Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

Like I said earlier, our lap is 883 meters. And it happens very often when you want to go to the toilet you think you would better go after the next lap. It is a way to safe time. Yesterday Volodya told us a story about his 10-day race last year. On the next morning after finishing, he wakes up in his room and is going to go to the toilet. He goes to it, but passes right beside it and follows to the kitchen, then comes back to the room and then he finds himself thinking: “Ok, one more lap and then …” One more joke You may think that we only run here, but it is not true. We do a lot of things. For example, some armrestling. Yesterday when Pranab had his day-off, he came to the race (here it was better then at home anyway), I don’t remember why, but we decided to measure our strength, as it doesn’t take more than a minute. The timing was great, as we are not going to feel our arm muscles by the end of the race – only leg muscles will remain. After the race I won’t be able to do even one chin-up. Here, as the result, I defeated him with my right arm, and he beat me with his left arm. Our score was 1:1. So, tough guys were satisfied…

The 5th day of the race, it’s 7.54 pm. It was raining heavily for hours since early morning, everything was wet everywhere: above, below, beside, inside – everywhere. It’s clear that doesn’t matter how many times you change your running shoes they will get wet in 5 minutes anyway. That’s why I have changed them only once. Later on at 7 pm, when it stopped raining, I changed them once again. My heel cord pain has gone. Let’s hope forever, at least for this race. When it rains, we should be more careful because wet shoes are heavier and add up load to tendons and cords. As the saying goes, we should hurry up slowly. I did not fly, but the day was more stable and I steadily came closer to my course speed. I am satisfied. Pavol has shin splints; he has been walking all day long. Ananda-Lahiri caught a cold. He walked the first part of the day though the rain, but now he is running. Pranab has his second day-off; he is recovering and dealing with his skin problems.

Archived – click Post Title to view all. Today is the fourth day. It’s 19.11pm. It is the first day when I am feeling much better. Not a 100% great yet, but really better. So, I could do some running till 5 pm and then after a break I started walking again. It seems that the condition of my heel cord has become quite stable. Anyway it’s not getting worse. Pavel has shin splints, so he is walking. Pranab was not at the race till evening. Besides shin splints, he has skin blisters, probably as a reaction to the sun. But I think it is a part of another bigger problem, since the weather is not hot now and even cool in the morning. I suppose 10-12 degrees above 0; we are wearing sweatshirts. It is not very sunny, I‘d say it’s cloudy. And all these days he was wearing his white sun protective outfit while running. Today he had a medical appointment and had his traditional day-off. It has been for several years that he is lucky enough to have a day off when his rash kicks in. Soon after this he perfectly recovers, he gets back to the race and catches up. And it doesn’t prevent him from setting national records. So, we believe in him and we have got used to his stepping out for one day Shuprabha has been running in the Solumbra sun protective pants which block 99% of UV rays. Due to this find of Pranab’s, most runners have a great protection from the…

The start of day 3 was not bad at all. After a little run, the knee pain disappeared and did not disturb me anymore, but instead my Achilles’ tendon gave me some problems. It’s a good thing that I have only one task at a time. When I got that pain in my heel tendon, I started walking. I tried to run every now and then, but most of the time I just walked. Indigestion has been blocking energy for two days. I applied Traumeel gel and a cabbage leaf to my heels and now I am feeling better. I hope that the problem won’t get any more serious and tomorrow everything will be all right. Pranab has got shin splints. He is walking walks for the most part of the day. He is joyful though. All other runners are doing well. As usual, Pranjal is a super-stable runner whatever happens. Asprihanal is leading as he always does, but he says he is suffering muscle pain too. He’s had a massage today and now is running steadily. Pushkar is having a good race. Pavol is just super. All are  going well and I am sincerely happy for them! Tomorrow I’ll join them in running.

Archived – click Post Title to view all. I It’s 7pm now. I have been walking most of the time today. It started with knee pain which got worse and worse even in spite of olive oil and cabbage leaves that I had applied overnight. It’s the adjustment phase. No big deal! After the 20th lap, my running speed equaled my walking speed, so I decided to walk for a while. I changed my shoes after the rain and it got better. Now my knees are OK. It was such a good thing that our chiropractor Ara stopped by. He treated all of us working mainly on backs and necks. He helped me with my knees. Physically, I felt better, but energy was suddenly gone. I had a slight fever in the afternoon and watering eyes. I didn’t feel like running. I was doing my rounds thinking to myself that tomorrow it’s going to be fine. In the evening, Pranab joined me. He is having problems with hips and shin splints is looming large. He decided not to push since it’s just the second day. We shared jokes. Pranab’s father sent him a letter. He said that when he was looking for some information about the 3,100-mile race, he stumbled “on the web site of a Lebedev with nice pics”. His father understands Russian and is going to follow his son through on my blog. Last year, I was walking on the 3rd day. Pranab is joking, “You are making progress. Next year, you’ll start working from Day 1”. Asphrihanal isn’t…

7am

It was raining when we started this morning.

Yesterday everybody was very fast, Asprihanal did 85 miles, everyone else also did a lot!

Suprabha ends the list with 65 miles.

Just great, doesn’t even seems like 3100 :)

I came back home after completing 71 miles which is my personal record, 130 laps.

For the first day this is just super good – I’ve never done 70 miles before.

After the finish last night I felt very good. Lots of energy left. I was even less tired than after training back in Kiev!

But this morning it’s a whole different story. My knees hurt a little. Maybe there are in process of  adjusting to the concrete on a sidewalk, that will probably take couple of days. but I have a guess it might be the new model of running shoes –  I bought 2 pairs I was missing when I got to New York. I was using this kind of snickers in 2004, but I don’t remember what the experience is.

Ok, as soon as the rain will be over, and I’ll change them. we’ll see what happens.

Under the pouring rain Parvati’s Group is singing beautiful songs for us. Very inspiring. That’s my favourite group, it’s the most honest one. Girls self-givingly come at 6.40 am every day, no matter what weather it is, or who is out at the race. Very sincere and beautiful singing, they cheer us up very much.

Today we have a first ‘holiday’ – Purna-Samarpan’s birthday.