About the author:
Rupantar has been the race director of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team since 1985, having been asked by Sri Chinmoy to serve in that capacity. As well as working on the big races the US Marathon Team organise each year - the 3100 Mile Race and the Six and 10 Day Race - he also spends a considerable amount of time archiving the Marathon Team's 40 year history on this website.Kamen, Jeff. "The Guru's Ultra." Marathoner/Winter 1979.
A Whimsical Remark Leads to a 47-Mile Race and Surprising Success: defying common sense as well as precedent, 57 of 58 women and men who entered the first annual Sri Chinmoy Invitational Ultra-marathon completed the race; almost all of them were amateurs who did no have so much as a single 26.2-mile run in their backgrounds.
He (ed. Sri Chinmoy) had just presided over eight hours of qualifying trials for his meditation community's upcoming annual international sports day in New York City. As the tired meditators were finishing a well-deserved picnic lunch, the muscular Guru wondered aloud, 'So, who is going to run 47 miles for my birthday?...'
"1978 Ultramarathon Summary". Runner's Gazette, April 1979."
Something very different on August 27 in New York was the Sri Chinmoy 47-miler. The seemingly unusual distance was selected to honor spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy's 47th birthday. Oddly enough, the 58 devotees in the run represented nine different countries, so the field in this otherwise obscure event was actually the most international in scope of any U.S. ultramarathon...Garima Hoffman (led) the women in 8:00:44.
