Media

Run Deep: What does it take to win the world's longest foot race? Nick Galvin finds out

(ed., The race is The Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race)

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

Date: February 9, 2013

One June morning at 6am, Grahak Cunningham set off for a jog around the block in the New York borough of Queens. It was a lovely day for a run - dry and not too hot. He ran up 168th Street, along Grand Central Parkway, then down 164th Street and along 84th Avenue back to his starting point. A circuit of exactly 883 metres.

Then he did it again. And again. For the next 43 days he ran that same circuit 18 hours a day, 5649 times, until he had covered a total distance of 4989 kilometres. At the end, a small crowd greeted him and there was a brief celebration. A few people sang...

Read the complete article...

Six Day Run

A short film directed by Mika Taanila about one of the most extreme individual endurance sports dating back to to the 1870s. The competitors run with minimal sleep, all the while trying to accumulate as many miles as possible on a one-mile paved loop in a park.

The film was shot during The Self-Transcendence Six Day Race in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, New York, between April 22-28, 2012, and centers on Ashprihanal Aalto.

Release Date: premiering at the Rotterdam Film Festival (IFFR) 23.1.-3.2.2013

Basic Information on the film including trailer... (www.facebook.com/sixdayrun):

3,000-mile road to enlightenment is just around the block

Source: The Times of London

Date: Friday, June 22, 2012

The Marathon des Sables passes over 150 miles through the desert dunes of Morocco; Greece has an ancient 155-mile course from Athens to Sparta, and each July, a pack of wiry men and women race 135 miles through the depths of Death Valley.

"Yet these 'ultramarathons' look like morning jogs beside the race that began this week in a quiet suburb of Queens, New York...

3,100 Mile Race Cited as one of 'The World's Toughest Endurance Challenges'

Around the world, endurance athletes are pushing themselves further and harder than ever before. While some of these athletes choose to race in the heart of the world's biggest cities, many journey to parts of the globe where human beings are the exception rather than the norm, places like Antarctica, Death Valley or the middle of a storm-swept Southern Ocean...

The 'World's Toughest Endurance Challenges' is a celebration of these extraordinary events and the athletes who take part in them.

From the flyleaf of Richard Hoad and Paul Moore's book. For more information on the authors and how to purchase the book, visit challengeguides.com.

More from the book, page 157:

As the first commuters set off on their way to work in the New York borough of Jamaica, Queens, the race begins. The athletes run past the traffic, the school children, the homeless, mothers with pushchairs...the list is endless. But for 52 days of the year the competitors of the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile race become part of Jamaica...

Beyond the Marathon: Insights Into the Longest Foot Race in the World (e-book)

The story of Grahak Cunningham and his four times competing in the Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race.

Loaded with training tips, anecdotes and race stories, join Grahak as he takes you on the journey from his first race in 2007 as a multiday novice to his ultimate victory in 2012, and discover what he learnt along the way. 

A Soul Surfer Who Dances with Winter Waves

Date: 12/29/2012

Source: The New York Times

• "...NOW that beach weather has finally rolled round, Banshidhar Medeiros, 59, a factory worker from Queens and a lifelong surfer, can be found paddling out at sunrise on almost any day the surf is up..."

Read original article, including video

Russian TV  documents the 2012 Six Day Race

• Russian TV, channel Russia2, in depth documentary of the 2012 Self Transcendence Six Day Race covers the multi day race in New York and studies what happens to runners during such extreme runs. Scientists think this is beyond human abilities and that for the body this is a tremendous stress..26 minutes and in Russian.

Running to Xtremes

Date: July 2011

Source: Women's Running (United Kingdon)

Suprabha Beckjord: She's relatively unknown outside ultrarunning circles, yet the 55-year old Washington card-shop owner is the only woman to have completed the world's longest footrace - and she's done it 13 tmes. The Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race is held in the Queens neighbourhood of New York City during July and August. Over a course that's just over half a mile long, runners must complete 5,649 laps, averaging 60 miles a day for up to 52 days straight, to complete the race. Beckjord is the only person to have completed all 13 editions of the race and during that time has clocked up a mind-blowing total of more than 40,000 miles.

Dipali Cunningham: Born in Melbourne, but now based in New York City, Dipali Cunningham is one of the all-time greats of female ultrarunning. During a record-breaking 20-year running career, the 52-year old member of the famous Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team has completed 31 multi-day events (races consisting of seven days, six days, 1,000 miles or 700 miles), winning 25 of them, including seven overall victories. She has won every edition of the women's Six-Day Self-Transcendence race in New York and in 2009 set a new women's world road record of 514.82 miles.

Indeed, her running CV is littered with records. In 2001, she ran 700 miles in just nine days, 11 hours, the third-fastest time ever recorded by a woman. She is also the third-fastest woman in history over 1,000 miles, with a time of 13 days, 20 hours.

NBC Today Show covers the 3100 Mile Race

TODAY's Natalie Morales reports on the Self Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race, where participants run the distance from Boston to San Francisco around one city block in Queens, New York.

NBC Today 8/7/2011

"De Telegraff, Dutch National Newspaper, covers 3,100 Mile Race”

NEW YORK, Saturday – Perhaps it is the most striking Dutch sports achievement of the year. Runner Pradeep Hoogakker (33) ran 53 days in a row from 6 a.m. until midnight and covered nearly 5000 kilometres. Thursday night he became the first countryman to complete the 3100 Mile Race, the Mount Everest of ultramarathons.

De Telegraff 8/6/2011

RTL Nieuws does a story on Pradeep: 5000 kilometer rondjes rennen

A popular Netherlands news program with a viewership of over 4 milliion features Pradeep in New York...(Please note: the video clip is in Dutch. Also, due to buffering issues, it may take up to several minutes for the video clip to play).

RTL Nieuws 8/6/2011

Runners Continue 52-Day Marathon Around Half-Mile Block 

People in Queens are running around in circles as part of the 15th annual self-transcendence race, an ultra marathon created by Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy as an exercise in mental and physical discipline...

NY1 News: 7/8/2011

"People in Queens Are Running Around a Single Block for 3,100 Miles ”

While you sit in your cubicle, a real battle is going on out in Jamaica, Queens, where the self-punishing disciples of Sri Chinmoy, a deceased Indian spiritual leader, are running around a single block for 3,100 miles ...

Emily Witt, The New York Observer: 7/6/2011

"One Block - 5,649 Laps: Eleven Runners Compete in a 3,100-Mile Race on a Sidewalk Course in Queens."

Scott Cacciola, The Wall Street Journal: 6/22/2010

"3100 Mile Race, 52 Days, One City Block ”

The 3,100 mile Self-Transcendence race is under way in Queens. The race, which runs from June to August, is an exercise in pushing the physical and mental limits of the human body.

Scott Cacciola, The Wall Street Journal: 6/21/2010

Running their own course: "Distance learning" takes on new meaning during 3,100-mile challenge

Date: July 22, 2008

Source: Daily News

By the time you get to work this morning, Ashprihanal Aalto will already have run about 12 miles. By the time you get home, the 37-year-old from Finland will still be doing laps around Thomas Edison HS in Jamaica. By the time you're calling it a night, he'll be wrapping up his 70-mile run and getting to do it again tomorrow.

Really Going The Distance

When people in New York circle the block, over and over again, they're usually looking for a parking spot. But what if they're circling without a car? Steve Hartman meets a few runners who are doing just that in this week's Assignment America.

Steve Hartman, CBS Evening News: 8/1/2008

The Best American Sports Writing 2008

From the introduction to the book by the Editor William Nack:

..from Harper's Magazine, Sam Shaw's beautifully crafted story aout the world's longest human footrace, the Self-Transcendence 3,100, in which about fifteen brave souls circle a single block in Queens exactly 5,649 times, for a total of 3,100 miles, never doing less than 50 miles a day...

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of periodicals. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected - and most popular - of its kind. (From back cover of book).

Read the complete article in Harper's Magazine...

Mind Over Miles: Seven mental tricks that can add miles to your running

Date: June 1997

Source: Runner's World

So you're detached from your surroudings, but you're well aware of what your body's doing - much like the marathoning followers of Sri Chinmoy, an Indian spiritual leader who spreads his message of inner peace through mediation and extreme physical challenges - like marathon running.

'Some of Sri Chinmoy's students use meditation to keep them in the races we sponsor,' explains Sahishnu Sczesiul, an ultrarunner and race director on the New York Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team. 'The idea is to learn to go within yourself, to keep your mind as calm and quiet as possible while you run - to use meditation to enhance your mental strength so your mind can then discipline your body.'

Run Like Fire Once More: chasing perfection in the world's longest footrace.

The runners slog past a bivouac of plastic card tables and folding chairs, past electric-green Port-O Lets ripe with disinfectant, past indifferently groomed hedges and the redbrick facade of Thomas A. Edison Vocational and Technical High School...

Sam Shaw, Harpers Magazine: August 2007

An in depth look at one of the most challenging races in the world. Also chronicles the history of multi day running. Read the complete article...

Nirvana takes 3,100 miles: Spiritual race afoot in Queens

Date: July 11, 2006

Source: amNew York

On what is otherwise a quiet, pedestrian four blocks of a leafy section of Jamaica, Queens, a spectacular feat has been under way for the last month...

'It's like the Himalayas of running,' said Rupantar, 57, the race's coordinator and a Chinmoy disciple. 'You have to focus, and you can't let the mind wander.'

The World's Longest Foot Race

Runners run up to 18 hours per day for 50 days in the longest foot race ever.

ABCNews Video: 07/26/2006

In This Race, They're in It for the Long Run

Date: July 31, 1998

Source: The Washington Post

NEW YORK-Five lean, sun-baked runners with bulging calf muscles make their way around and around and around a dirty red-brick high school building. From before dawn until well after dark, for 48 days, they have jogged this same, wearying route over asphalt sidewalks, alongside the iron gate that surrounds the school, down a noisy roadway that spits car exhaust, and past a dusty baseball diamond. They have run past kids in baggy jeans, idling cars with rap music blaring, and an abandoned black Mazda with no tires, busted windows and everything-from seats to the gas cap-stripped.

Feat of Endurance: In a test of strength and faith, they run for 51 days...5,649 laps...3,100 miles...

Date: July 27, 1997

Source: Newsday

Even the most devoted long-distance runners consider the 3,100-mile race to be daunting: 'It's on the fringes, because it's so unusual and extreme,' said Andy Burfoot, executive editor of Runner's World magazine and winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon.

Although comparisons to Forrest Gump may be inevitable, Burfoot said all Sri Chinmoy races - which range from a two-mile jaunt to the 3,100 mega-marathon - are respectable and well-organized athletic events. 'It's not a freak show,' Burfoot said. 'These are people seeking emotional and spiritual challenges and insight rather than Olympic-type perfection.'

Jamaica Residens on the Run: For participants, 2,700-mile goal challenges the body and spirit

Date: July 14, 1996

Source: Newsday

...The course is a sidewalk loop, just over a half-mile long. It is bound by 168th Street, 84th Avenue, 164th Place and the service road of the Grand Central Parkway. By the time they finish, the runners will have circled the block more than 5,000 times.

The distance awed even Ted Corbitt, the father of ultramarathons, who dropped by the race last Sunday.

'It takes a real enthusiast - and a great imagination - to even think of putting on a race like this,' he said...

Evinger, Bob. "To the Editors." Ultrarunning, July-August 1993.

Recently I had the privilege of running he Sri Chinmoy Seven Day Race. It was a first-class event that will long be remembered. My own race went well, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless efforts of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team. And thanks to Sri Chinmoy himself for making it all possible.

Multi-day running slumbered for almost a century before being revived in the early 80s, and now seems to be experiencing a renaissance primarily due to the sponsorship and daring of the SCMT. Their quality events have attracted some of the best multi-day talent in the world and continue to provide a setting for athletes to push back the envelope of human potential. Yet, because their central theme is self-transcendence, being neither elitist nor exclusionary, they encourage entrants with little or no ultra experience. Give one of their multi-days a try. You won’t be disappointed.

Bob Evinger

Chapel Hill, N.C.

A Guru Gives Ultrarunning a Big Lift

Date: May 28, 1990

Source: Sports Illustrated

This is the strange tale of how an Eastern mystic saved a Western sport from obliviion. The unlikely mix of characters includes Sri Chinmoy, a 58-year old Indian spiritual master who has built a small sports empire in America; his 1,100 persistently faithful disciples; a select group of the world's greatest long-distance runners; and the top organizers on the New York racing scene. But the star of the story is ultrarunning, a catchall term for footraces longer than a marathon...(read the complete article)
 

Ayres, Ed. "Lighting the Way." Running Times. June 1981.

In an age of trouble, trouble, and more trouble, a refreshingly different world-view is being promulgated by Sri Chinmoy, an Indian guru whose adopted homeland is the U.S., and who has attracted thousands of American followers. These followers place higher value on the achievement of spiritual harmony than of material acquisition, which may explain why, in the midst of a deteriorating economy and declining standard of living, they remain placidly optimistic about America's future...Sri Chinmoy and his followers do productive work for a living, and have their feet planted firmly, and literally, on the ground. The guru is an avid long distance runner and road race organizer, and his followers have formed a running team (the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team), an outgrowth of the group's passionate belief that physical fitness is an integral part of spiritual well-being.

In keeping with their proclivity for seeing the good in things while cheerfully refusing to become emotionally bogged in the bad, the Sri Chinmoy people have become indefatigable celebrators. One of their most recent celebrations was a 1,300-mile non-stop relay, dubbed 'Salutations to America...'

Burghardt, Dee. "They Carried A Torch For Their Country's Greatness."

Source: The New Haven Register

Date: November 29, 1976

When the heartbeat of a country is touched anything can happen.

The heartbeat of America was touched this summer and it pumped new life into many people. Mayors in small towns got up in the wee morning hours to prepare huge breakfasts, editors almost missed deadlines, CBers thought they were going nuts and hundreds of people in the nation got up and ran. And while some simply stood and wept with happiness, others tried to give money away.

It all happened because 30 young men ranging in age from 22 to 36 decided to run a non-stop relay across the country (ed., Liberty Torch), hitting all 50 states and sending runners to Hawaii and Alaska. They carried a lighted torch the entire 8,800-mile relay...

 

The Sedan Times-Star (Kansas)

Date: July 14, 1976

There are times when we all doubt. We doubt the future, we doubt our abilities, we doubt if the bicentennial means anything, we doubt our leaders, and so on and on.

But a society that produces young men - 22 to 36 - who dream up a thing like Liberty Torch, and then set out to carry it out with money from their own pockets, has to have some good in it - very much good in it for that matter...

But as long as there are people like those who are relaying the Liberty Torch on foot through the 48 states, and by air to Alaska and Hawaii, on their own because it seems to be a good idea in a Bicentennial year, we think things are going to continue to go on for a long, long time.