Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

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.

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Somewhen Sri Chinmoy granted this japanese bond. Photo by Jowan

Just before the race started, Rupanar said that our bathrooms will have locks on. Because the race happens to be in a public place, we have many people around, especially on weekends, that play soccer, rest etc. So it was decided to lock up the bathrooms. Rupantar came to each runner and told the combination – ‘777 – very easy, you just have to turn 1 digit’. I said – okay, if there will be any problems, we’ll call you. Right after that Asprihanal comes and says – ‘it just feels like we have something very precious in those bathrooms! that’s why the locks are on.’

Archived – click Post Title to view all. Here we are, the start. I am on my 24th lap, and it’s the 3rd hour of running. We had a wonderful start, very much home-like. Sahishnu introduced the 13 runners. 2 newbies this year – Vladimir and Purna-Samarpan.   A moment of silence before the start, dedicated to the founder of the race, Sri Chinmoy, and the race has begun. Exactly at  6 am. Now this will be happening the next 50+ days, we will start all together at 6 am.   I had a bandana on my head, as well as some of the others. Bandanas are presents from Sri Chinmoy from couple of years ago. When he came back from his trip to Japan, he brought each of us a little present. Hieroglyphs are printed on the bandanas, everyone has a different one. I got the ‘God Speed’ – inspiring!   Our ‘working hours’ are 6 am till midnight. The lap is 883 metrs (.5488 miles) on the sidewalk in Queens. there’s a highway right beside it, I’m running through here right now. Quite intense, even though it’s Sunday morning. but you do not feel any gas.   As soon as we started, after 100 meters it started raining. All the runners said as one – ‘that’s a blessing from above!’ The weather is very pleasant – 20C. As I have already said, cloudy and raining are the best running conditions. We’ve got a new tree on the track – here it is. In some time it will be taking care of us, give a…