Sri Chinmoy Multisport Classic in Jindabyne [video]
By Tejvan Pettingerauthor bio »
14 March
About the author:
Tejvan organises short-distance running and cycling races for the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in his home city of Oxford. He is also a very good cyclist, having won the National hill climb championships in 2013 and finished 3rd in the National 100 Mile Time Trials in 2014.
The Sri Chinmoy Multisport Classic, held in Jindabyne, is a unique multi-sport event held in the beautiful surroundings of Australia's Snowy Mountains. The annual event has been held for several years and combines water and land-based sports over 12 different legs.
The event attracts a diverse range of athletes who can compete either individually or part of a relay. This video, produced by Sarankhuu Jargal, shows highlights from the different sections including running, swimming, mountain biking and paddling. Steve Hanley a former winner also gives his brief thoughts on why he enjoys the race.
The course is varied, with 3 mountain bike legs ranging from easy to highly technical; 3 running courses from flat to very not-flat; 3 swims of between 1.2 and 2.5 kms; and 3 paddles of 5.5 to 9.5 kms. The swims and paddles criss-cross most of Lake Jindabyne, while the mountain bikers and runners thoroughly explore the rugged Eastern Escarpment, rolling farmland of the Western Shore, and bushland of the adjoining Kosciuszko National Park.
The event is organised by the Canberra/Australia Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team.
Abhejali swims the Cook Strait and completes the 'Oceans Seven' challenge
By Vasanti Niemz
24 February
On Saturday, February 24th, 2018, in the wake of cyclone Gita,Abhejali Bernardova, a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team from Zlin in the Czech Republic, successfully conquered the Cook Strait of New Zealand in rough waters and challenging currents, becoming only the 10th swimmer and 4th woman - and probably the first vegetarian! - in the world to complete the Oceans Seven challenge since its inception in 2008.
The Oceans Seven challenge is the aquatic equivalent to the 'Seven summits' challenge of climbing some of the world's highest mountains. It includes swimming the English Channel, the Strait of Gibraltar, Catalina Channel in California, Tsugaru Channel (Japan), the Irish Channel between Ireland and Scotland, Molokai (Kaiwi) Channel in Hawaii and the Cook Strait. All of the swims are done in accordance with traditional English Channel rules: no neoprene, only a regular swim suit, cap and goggles, maybe some grease, and unassisted (no touching the boat etc.).The first person to complete it was Stephen Redmond from Ireland in 2012, and the first woman was Anna Carin Nordin from Sweden in 2013.
Starting at 8:11 a.m. from the North Island in strong swells that made her seasick for hours, and challenged by rough conditions and strong currents that slowed down her progress almost to a standstill, Abhejali stayed focused and positive and finally managed to complete the swim in 13 hours, 9 minutes and 48 seconds, arriving at the tip of the South Island in the dark around 9.20pm. For over three hours during the swim she was fighting strong currents merely to hold her position and not be pulled back towards Wellington. Finally, however, the sea settled and she was able to break through the currents and touch the shore of the Southern Island. Water temperature started out with 20°C, falling to 17°C near the Southern Island.
The timing to complete these crossings is extremely tight, as the swimmers can only attempt during either the full moon or on the half moon. At these times the currents and tides are at their calmest. With cyclone Gita hitting New Zealand on Tuesday and Wednesday, Abhejali had to cancel the planned swim on Thursday due to rough seas. On Friday the boat was not available. Even on Saturday the seas were still rough. It was hard to decide whether it would be wise to start or not, but the swim went off. Right from the start, Abhejali was challenged by high swells, seasickness and a jellyfish that got stuck in her swimsuit. There were moments where she doubted her decision to start that day - but she never thought of stopping. Had she not been able to start or complete the crossing, her next opportunity would have been two weeks later at the earliest, creating logistical, financial and other difficulties.
Abhejali is not only the 10th swimmer and 4th woman to achieve the Oceans Seven challenge, but also the first Czech swimmer. Whereas over 4,833 people have summited Mount Everest (8,306 summits) and around 1800 people have swum the English Channel, not even 100 have crossed the Cook Strait. It took Abhejali 8 years to complete the Oceans Seven swims. Coming from a running background, her first major aquatic adventure was a 4 person English Channel relay in 2010, followed by her first long solo challenge - the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Swim from Rapperswil to Zürich (26,4 km) in 2011. This gave her the courage and inspiration to go for the English Channel (2011), then on to swim around Manhattan Island (New York, 2012) and from Europe to Africa (Gibraltar Straits, 2013). As a natural next new challenge, Catalina came up (2015), followed by an icy and iconic 2 hours 35 minute Robben Island swim in 9°C waters (2016) which gave her the confidence to believe the cold North Channel (2017) was achievable. Before that, however, Tsugaru (2016) and then Molokai Channel, her most difficult swim (2017, almost 22 hours), were ticked off.
What is remarkable about her swims is not only the achievement in itself - battling seasickness, jellyfish, strong currents, cold water and many other challenges on the way - but also the fact that she was successful on her first attempt in each swim. As opposed to running a marathon or ultramarathon, you never really know with all of these Channel swims when and if the weather and tides will actually allow the swim to take place. Also, the swimmer may be forced to abandon the attempt for safety or other reasons after just a few hours into the swim, or even only a few metres from the finish. A clear asset in all her aquatic adventures has been her ability to keep a positive, cheerfully determined attitude, trusting in the power of Grace from above, the supportive prayers and good vibrations sent from her teammates and friends from all over the world, as well as the inner focus and calmness gained by years of regular practice of meditation. Her meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) was himself a pioneer in the world of sports who inspired many people to believe in their unlimited inner potential and reach unprecedented goals. For his inspiration and service to open water swimming, he was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF) posthumously in 2012.
Abhejali was crewed on her Cook Strait swim by Harita Davies, who in 2017 became New Zealand’s first woman to complete the world’s longest race – the Self Transcendence 3,100 mile race in New York - and who also took part in an English Channel relay in 2014 and has crewed for Abhejali on other swims as a helper and kayaker. Helena Royden, a Czech speaking New Zealander, Stacey Marsh, P. Thorpe and Vera Sevestiyanova were also part of the helper team.
Asked, how she feels after her great achievement, Abhejali simply said: "Grateful and happy." And she is looking forward to more running again - especially in the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run, which she helps organizing.
Video: Swimming the English Channel Abhejali talks about the inner aspects of her challenges - what she gets out of them, how she started, and how meditation helps her in difficult situations.
From the archives: The beginning years of the world's longest race
By Sahishnu Szczesiul
10 February
Sahishnu Szczesiul, Associate Race Director and also our race statistician and historian, has been hard at work on compiling accounts of some of the more compelling moments in the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team's 40 year history. Recently he has published two remarkable accounts in PDF form - the very first 3100 mile race in 1997, as well as its immediate precessor, the first and only 2700 mile race in 1996.
The 2700 Mile race was a giant leap forward in Sri Chinmoy's vision of what athletes could achieve with their indomitable inner spirit; it was more than double the length of the previous longest race in the Marathon Team's repertoire (1300 miles). In Sahishnu's words: "This event was a steppingstone to new achievement that somehow would be revealed. The runners ignited the search for athletic and inner perfection at the same time. The words 'self-transcendence' had become mainstream in the conscioiusness of the athletic world, and remarkable in the spiritual realm."
Video: Shamita's 7-day run from the east to west of Austria
By Nirbhasa Mageeauthor bio »
30 January
About the author:
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
In December, Shamita Achenbach-Konig set out from her home in Vienna to run all the way to her birthplace of Bregenz, in the very west. This 640km journey took her 7 days of running, 16 hours of days, through all kinds of wintry weather. Austria is also famous for its hills and mountains, and Shamita had to ascend and descend over 4000m in her journey.
A professional cellist by profession, Shamita has been running ultra-distance races with the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team for over 25 years. Earlier this year, she also visited Bregenz, this time to run all around the famous Lake Constance. You can read all about that here...
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Samunnati Nataliya Lehonkova from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team represented the Ukraine in the 2016 Olympic marathon in Rio, and has also won marathons in Los Angeles, Dublin, Edinburgh, Belfast and Toulouse. Her most recent win, in the 2017 Dublin marathon, established a personal best of 2:28.
In this video, Samunnati sat down with her friend and 3100 Mile race finisher Jayasalini Abramovskikh and talked about becoming a meditation student of Sri Chinmoy at the age of 12 and how that slowly led to her running longer and longer distances. She also talks a little about her training schedule, and how Sri Chinmoy's philosophy of self-transcendence inspires her to run.
Before she became a professional runner, Samunnati was a regular on the international Peace Run team; she reminices a little about travels all around Europe and Australia carrying a torch for world harmony.
The New York Times Crossword Puzzle and the 3,100 Mile Race
By Rupantar LaRussoauthor bio »
17 January
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.
For people who happen to be fans of both the New York Times daily crossword puzzle and the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race (we know you're out there!) the January 17, 2018 puzzle was a double treat.
The Times ran a short article going through some of the clues of that puzzle. The clue for 27 across was 'Marathon leader'. As co-puzzle author (and NYT crossword debutante) Alan Southworth relates, he was wondering if people unfamiliar with ultramarathoning would get the answer (Ultra). Looking into the matter, he came across the the 3,100 Mile Race which has been the subject of much discussion ever since. The photo in the article shows Yolanda Holder en route to completing the race in her inaugural effort in 2017, the first person to do it solely by walking. The Times ran a lengthy profile of Yolanda in July, which you can read here...
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
The Sri Chinmoy Marathon, which takes place every August in Rockland State Park in upstate New York, celebrated its 15th birthday this year. We recently put together a short video using footage from the 2016 and 2017 races - we hope you like it!
Sri Chinmoy attended the marathon every year until his passing in 2007, and would often travel around the course offering his inspiration and encouragement to the runners. He made the following remarks following the inaugural marathon in 2002:
The marathon was so beautiful, so peaceful! Mother Nature was so kind to us. There could not be a better, more ideal situation than this one. It was so nice, absolutely! The weather was super-super-excellent. The servers were super-super-excellent. The organisation was super-super-excellent. Everything was super-super-excellent. I was there for six or seven hours, and I was enjoying the panorama of nature’s beauty immensely. There we saw water. Water means life-energy. And there we saw sky-vastness. Everything gave me absolutely unimaginable joy. Again, this joy came mainly from your participation.
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Most ultra-runners have to balance training for many hours a day with the demands of their regular life, and Jayasalini Abramovskikh is no exception, working at least 9 hours a day at her job as an economist. Jayasalini has run our 6 and 10 day race many times, and in 2014 became the first Russian woman to complete the 3100 Mile Race. She talks how she keep her really long runs for weekends and public holidays, how she varies her training, and (interestingly) how she prefers to undertrain rather than overtrain.
In her interview, she also talked about how she got into ultrarunning in the first place:
Archive: a history of our very first public ultramarathon
By Nirbhasa Mageeauthor bio »
7 December
About the author:
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Pioneers of ultrarunning at the 1982 race: Stu Mittleman, Sue Medaglia, Ted Corbitt, and Cahit Yeter
The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team started its service to the public by putting on races ranging from 2 mile to the marathon. Only after a few years, did it start entering into the world of ultramarathons. Sahishnu Szczesiul, our associate race director and inveterate statistician, has lovingly compiled a history of our 24 hour race, which ran from 1980 to 1993. This was the very first ultramarathon we put on for the public.
In this 53-page story, Sahishnu details the 50 mile, 100k and 100mile women's world records broken by Marcy Schwam in the very first race, the records set by the immortal Yiannis Kouros in 1984 and 1985 (the latter in the middle of storm force conditions), and Ann Trason's shattering of the 24 hour world record in 1989.
Sri Chinmoy's advice on staying happy during ultra races
By Nirbhasa Mageeauthor bio »
6 December
About the author:
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Sri Chinmoy spoke many times about how people could get the most inner joy from doing ultra distance events. The excerpts here come from a talk given at the closing of the 2005 3100 Mile Race, as well as answers to questions asked by Suprabha Beckjord, a 13-time finisher of the 3100 Mile Race.
Sri Chinmoy, at the start of the 2003 3100 Mile Race
Special places
Dear runners, when you go around the course, try to discover two or three special places where you feel that you are getting joy. Even on a 400-metre track when you do long distance, there will be a few special places. You do not know why, but when you reach those places you get automatically a new burst of energy. Try to remember where you get energy or joy. At that spot, Mother Nature is helping you.
Keep the mind cheerful
Always try to keep your mind happy and cheerful, cheerful! Cherish all your sweet memories….every day, the way seekers recite from the Upanishads and the Vedas and slokas from the scriptures, you can also do the same by recalling your divine experiences. And if you are a singer, then inwardly sing and outwardly sing. In as many ways as possible, keep yourself happy, happy, happy, happy! Just see in how many ways you can make yourself happy.
This happiness is of utmost importance. When you are unhappy, no matter how sincere you are, no matter how hard you try to improve your time, you cannot do it. But when you are happy, your timing automatically improves. Happiness is strength, a new supply of energy.
Fool the mind
Every morning, when you are starting to run, you have to feel that this is the only day that you are running. Then, when tomorrow comes, again think that this is the only day. Otherwise, you may lose patience when you have to run more than a month. To try to always maintain dynamism is out of the question. If you try to have dynamism, you will fall down so many times! The best thing for you to do is to fool the mind by saying, "Oh, this race is only for one day." Then you will take rest. When tomorrow comes, again you will think, "This race is only for one day." Always divide it. Every day when you start, if you can convince yourself that it is only for one day, then you will think, "Oh, I can easily do it. Only last year I ran 3,100 miles. Today I cannot run 60 miles? Easily I can do it!" Since quite often the mind is fooling us, we have to use our wisdom to fool the mind.
Enthusiasm and eagerness
Suprabha Beckjord running the 3100 Mile race in 2007. These excerpts are taken from answers to a question she asked Sri Chinmoy on her birthday.
Now the question is, what qualities do you need to bring forward from your inner life while you are running? The first one is enthusiasm. Who embodies enthusiasm? A little child. Who can be more enthusiastic than a child? He enters into a garden and runs here and there, here and there, appreciating everything that he sees. Then, in addition to enthusiasm, you need eagerness. Again, who has more eagerness than a little child? If he plays with a toy, he is so eager, his whole world is the toy.
If you can feel that you are a five-year-old or six-year-old child, tiredness will not come into your mind. A child does not know what tiredness is. He knows only enthusiasm and eagerness. Never think of sixty miles or 3,100 miles. Never take the distance in that way — never! Only run for the joy of it.
Enter into the heart
Now, while running 3,100 miles, you have to deal with fatigue — when you are tired, exhausted, dead. As long as you are in the mind, you will always have fatigue, tiredness, weariness and everything. But the moment you enter into the heart, there is no fatigue. What you will find is constant energy.
If you are in the heart, there is a constant supply of energy and sweetness. We all have to develop sweetness. Sweetness is not masculine or feminine. People say that only girls can have sweetness and not men, but sweetness is not something masculine or feminine. Sweetness is a reality which is constantly supplying us with newness and freshness.
Early in the morning when you get up, if you have a sweet feeling inside you, then everything is beautiful. If inside you there is sweetness, the whole world is beautiful.
Running inside your heart garden
While you are running this long distance, you are seeing hundreds of cars passing by and so many people are making noise. But you should feel that you are not running around that big block; you are only running inside your own heart-garden where there are beautiful flowers, plants and trees. If you can not only see but feel that each time you are going around you are only running inside your beautiful heart-garden, then you can bring sweetness into each and every step that you take.
The surface that you run on is solid concrete. I cannot even walk on it. When you are running around, after an hour or two hours or a few days, this solid thing that you feel you are striking against starts striking your mind. You start thinking, "This is so bad. Every day I have to do sixty miles," this and that. But who counts the mileage? It is the mind. The mind is saying, "Oh my God, today I have to do sixty miles, and I have not yet done twenty miles!" Then you are finished! The mind, your worst enemy, is coming to torture you.
But the heart is not counting the mileage. The heart is only running, running, running. Then at the end of that session, the heart says, "Now let me see how many miles I have done." By that time, perhaps you have done forty miles already. The heart does not calculate. The mind calculates from one to two, two to three, three to four and so on. The mind tries to go to the destination by cutting, cutting, cutting. But the heart tries to see and feel the starting point and the end at the same time. For the heart the destination is not somewhere else. Only for the mind is the destination somewhere else. The heart will simply say, "Please take me to my destination."
Do not run with the mind. Even if today you fool the mind, tomorrow the mind will come back with redoubled trickeries to make your life miserable. You should say to the mind, "You stay with your trickeries. I want to play with my heart-toy, not with you. You consider your toys as beautiful, but I don't agree. In those days I was a fool; I enjoyed you. But now I am wise. I want to enjoy my heart-toy. The heart-toy always brings me happiness and newness, newness and happiness."
These excerpts are taken from Sri Chinmoy's books My Golden Children and Run and Smile, Smile and Run
Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team donate race proceeds to Flushing Meadows Park
By Rupantar LaRussoauthor bio »
2 December
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.
Photo: Park Administrator Janice Melnick (right) and Park Manager Kevin Selig (left) receive a donation check from the Race Director of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, Rupantar LaRusso, for $2500. The meeting took place on November 29
For the past 5 years the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team has donated the proceeds from their November 5K/10K Race to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, where the race was located. With the kind support of the park administration, we have been organising races in the Park since the mid 1970's, including many of our multi-day races.
It is our hope that this race will inspire the larger race organizers around the New York area to do a similar race for their local Park systems, if they are not doing so already. In Flushing Meadows, we also organise a 5k/half marathon/relay race in May, our October 'Heart-Garden' 2-mile race, and a 1-mile/4-miler in December, as well as our 6 and 10 Day race which has been taking place in Flushing Meadows for many years. We have also recently started doing races in two other parks around New York - a 5k/10k in nearby Alley Pond Park in September as well as a March 5k/7-mile race in Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Tejvan Pettinger has been racing for the Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team for many years, winning many time trials and hill climb races around Britain. After many years of trying, Tejvan won the UK National Hill-Climb championship in 2013. In the video, he relates how he trained really hard to reclaim the title in 2014. He ended up finishing fourth, but the important thing was the experience of detachment and being 'in the moment' that he felt during the race itself.
Ashrita sets a balloon-bursting record live on Czech TV
By Nirbhasa Mageeauthor bio »
22 November
About the author:
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Ashrita Furman has been breaking Guinness World records for nearly 40 years; he currently holds over 200 Guinness Records, more than any other person. He recently appeared on the Czech TV station DVTV, wearing the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team T-shirt he invariably wears during his record attempts, to set another record - bursting the most balloons within a minute, using only his teeth.
His goal was to surpass his own previous record of 35 balloons, but he ended up bursting 51 balloons, and was only stopped by the fact that there were no more balloons on the table to burst!
After the record, he explained why he spends his life attempting these records: “I've been studying meditation with a teacher, his name is Sri Chinmoy. I’ve been studying my whole life with him, and his philosophy is that we all have unlimited strength and capacity within ourselves, and when we practise meditation we have a way to use that unlimited capacity. People can do it in very positive ways…in my case, I try to break Guinness records!”
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
A cellist by profession, Shamita Achenbach-König has been a pioneer ultra-runner for the last 25 years, competing for the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in distances from the marathon right up to the 3100 Mile Race.
Lake Constance (source: OSM)
This summer, she took some time out to return to the Austrian town of Bergenz, where she was born, and run the entire circumference of Lake Constance (called the Bodensee in German), a 167-kilometer journey that took her 23 hours and 35 minutes. Her father was inspired to tell the local media about it and as a result, a very nice article appeared in Vorarlberger Nachrichten, the local newspaper and one of the leading regional papers in Austria.
In the article, Shamita talks about how, through running, she is able to connect to a deeper state of being. "When we run, we connect with a higher world, with a divine consciousness that is the same as meditation. For me, running is meditation, or a long prayer in which thoughts become still…one gains access to levels of consciousness that bring light, joy, peace, and happiness."
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.
Nataliya Samunnati Lehonkova, a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team who competed for her native Ukraine in last year's Olympics in Rio, won the woman's elite field in the Dublin SSE Airtricity Marathon. On a rainy windy day, she finished in a personal best time of 2:28:57.
Picture below: Samunnati with friends from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in Dublin after the awards ceremony. Samunnati has won the Dublin Marathon before, as well as winning the Edinburgh, Tolouse and Los Angeles Marathon
Most ultra-runners have to balance training for many hours a day with the demands of their regular life, and Jayasalini Abramovskikh is no exception, working at least 9 hours a day at her job as an economist. Jayasalini has run our 6 and 10 day race many times, and in 2014 became the first Russian woman to complete the 3100 Mile Race. She talks how she keep her really long runs for weekends and public holidays, how she varies her training, and (interestingly) how she prefers to undertrain rather than overtrain.
Ashrita Furman has been breaking Guinness World records for nearly 40 years; he currently holds over 200 Guinness Records, more than any other person. He recently appeared on the Czech TV station DVTV, wearing the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team T-shirt he invariably wears during his record attempts, to set another record - bursting the most balloons within a minute, using only his teeth.
After the record, he explained why he spends his life attempting these records: “I've been studying meditation with a teacher, his name is Sri Chinmoy. I’ve been studying my whole life with him, and his philosophy is that we all have unlimited strength and capacity within ourselves, and when we practise meditation we have a way to use that unlimited capacity. People can do it in very positive ways…in my case, I try to break Guinness records!”
