Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

Archived – click Post Title to view all. 2 years ago Nirbhasa ran the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race for the first time.  After 11 days of running he had accumulated 710 miles.  Last year was a break year and once again he is running the longest race in the world.  This time after 11 days he has 725 miles, which in the peculiar trajectory of race statistics, would indicate a very good improvement.   When I ask Nirbhasa if he feels it is going well he says, “I am taking it one day at a time.  I don’t think about the accumulative amount of laps.  But I do remember at this stage of the race last time I started going down hill pretty quickly.” He doesn’t know exactly what happened back then.  The files show that he started going well under 60 mile per day up until about the half way point on Day 26.  “My body just wasn’t used to it.  It started around day 11 or 12.  Before that all I had done was a 10 day race.  So that could have a lot to do with it.” “Maybe now I am just doing better at management with things like sleep.  I am really trying now to look after myself.  To be in bed as soon as possible after this finishes.” Nirbhasa says he learned a lot from his race experience here in 2015.  “But there is still a lot more to discover.  You come back with new goals.  Things that you could have done better outwardly.  Things that you could…

Day 11, 3100 Mile Race 2017. Smarana, Harita and Nirbhasa about race beginning. from Stutisheel Lebedev on Vimeo.

3100-Mile race 2017. 10 day overview from Stutisheel Lebedev on Vimeo.

Archived – click Post Title to view all. “It’s really nice weather so far.”  Kaneenika is wearing a vest this morning. It was a cool clear night.  Now there is a light breeze, the sky is bright, the air is clear it is an almost perfect day to be running for 18 hours around this sacred half mile block in Queens New York. “We have had some rain and it has been mostly quite cool.  Sometimes the weather affects me.  If it is too hot and humid then definitively.”  We all of course know that the scourge of oppressive summer heat will be coming soon enough. This is Kaneenika’s 3rd year in a row of running here and I was curious how she makes up her mind about doing it.  “Until I think, the beginning of February, I was almost 100 percent sure that I wasn’t going to do the race.  Then, I don’t know what happened.  It just happened that I got a really strong feeling that yes, I want to do the race.” “I think it is my soul that compels me to do it.  Otherwise I can’t explain it.  Because I was really ready to skip this year.  I was more than ready and willing not to do it.” I suggest that when she was so successful being able to complete the distance last year that she had more confidence and knowledge of how to do the race this time.  “That is why we are here.  To make it always better.  To go deeper.  To handle situations better.” When asked…

Archived – click Post Title to view all. He is a sweet enigma.  Ananda-Lahari, in this his 13 straight appearance at the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race has spent more time, covered more distance, and smiled more soulfully than any of the other runners he now shares the course with. When we think of races we usually think of placing, of crossing of finishing line, and the hopes for some, of being able to declare victory.  Ananda-Lahari, though he is built of all the same moving parts as the rest of humanity is simply designed and constructed within to view this race in a much different way.  Certainly some part of him wants always to complete the distance.  Something that has eluded him 7 of 12 times he has come.  Instead he is drawn to do this impossible act in a way that appears to be detached from the obvious results. He runs as fast he can go, he rarely takes breaks, and stays on the course as late as any of the other runners.  In his absolute devotion to what he does, in his pure and uncomplicated dedication he is satisfied.  Because I believe he sees his spiritual journey as one that is not bound by the sidewalks he circles tirelessly each day.  But instead by the unseen progress he is making within towards a higher goal.  One that has no trophy, no finish line, only his own perfect perfection. When I ask if he thinks of the loops around the course as repetitive, he says, “It doesn’t look like you…