Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

Archived – click Post Title to view all. Day, 25, 6.30 pm A few laps before, I paid a visit to Kaushal and he told me the secret why at every race I have difficulties during a full moon period. The matter is that today is the second day of the full moon. Yesterday, I ran quite well and today in the morning everything started well, but then it was getting harder and harder to run. Even to smile was difficult. I can not say that this day is totally ruined, but I began to feel worse and was all the time waiting for the evening when Kaushal would come. While he was examining me that half an hour, I absolutely forgot that it is my 25th day on the course. I was just in Heaven. He is so great!

It took him 5 minutes to understand that I had problems with renal functions, which is coming from full moon. My mother had weak kidneys. For sure, every full moon on the race is the most difficult time for me. Kaushal said it was not a big problem and he knew how to solve it. Then I had an aromatherapy session and pointillage. I was getting better right when he was working. He quickly fixed me up with  homeopathy and something more. So, he has a lot of secrets, and it is clear that he is a highly skilled specialist. When I was leaving him I was grinning like a Cheshire cat, I was already feeling well. Although I…

Archived – click Post Title to view all. Yesterday, I run another 65 miles. I was able to do more, but in the  afternoon I felt my left tendon starting to pull. It was because of deformation of my shoes. Now a pair of sneakers is finished in two days, and I start to feel pain in muscles, although sneakers are brand new – only soles are erased. Pranab tried to fix the problem with the glue rubber on the sole and mastered a new job. He uses the tires to fix the shoes. Now we are wearing Continental Super Sport tyres. It contains metallic fibers. It takes longer to erase it than to erase the original shoe. But nevertheless shoes lose its form. As most people, I step with a little inclination and all shoes in some time “warp”. So, yesterday it happened that the rubber was ok, but my shoe is out of its form, and I felt discomfort with my leg. I felt the familiar signs that it was high time I had changed running shoes, but then I decided to wait a little bit, as I wanted to save money. I changed them in the evening at 5-6 pm, and gradually it was getting more painful to walk. Still I was able to run, but to walk (to make a turn and so on) was very painful. I had to pirouette: to stop, to turn square angle and only after that to go on. But cabbage-therapy during the night and some other things made…

23rd day, 4.17 pm On last lap, Grahak passed the race midpoint - 1550 miles. He is the second runner who has passed this mark. Ashprihanal did this several days ago. So we’ve run half a race. As Ashprihanal says, the race goes downhill now, although the other runners have to still run and run to their midpoint, but the race quickly progresses. Both Ashprihanal and Grahak have shown their best time. Yesterday I did my 66 miles and the day before yesterday I had 65 miles. So I am running quite smoothly. The weather indulges us – the average temperature is 27-28 degrees above zero, sunny, and dry. Life is beautiful!

Archived – click Post Title to view all. Day 21, 7.20 pm, July, the 4th Today is the US Independence Day and Parvati’s group sang special songs dedicated to the USA written y Sri Chinmoy. I like these sngs very much and I even joined the group and sang “America the Beautiful”.

Ashprihanal long ago had an idea to congratulate Suprabha as the only  American at the race on her national holiday. He decided to sing some songs for her. We learned two songs. One is with her name and the other is a well-known “This Land is Your Land” Ashprihanal wanted to make it like a costume performance – he wanted to put on a high bowler hat, to make himself look like president Lincoln, and to give others wigs and to sing songs to Suprabha while running. There was not much we could do about stage props. You can see it on pictures. Truly, we were looking not like presidents, but more like pirates. Suprabha liked it, we all laughed. It was fun. Then surprises began. Smarana came, the Austrian national record-holder at 3,100-mile Self-transcendence race. He came for several weeks to help at the race and cheer us up. Smarana gave all of us a very delicious drink. Then I saw Jayasalini, who had dreamt a lot to visit the 3100-mile Self-transcendence race. She came here also to encourage us. She has the best result on the 10-day race among Russian women. Shilpa Taru, who is very close to finishing Sri Chinmoy’s sculpture, sent some pictures from…

Archived – click Post Title to view all. Day 20 3.24 pm I want to share some of my observations. I think our perception of the outer world and feelings become sharper. For example, the sky is neverthe same. Open space is everywhere here. Because of private two-storeyed houses we can clearly see sky. I like it very much,especially here, on the course. Such whimsical clouds and sunsets.Beauty is perceived more keenly. There also are a lot of trees along the course and I feel like sitting in their shadows and contemplatingto feel their peace, patience, care, and compassion. Everything is experienced more intensively as well. If you hear a funny joke, you just cannot stop laughing – such a positive outburst. If youread an aphorism which touches you, then you run for a long time underits impression. Here is an example: The pride of the earthly race And the joy of the heavenly race Have the same goal: Self-transcendence. The same is true for songs. Yesterday, I heard a new song of Purushottama Grebenshchikov “The most wonderful day”. I can not express how this song pierced into me. It suits my mood so much! All day long Iwas listening to this only song. It is interesting, but today I can hardly remember its lyrics (though there are only five lines) and music. So, I am ready to listen to it all day long again. This way we accept everything more intensively and deeply and, on the other hand, more peacefully. If there is any unpleasant news or disturbances, we take them calmly. “Come what may”…

I have had another smooth day, everything is ok. The weather was interesting today – very changeable and cloudy in the morning. It’s even difficult to believe that it was so cool on the 2nd of July –  ideal for running. Then the sun appeared and fried us. By the evening clouds came and it was heavy raining. Real rivers were running here. Asprihanal has had a hard day today – he is walking, talking to runners (which is great), listening to music. Purna-Samarpan runs more and more getting adjusted to the race. He has been doing more that 50 miles for several days and is going to increase the mileage. All others run well, without serious injures, we move forward. Today, nearly half a day I was listening to the new Grebenshchikov’s song “The best day”. I liked it so much! It describes perfectly the mood of the race, just super. I recommend it. Hello to everybody.

Archived – click Post Title to view all. Utpal’s Interview with Asprihanal (full article read here)    “I run around the block mostly to get Ideas. Everybody else is getting miles.” Ashprihanal is in a playful mood this morning. It may be for a number of very good reasons. The rain, which has been relentless for days has finally stopped. For the runners it means one less formidable adversary. Or it could as well be the fact he ran 79 miles yesterday which means his current average is 75 miles a day. This technically puts him on track, at least for the moment, of potentially setting a new course record. Ashprihanal of course is not constructed of the same raw ambition which drives most world class athletes. He is a light and almost ethereal being who does not look as though he runs like most mortals. It appears more as though he flutters, like a small graceful bird just above the unforgiving course. He is never interested in recounting his statistics or his records. He is not about glorifying his achievements or setting himself off toward distant goals. He is all about the moment. There is a genuine humility about this flying Finn who has run this race 8 times and has won it 5 times. The ideas he is talking about is for a short impromptu skit that he and Grahak will in a few minutes perform for Parvati and her singers. Today will be their third performance. He says, “How it started off, it was raining for 3 days. I…