Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

10:14 pm. It’s my fourth walking day. I did run in the morning for a while but after I had taken a pain-killer which lasted only 3 hours. Generally, I resort to pain-killers only in extreme situations… In the afternoon, two chiropractors tended to my knee. They both said that there was nothing seriously wrong with it, just a little swell. Looks like it’s my inner task to transcend the pain threshold and start running again. It’s always like this at the 3,100-mile race: unless you solve an inner problem, you won’t be running. The weather’s been hot – 37-38С. Today I saw Purna-Samarpan and Petya bathing in the fountain on the playground. In the early morning, Asprihanal crossed the half way mark (1,550 miles) and celebrated it with half a glass of water.

Results from the day 22, miles. Asprihanal Aalto 68.6 Total 1546.52 Pranjal Milovnik 68.05 Total 1480.11 Galya Balatsky 61.47 Total 1455.97 Petr Spacil 53.78 Total 1431.27 Pushkar C Mullauer 60.37 Total 1395.05 Ananda-Lahari Zuscin 63.11 Total 1345.11 Stutisheel Lebedyev 33.48 Total 1330.29 Pavol Saraz 59.82 Total 1323.71 Dharbhasana Lynn 62.01 Total 1306.69 Purna-Samarpan Querhammer 40.61 Total 1198.03 Surasa Maier 52.14 Total 1181.02

It’s the Fourth of July when Americans celebrate their national holiday Independence Day. It’s mostly quiet on and around the course on this day. There are only a few people playing basketball or softball. Individual fireworks are banned, but people will shoot a lot of firecrackers later in the day. Some started rehearsing yesterday .

They were so loud that the automobile alarms went crazy all at once. In the morning, Parvati’s group sang “America the Beautiful” and a few other patriotic songs. Inspired by Ashprihanal we decided to entertain them and give a little performance to celebrate Independence Day. It was a kind of a game. We gave them a list of running styles and they had to guess which style a runner is demonstrating. We had Suprabha’s style (Stutisheel), a drunken monkey style (Ashprihanal), a military style (Pavol), chi-running (Purna Samarpan), a football style (Galya Balatsky), a singing one (Surasa), a soulful one (Ananda-Lahari) and some others. Some were really funny. There’s no holiday without gifts. The temperature is 35-36C. Purna-Samarpan is walking. Petya is struggling with heat. Surasa is dealing with her shin splints (“I felt a sudden stab”). My knee has prevented me from running for three days is a row. Petya commented on the situation that last year we demonstrated that we were good at running, and this year we will be working on our spiritual progress . Ashprihanal is likely to pass the half way point in the race tomorrow morning.

During the heart of the great depression, in 1930, the city of New York built a water tower to supply the needs of its growing suburban population. For 70 years it was kept full, from a pump beside it, that reached deep into the ground beneath Queens to tap a vast aquifer beneath the borough. Rapid urbanization has its pitfalls and by the year 2000 the water below it was no longer considered safe to drink. At that time Queens was then able to tap into the upstate reservoirs, that already supplied drinking water to most of the city. For 10 years this Jamaica landmark has stood empty and worthless to the community that now looked elsewhere for its needs. After 80 years it is coming down today. For the next few days its demolition will create a snarl of traffic on 164th st and in turn have an affect on traffic throughout the neighborhood. This project will have no impact on the runners or the running of the race. Read more