Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

Archived – click Post Title to view all. So many marvels, both grand and small take place at the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race that you could never record them all.  Sometimes it is hard enough to just record the important things, like the laps of course.  Throughout each runners day things happen, that will not only lift them up but in many ways touch and inspire many others. Vasu, who is running for his 6th time is so incredibly exceptional in his unfettered devotion to the race that I often feel inadequate when I speak with him.  He is devoid of any artifice or superficiality.  When he says that running here is like being in Paradise I can only aspire to be able to see the race so purely as he does.  For in his unswerving clarity of vision is something I feel lacking and I suspect that the rest of us could all wish we had even just a little more of, such tireless dedication to the divine within. This morning he tells me a little story about seeing a small boy getting his shoelace wrapped up in his bicycle and thus forcing him to fall over.  Without hesitation he checked on the child, released the lace, and got him on his way.  Only latter on the far side of the course was Vasu approached by the boys Father, who promptly thanked him. Who knows how much that brief act of kindness ate into his mileage for the day.  It did not matter to Vasu.  Nor does it matter when…

Archived – click Post Title to view all. I met Harita this morning at the corner of 168th st. as she came up the service road towards me.  I often run along this route during the year and am hardly aware at all that it is anything more than a slight incline.  But to Harita, who has now circled this same corner 1270 times now in the past 13 days it is a hill. When you lay on the sidewalk, as I have done taking pictures, you can see it unmistakably.  It helps me to get a better understanding,  that all the little details of the course get observed by the runners in ways that we can never fully grasp or understand. For the last 2 days now Harita has been running 111 laps each day which is just about 61 miles.  “I kind of realized the first few days of the race that if I want to do the necessary miles each day that I would have to stay really focused.” “I don’t always stay really focused in my regular life.  It is a really good practice for me and a really good opportunity for me.  I can but I often get distracted.  I love people, I love talking to people.  I am interested in a lot of things.” I saw her early speaking on the phone.  “That was actually one of the first times I spoke with people on the phone.  I haven’t really used my phone much.  I felt, especially for the first couple of weeks that it was…