run 13 laps to complete 5,000 km. Today in the morning I
was alone in the car without my car mate. Asprihanal said that probably
after a good sleep he would come to do these 13 laps today.

More news. Suprabha quit. To be exact, she quit yesterday because of
progressing pain in her spine, but today she decided to give herself
the last chance. She walked 7 laps… And this is the final “stop”. 2413
miles in her 13th Race. She is a real divine hero!

Grahak is going to finish around 4pm with a new record of Australia. A
little bit later, I will talk with this “jumping kangaroo”. If one
looks at all the runners from the side, one might notice that they are
running with knees half- bent.
But he pushes off, like jumping or something. For sure, dwellers of
Australia influence his style.
See you.

I was caught in the rain, I tried to get shelter under a tree. Can you
imagine: thunderstorm around, this tree is useless. And out of the
blue, a car stopped behind me, through the opened window a hand gave me
a plastic raincoat, – Take it, boy. Take it. I said, – Thank, you. But
while I tried to figure out how to put it on, the rain was over and
certainly I got soaked to the skin. People happen to be kind here.

44th day. At 6 am it was 63 miles to cover for Asprihanal to get the
finish point. He is going to do it around 10 pm. Closer to the end,
I’ll try to get this flying Finn to talk and I am going to interview
him.
Today is Parvati’s singing group anniversary. When Sri Chinmoy gave
them a new name, it was Enthusiasm awakeners.
As I’ve already told you, they get together and sang for runners every
day at 6.40.
It is the second day in a row that Parvaty has been celebrating this
jubilee. And they prepared gifts for each runner. Today we got a
wonderful hat with a sign “3100 mile runner powered by grace and
enthusiasm”, a beautiful running T-shirt and a lot of tasty things.
It’s a real holiday.
Yesterday New York reminded us what thunderstorms are like. In the
afternoon we had two strong thunderstorms here – everything was flooded
with water, branches were broken by wind. And it lasted for 5 min. Once
I was running along a highway and suddenly I realized that I didn’t see
anything ahead of me, kind of a void. Then I understood that it was a
rain wall and it moved towards me. I just thought that there was no
place to hide and was overwhelmed. We got that fierce storm for the
first time, but it was a warm thunderstorm though. It was fun, but I
was wet from top to toe. Then one hour later, another thunderstorm
burst once again. 5 minutes and it was over, sun was shining, just we
were wet to the skin.
Another story was with Volodya. He was lucky. When it started, he was
quite near the van and successfully found a shelter there, for the
second time he was in the toilet cabin and waited there for a few
minutes. Then he went out absolutely dry. I’m jealous.