Inspiration

I have a new fitness goal – training for the “Centenarian Decathlon” – i.e be fit when you are really old. The idea is that as we get older, our muscle and fitness declines rapidly. It means we can spend the last 10 years of our life, unable to move properly. The body fails before the heart and brain. The only way to be fit and mobile in the last decade of our life is to start training for it now.

The idea of a Centenarian Decathlon comes from Peter Attia – a doctor and fitness guru, who has spent a lot of time researching how to combat ageing and improve our healthy lifespan. He wrote a good book – “Outlive” which goes into different aspects of things that make a difference in improving life-expectancy and healthy life expectancy. An important conclusion from all his scientific research is that if you did one single thing to improve life and healthy life-expectancy – it is exercise. Exercise is the single most important thing that makes a difference. Try to eat healthy, get good sleep, minimise stress and cultivate happiness.  But, if there is a magic bullet, it is exercise – aerobic, VO2 max and core strength.

The great thing about this book is that it really resonated with the philosophy of my spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy valued physical fitness as it enables us to a have more rounded, fulfilling life.

"Physical fitness is of paramount importance. We are not practising sports to be the world’s greatest runner or athlete. We are praying to God to keep our body physically fit so that early in the morning we can pray and meditate and begin our day’s journey with a prayerful heart. If we do not do sports and take exercise to keep the body fit, then we may become weak and sickly and suffer from all kinds of pains and ailments." Sri Chinmoy answers, part 2, Agni Press, 1995

I remember Sri Chinmoy once said that once you are over 50 you should try and if possible do 2-3 hours of exercise and stretching per day. In this regard, Sri Chinmoy definitely practised what he preached. He himself would take regular exercise and stretching to keep fit.

"Physical fitness is of paramount importance. Do whatever exercise you want to, as long as you do something. I take daily at least two hours' exercise, sometimes two and a half, sometimes three. Usually, I do it at three different times during the day. Even at night, before I go to bed, I have some special exercises that I take." - Sri Chinmoy, Inner Meaning of Sport

When Sri Chinmoy was young, in India he was an excellent sprinter and decathlon champion. When he came to the West, he took up distance running. Unfortunately, as many of us will relate to, he experienced bad knee pain, which forced him to stop running. But, he never used this as an excuse to stop exercising. He would walk or exercise with weights. In his mid-70s, Sri Chinmoy was still active in weightlifting. I remember watching Sri Chinmoy walk painfully to a lifting apparatus and then use the parts of his body which could take the strain. Injury was never an excuse. In fact, in one tv interview, Sri Chinmoy explained his philosophy was to try and inspire people of his generation.

The idea of 2-3 hours per day exercise seems such a long-time. But, now I’m getting closer to 50, I have a goal to do this. And the thing is that to do 2-3 hours of exercise a day, you don't have to spend 2-3 hours in a gym. Try stand on one leg with your eyes closed! It's not as easy as it sounds. When waiting in a queue, you can do single leg exercises and stretches. Passes the time in a constructive way. Also, to create a time, I took to speed walking to the supermarket. Carrying shopping on back, is all good training.

Age is in the mind

In addition to training for old age, it is also worth trying to bear in mind, the philosophy "Age is in the mind - not the body" Sri Chinmoy's approach was always to imagine ourselves as young, not old.

Age is in the mind; age is not in the body. When we think that we are old, that is the end, the very end, of our journey. Every day at every moment only think that you are a seven-year-old or a nine-year-old or ten-year-old, but do not think that you are over thirty." Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy answers, part 35, Agni Press, 2004

Healthy Life-expectancy

Despite improvements in medicine we risk seeing a decline in healthy life expectancy through poor diet and exercise.

By the way, healthy life-expectancy is the age at which we are physically able to live an active life. The way modern medicine and health systems are set up – we focus a lot of effort on treating the symptoms of ill-health (and old age), but do very little on preventative medicine.  But, we can definitely start now to improve our strength and fitness which is probably the best preventative medicine.

Vo2 Max

The good news for keen cyclists. VO2 max is one of the most reliable guides to life expectancy. The higher the VO2, there is a very strong correlation for higher life-expectancy. Even small amounts of high intensity training, can boost our VO2 max and our fitness. VO2 max steadily declines with age, but we can partly arrest the decline through training VO2 max specifically. In my own cycling, this year I haven’t done very much VO2 max efforts at all, just pottering around town. So this is a good reminder to make more of an effort in this regard.

Aerobic Base

As you might expect the more you improve your aerobic base, the more good things happen for our health. It improves our cardiovascular health, but also our general mood and feeling of well-being.

The Harvard professor in this video is very good. One of the most interesting things I learnt was when people are unfit, if they exercise they don’t get the same ‘buzz’ / ‘dopamine’ effect that trained athletes do. This is why unfit people don’t like exercise, it is just all suffering, little reward. But, when you get to a certain level of fitness, then increasingly the body is able to send a reward of ‘dopamine’ and exercise becomes much more enjoyable. This is why it can be so hard to get going with exercise; at the start, it is not much fun. But, if you can get a critical mass of fitness then everything becomes easier because exercise itself becomes more enjoyable. I’ve found that in my own exercise cycles. When you’re fit and firing on all cylinders, you can’t wait to get back on the bike and do more training. But, when you get out of the habit, the idea of doing hill intervals or whatever, appears less desirable.

Core strength

Another really important thing about training for old age is general all-round strength. As a cyclist, I have often been guilty of focusing only on cycling and not doing the more ‘boring’ core strength exercises. My body type is perfect for long-seated hill climbs. But, equally, it is  unsuited for doing pull-ups and push ups. Yet, when you get really old, this kind of upper-body strength could be the difference between pulling yourself out of bed and being bedridden. I spend some time with a friend with Parkinson’s. When it kicks in, the legs stop working and to get out of bed, it requires pulling on bars to get up. It is touch and go, and this is a real motivation for training for old age. You realise every workout and muscle strength you developed – makes the difference of whether you can get out of bed, and being able to do basic tasks. There are also other exercises you can do in small confined spaces. I’m a big fan of eccentrics. Pretty much all using your body weight. The aim is to try and exercise all 600+ muscles in the body. The exercises seem easy, but the first time I did a 30 minute session, I couldn’t believe how stiff I was the next day! Muscles you don’t use in daily life.

Modern life

In the pandemic period, I got into the habit of online shopping. It’s amazing, you click on your computer and all your heavy shopping gets brought to your door. It saves so much effort. I used to take a rucksack when travelling, but now replace it with mini suitcases on wheels. Rather than take the stairs at the airport, we have lifts and travellators. Everything is geared towards comfort and ease of use. When we put a backpack on, it is a bit uncomfortable, so we seek ways to avoid lifting and carrying. Everything that used to keep the body in shape is being replaced by technology which does the heavy lifting for us. But, actually walking with a heavy backpack, is really good training for the body. It is why the army use this kind of training.

All this is good in the short-term, but it means the modern homeo sapiens is losing strength and the ability to function like we are supposed to. When things go wrong, it’s either too late or we just seek a solution to the problem of a weak body – not address the underlying cause. This is why we have to make so much conscious effort to keep the body active and avoid the comfort delusion. For example, when my 70-year-old mother brings in the shopping, I feel the right thing to do is go and help her carry the heavy shopping bags. But, actually, that weight training of lifting heavy shopping is the best thing she can do. She isn't always convinced at my logic!

On average I spend one hour a day cycling around Oxford, Kennington, mostly on the cycle path. It’s a really efficient way to both get around time, save money and keep fit.  So that’s a start, but I need to work on improving upper body strength too.

 

Soccer in the Sri Chinmoy Centre, and the Jamaica High School Track: A Disciple History

by Rupantar LaRusso and friends

This article began as a history of Guru’s encouragement of soccer in the Centre. That in itself proved to be a surprisingly huge saga! Soon, though, we also started weaving in stories about the Sri Chinmoy Centre’s countless hours at the Jamaica High School track—not only for soccer, but for many other athletic and non-athletic activities, going back to the ’70s. “The track” was the scene of Guru’s early tennis playing, the annual 47-Mile Race for Guru’s birthday (still held there), the 12-Hour Walk, Father’s Day marathons, early-morning races for visitors and the 7-mile and 13-mile departure races (usually held on the last day of Celebrations), the occasional Sports Day, records set by Ashrita, girls’ marching drills under Guru’s direction, the 1981 Grand Prix Race series as well as many other races of various distances. Then there were the other special events, including Guru’s morning meditations after sports practice, thirty of his Everest-Aspiration talks, daily singing rehearsals at dawn, spectacular celebrations in honour of Guru’s achievements—the list goes on!

Right from the start, it must be emphasized that the history below is incomplete, and all readers are encouraged to submit their own stories to share in a later edition of the newsletter. Please send your special reminiscences about soccer or the Jamaica High School Track to Rupantar!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“…in the human aspect you will see that there are quite a few things which you do that I do in the same manner; therefore, you will get tremendous encouragement…Because you have the same capacity that I have in so many things, you are bound to feel that you can arrive at the same footing on the spiritual plane as well. So you get encouragement.”

Sri Chinmoy, “Human Reality and Divine Reality,” in Everest-Aspiration — talk given at Jamaica High School Track on July 6, 1977

Soccer in the Ashram and the Beginnings in the Centre

A look back at Guru’s soccer days in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram reveals a tenacious and highly skilful player who also was captain of the team. The following is an excerpt from “Football,” Vidagdha’s account of Guru’s Ashram soccer days:

“Like every boy, and especially Indian boys, Sri Chinmoy adored football. He played it during his early youth in Chittagong and it figured prominently in his sports experiences at the Ashram. Among all the games that he played during his formative years, it was his favourite.”

(See "Football" for complete article by Vidagdha.)

And on 5 June 1977, Guru commented to the UN Meditation-Flames soccer team he had created that soccer “will always remain my most favourite game.”

For the European disciples, soccer was the sport, especially in Scotland and England. In the early ’70s there were a few European boy disciples living in New York who played soccer but only a handful of Americans with any experience. The game needed a push from Guru to become really popular in New York. It was probably around 1975, at Jamaica Track, when Guru first saw his New York boys playing organized soccer. It was no surprise that when Guru saw the boys playing, he joined in, displaying his abundant soccer knowledge, skill, speed and form.  There are also stories of Guru informally kicking a soccer ball on the first Christmas Trip in Florida and at an early Games Day.

As an aside, in all probability, Guru first saw organized soccer played in the Centre during the summer of 1974 at Loch Lomond, Scotland, when the English disciples played the Scottish disciples in a very spirited match (see stories by Adarsha and Janaka).

Jamaica Track: Various Athletic Activities Including Soccer

When Guru arrived in the U.S. in 1964 he was still, at 32, near the height of his athletic prowess, and despite working full-time at the Indian Consulate, and multiplying his spiritual activities for the public, Guru still tried to maintain his physical fitness.

Banshidhar writes in his article that in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1969, without any prior notice, Guru gathered the disciples for an exercise routine based on the callisthenic exercises used at the Ashram. The following is an excerpt from Banshidhar’s article:

“Our disciple-life during these early years consisted mostly of study, meditation and selfless service like printing Guru's books or producing arts and crafts for sale. Our only real physical activities were cleaning the Centre and maybe going to the beach afterwards. (Ah, the tropical island life!) Throw in a few hikes in Puerto Rico's beautiful rain forests and we were happy puppies.

“So imagine our surprise when one evening, out of the blue, Guru asked all of us to meet him early the next morning in a nearby park to 'take exercise!' Little did we know that this first morning session with our Coach Supreme was only the beginning of a new wave of dynamic athleticism that would grow into one of the defining pursuits of our spiritual path.”

(See “Beginnings,” Banshidhar’s complete article.)

Soon, Guru began introducing various athletic activities into the Centres, starting with Sports Day in 1970 at Alley Pond Park in Queens. The Jamaica High School sports field became the place to practise despite the poorly maintained cinder track and an infield that was mostly dirt. Let’s not forget that Olympian Bob Beamon, whose astonishing 1968 world long-jump record stood for almost 23 years, trained there as a gifted high-schooler! Guru first met Bob Beamon in 1981 and composed a song for him. In 2004, Guru honoured Bob with the "Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart" award.

Mornings at “the track” marked the beginning of organized athletic activities in the Centre. In fact, it is almost impossible to speak about Centre sports, including soccer, without focusing on “the track.” Guru and the disciples spent countless hours there. It was only natural that Guru would recall his well-loved days at the Ashram “playground” and share with his twenty-something boy disciples his youthful love of football. Here he taught them the importance of agility, speed, teamwork and sportsmanship—plus a bit of divine, strategic trickery!

(See Guru's talk to his UN Meditation-Flames soccer team on 10 October 1976 here.)

Guru would regularly come to the track very early  to encourage, coach and participate in the various track and field events, exercises (like running up and down the big staircase) and games, including soccer. Then everyone lined up on the field and Guru meditated briefly, offering a fruit as prasad before the disciples dashed off to get ready for work.  

Ashrita, already a disciple in 1970, remembers looking out the window of his English class in Jamaica High School to watch Guru and the disciples practising on Jamaica Track.

Jamaica High School Track – Golden Days, by Vajra, June 13, 2020

“It is close to fifty golden years since my early start up-days with Guru. I am particularly electrified when remembering those days when I used my father’s car to transport disciples every morning to the Jamaica High School track. I would arise in Manhattan at 3:30 a.m., and sometimes even earlier, to begin picking up disciples who lived in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and other parts of Queens.  No one who wanted to meditate at 6 a.m. with Guru was left behind.

“Arriving in a Plymouth station wagon packed with from 6 to 12 passengers, we would run around the quarter-mile cinder track while Guru did a few of his own workouts or stood keenly observing us. Guru was introducing us to sports as a way to keep the body fit. Imagine: running four times around a quarter-mile track was, for us, the equivalent to running a marathon today!

“Close to 7 a.m., Guru would meditate with all who were present. After that, my passengers would all pile into the car and we would drive back, dropping each person at their door. When I stop and think of it, I wonder how it was possible for me to do all that running around, picking people up door to door. And nobody complained of getting to work late!

“That was not the end of it! In those days, as disciple numbers grew, Centres were being formed closest to where disciples lived. Connecticut Centre was created with its meeting held on Monday nights; New Jersey on Tuesday nights; New York Centre meeting was held on Thursday and Sunday nights; Manhattan Centre meeting was held on Saturday nights. Where there was a Centre meeting, and Guru would be present, I was also there, picking up disciples and carrying them to and from meetings. Someone calculated that 18 hours a day I actually was living in my car, transporting people from morning track workouts to evening meditations. This went on for quite a few years.

“When I look back at this episode of my spiritual practice, it is with my mind’s disbelief; nevertheless, it is with my heart’s miraculous assurance that it was all Guru’s grace.”

Later, when tennis was introduced, Guru first played by the courts on 168th Street, until the gate was locked, and then against the large wall, where a tennis net was attached to a big crack in the wall, pulled perpendicular to the wall and held taut by a disciple. Lines were painted on this makeshift cement court. It was here, and on the sloping field below the wall of arches, that Guru gave thirty of his Everest-Aspiration talks in 1977.

Guru at Jamaica Track, late 1970s –Tanima’s singing group, by Tanima

“In the late 1970s – 1977 and 1978 for sure, and perhaps other years – Guru requested my singing group to rehearse every morning at 6:00 a.m. During these years we had 100 or 200 songs to learn for performing during April and August Celebrations. For April Celebrations we rehearsed at my apartment during the cold months. During the spring and summer months, in preparation for August, Guru requested my singing group to rehearse every morning at 6:00 a.m. at Jamaica Track. Some members remember it was 5:30 a.m. so it may have been 6:00 in one year and 5:30 in another. Guru was very strict and said if anyone was one minute late, they were out of the group!

“We used to sit against the wall on the far west side, near the back stairs, where Guru used to also play tennis before we had Aspiration-Ground.  Guru came to the track every morning and did a variety of training exercises and many other things, and many disciples also came and practiced sports. It was ‘morning at the track’. Occasionally Guru would stop by our rehearsals and listen to the songs. He would give us guidance on singing, make comments on the songs and sometimes give a historical reference to the Bengali poems, most of which he had written while in the Ashram.

“On weekends the mornings went longer and Guru did many different things at the track. In addition to volleyball, marching and sports practices, Guru created games to play – like the one where you sit in a circle facing inward and someone runs around the outside of the circle and places a handkerchief behind a seated person. That person has to feel the handkerchief with his hands, and then he is next up! In another game, you would buzz like a bee and try to tag someone before you ran out of breath.

“During the weekdays Guru would end early enough for us to go home, get changed and go to work. He would sit on a folding chair by the wall and then prasad was placed in front of him and everyone would take it while he meditated. This beautiful photograph by Shraddha was taken when Guru was meditating by the wall.”

Also, it was here in 1976, on the grassy area, that Guru famously defeated the California girl disciples in volleyball, displaying his abundant skill and a variety of trick shots. Garima, who was one of the players, clearly recalls that the six girls tried really hard but were easily defeated by Guru.

In 1980, the first 12-Hour Walk took place at the track, and in 1978, the first 47-Mile Race, on the track and around the school. This is, indeed, sacred ground.

The group photo of runners in red (girls on the left), taken on the tennis courts near Jamaica Track, shows the members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team who were to participate in the October 23, 1977 New York City Marathon. This was the first time the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team participated in a marathon as an official team, complete with uniforms. This tradition with the New York City Marathon would continue through 2000.

Soccer Grows in the Centre

Savyasachi, Guru’s main driver back then, first dropped Guru off at the driveway to the school on Chapin Parkway, and later, when that gate was locked, in front of a hole in the fence near what is now the finish of our Saturday morning two-mile race. The Centre guards would wait there, holding the fence apart for Guru when he arrived. The wooden stairs were sometimes taken away, but then Abedan made a sturdy cement step for Guru to enter onto the field.

Soccer grew in the Centre and in 1976 Guru created two teams: the UN Meditation-Flames and the Chinmoy Lions. Adarsha was made captain of the Chinmoy Lions and Janaka vice-captain by Guru. Years later, during the Christmas Trip in Brazil, Projjwal was made captain of the Centre soccer team, with Devashishu and Sahadeva as vice-captains. With his keen eye for excellence, Guru deeply appreciated the skill of Brazil’s soccer champion Pelé—who won three “Player of the Century” awards in 1999, the year of our Brazil trip. In 1978 Guru dedicated a song to this soccer champion, whom he was sadly not able to meet (see Projjwal’s stories).

On September 19, 1999, at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, there was a ceremony for the UN International Day of Peace, as well as an international soccer match. New York City Parks Commissioner Henry Stern and other dignitaries attended. The Peace Run team came in with the Peace Torch, Guru meditated, the singers sang Guru’s song “UN, With You Began,” and finally, Guru spontaneously composed and sang the song “Soccer I Play.” These simple words clearly reveal Guru’s love of the sport as a vehicle of world peace:

“Soccer I play, soccer I play
To give the world a oneness-day.
I am a UN peace-adorer;
Its heart is the world’s goal-scorer.”

Guru did not coach the disciple girls in soccer in those early days, focusing more on their running. But it was after Guru started sharing his avid interest in the sport with the Centre that the game’s popularity skyrocketed in the US—particularly when Pelé played for the New York Cosmos from 1975-1977. And now, the US women’s soccer team dominates the international scene. We detect ongoing encouragement by our Guru!

The following pdf downloads are first-hand accounts of soccer in the Centre from some of the boys who were there. Although these stories are anecdotal,  and some of the experiences are from over 40 years ago, these memories have remained with us as we have tried to show how Guru touched us and shaped our lives,  both inwardly and outwardly, through the game he loved so much.

Short video of Sri Chinmoy playing football in 1972

Related

• Football Stories (including a poem), by Adarsha
• Guru and the Beautiful Game, by Janaka
• Football Stories, by Projjwal
• UN Meditation Flames - Early Days, and Soccer at Games Day, by Mohan
• Clocked by a Soccer Ball, by Dhanu
• Soccer Stories, by Tarit
• Hiyamallar Scores 6 Goals!, by Hiyamallar
• A Few Memories, by Jogyata
• Soccer Stories, by Sanjay
• Soccer Recollections in Myanmar, by Ashirvad
• Soccer Stories, by Bipin
• Soccer Stories, by Rupantar

 

Guru ran his fastest marathon on March 25th, 1979 in Toledo, Ohio. It was called the Heartwatcher’s Marathon. Guru’s time was 3:55:07, which is an average pace of 8:58 per mile, or 5:34 per kilometer. He was 47 years old.

This was Guru’s second marathon; his first was just 22 days before in Chico, California at the Bidwell Classic Marathon, where he ran 4:31:34. That race left him hungry for running under four hours; in fact, he explained the day after that he could have run sub-four if it weren’t for muscle cramps late in the race.

 On the first day of June the previous year Guru had made the thrilling declaration that “This is the beginning, the golden time,” that he had begun training to run a marathon, and that we should do the same. Previously, there had been only a handful of serious runners among the disciples, and now there were dozens. A couple of years later during some comical banter with a recalcitrant disciple, Guru suggested that each of us had to run a marathon “Otherwise,” he said, “you will not be allowed into Heaven!”

 Long distance running was giving Guru tremendous joy, like an old dream of his finally coming true. He had been an athlete his whole life, although he was primarily a sprinter and never liked distance running. Fast-forward to 1985 and we find Guru excelling at another athletic event that he had steadfastly avoided, weightlifting. In both cases, his attitude quickly evolved from conscious avoidance to complete embrace. All of a sudden in 1978, Guru was reading, thinking and talking about distance running, every single day. He was spectating at big races, studying and meeting champion runners, writing poems and songs about running, watching documentary films about famous runners and races, and quizzing disciples about their training.

 Guru was also organizing lots of public races, in the New York area and around the world. And he was training sixty to ninety miles per week. During the winter of 1978 Guru did several epic late-night training runs all by himself, upwards of twenty miles each, arriving home at dawn with his entire figure caked with snow and ice.

 

Guru chose the seventh annual Heartwatcher’s Marathon because it was advertised as being quite flat. This marathon course was point-to-point, starting at the Bowling Green State University Women’s Gymnasium parking lot on Ridge Street and going almost straight north 26.2 miles to the University of Toledo’s Health Education Center on Stadium Drive. Depending on the prevailing winds, the organizers would decide to reverse the course in order to avoid a headwind, but forensic analyses of the photos and movie of Guru’s race reveal that the course was not changed that day. There is an evidential photo of Guru around the 16 mile-mark, near the intersection of Route 20 and Route 20A, across from a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant which still stands as a neighborhood landmark in the city of Maumee. Also, in the movie I’m shouting to Guru late in the race about impending downhill sections of the course, and a topographic study of the region does in fact show a gentle downhill trend there, when running northward.

 At that time Guru wanted to run at least one  marathon per month, but he didn’t want these races to be hilly. He was bent on achieving his fastest possible time, and hills would obviously impact that. I phoned-up the race director of the Presque Isle Marathon near Erie, Pennsylvania, and drove with Databir to Foxboro, Massachusetts and College Park, Maryland to verify claims of marathon course flatness.

 In those days the Heartwatcher’s Marathon was put on by the Toledo Road Runners Club as a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. We discovered it in the events calendar in the back of a Running Times magazine. Those magazines were like gold. We called up the race director and president of the Toledo Roadrunners Club, a certain Mr. Fred Fineske, and he told us that the course was flat as a pancake, so Guru said he would run it. He may have also been charmed by something more subtle about that Midwestern city: indeed, years before he had said “I see light in Toledo.”

 The Mayor of the city of Toledo, Douglas Degood, declared March 25th as Sri Chinmoy Day in his city in appreciation of Guru’s marathon run, and the local newspaper, The Blade said “A leading practitioner of meditation will be one of the participants in the marathon. Sri Chinmoy, a native of India, is nationally recognized for his efforts to promote peace through meditation. Sri Chinmoy leads meditations once a week at the United Nations in New York.”

 About 40 disciples came to Toledo in a bus that Nishtha organized, and another 20 in cars, driving ten hours through the night from New York to watch Guru run. Unfortunately, the bus got lost and arrived an hour or two after the race started. Also, about 30 disciples drove from Canada. Databir came with me in my new/used 1976 Chevy Malibu Classic station wagon for the 600-mile drive. We arrived in the middle of the night and immediately began searching for the mile-marks, and worked out logistics for meeting Guru along the course during the marathon. That was going to be difficult because, as in many rural areas of the country, some roads will go for over a mile between intersections. And this was long before mobile phones and GPS maps.

 It was a small local race, with 152 runners that day, and it was cold -- in the movie of Guru running this race you can see a big clock near the start showing 24 degrees -- and Guru was wearing shorts. It was also windy, and moments of wet snow came and went. Guru later said that at times he ran in between other runners to shield himself from the cold wind. The course had a few small hills and it crossed some major intersections. Parts of the course had considerable traffic, and sometimes a roaring eighteen-wheeler would force you off the road onto the sidewalk.

 

When Guru was approaching a mile marker, we cheered and sang Guru’s running songs as powerfully as we could. Some disciples also played instruments, like oboe. That day we also spontaneously debuted the very motivational “Go, Guru, go!” chant that was used a lot over the next few years. And someone would be holding up a big number sign to show Guru how many miles he had run. Some of these signs were made using paper placemats borrowed from a diner visited en route, as we had forgotten to bring the number signs from New York.

 While Guru was running past a mile mark, I would tell him his time for that mile, his average pace and projected finishing time, and also about any hills that might be coming up. Guru told a funny story in Run and Become, Part 8 about how a well-meaning but uninformed disciple was telling Guru their “self-chosen” mile time, a moment before I gave Guru his official time, and the two times were quite different, leading to four or five miles of unfortunate confusion.

 After Guru passed a mile mark he got a drink or a hat, and off we went, organized chaos, six or eight to a car, rushing to the next mile mark. To arrive there before Guru did, we had to drive on roads parallel to the course and then abandon our cars and run, sometimes through people’s yards or across frozen cornfields. We must have looked like thieves! For a few minutes we left our cars parked askew in the middle of the road or in someone’s driveway, motors running, heaters blazing and trunk lids open. Savita and other girls were driving my car with drinks and movie camera, so I jumped into whoever’s car was first to leave.

 

Guru was in great aerobic shape; he could easily talk while he was running, although he preferred to remain silent throughout the race, in a state of yogic concentration and meditation. He had asked a few disciples to run behind him for a mile or two at various points in the race, and I ran with a group of “road crew” boys once or twice. The road crew measured and maintained Guru’s training courses, and attended to all manner of details when Guru ran a race. On this day Guru asked us to run behind him and sing loudly. Most of us were members of the non-singers’ group that Guru called his “immortal singers,” and we sang songs from The Heart-Home of the Immortals, Guru’s recent book of 86 English songs he had composed to his favorite quotes, spoken by famous people over the span of recorded history. In the movie you can hear us trying to sing Virgil’s declaration, “Love Conquers All.”

 

 

The finish line of the race was kind of unusual, being located inside a university building, and the runners had to run right in the doorway. After Guru finished we crammed into a classroom and tried to get warm; Guru sat wrapped in blankets looking very happy. There was prasad of apples and warm burritos, and someone brought a big cake, and we sang the new “Congratulation” song, and then we went outside for a group picture. At this point in the movie there is a minute or two where image goes out-of-focus, but this somehow helps to convey the dreamy miracle-ness of that day: it felt like Guru had conquered the world and made a solid change to the earth-atmosphere. That evening we had a celebration at the Holiday Inn Hotel where Guru handed out big eight-inch “Marathon” caramel-chocolate Mars Bars to each of us, and the Chicago disciples cooked a 26-course meal for everyone, using the hotel’s big industrial kitchen.

The next day, two dozen newspapers printed articles about Guru’s marathon, including the New York Daily News, which inexplicably announced “A real live Guru crossed the finish line first, setting a new local record” and “Running, he insisted, is good for you. But will it ever replace contemplation? Hmm. Have to meditate on that.”

The Evening Press of  Muncie, Indiana ran an article with a picture of Guru and the headline, “Galloping Guru Goes Great Guns.” And the Arizona Daily Sun said about Guru, “The Indian spiritual Master has been bitten by the running bug.”

 There are many superb photos of Guru running this marathon, and the original uncut super-8 sound movie remains one of the most important such records we have of Guru.

By that August Guru had run two more marathons, and he told Olympic marathoner Gary Fanelli that training twice a day at 80 miles per week had “become quite easy.” Guru said it was his wish to complete five or six 100-mile training weeks before the upcoming New York City Marathon, where he wanted to run under 3:30. The following month Guru did achieve the 100 miles-per-week, and he composed the song “One Hundred Miles.” Altogether in calendar year 1979 Guru completed seven marathons, a 30-mile solo run, a 47-mile race, and six shorter races of three to 13 miles.

 Guru completed twenty-two marathon runs over the course of four amazing years, from March 1979 to February 1983, in California, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Florida, as well as in Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Puerto Rico and Japan. He said that he is the only spiritual Master who has run a marathon. In 2006 Guru instituted the Sri Chinmoy Invitational Marathon, to be run in New York every April, restricted to only those disciples who have run faster than Guru’s fastest marathon time within the past 10 years. Around 100 disciples ran in the first edition of this race. In 2019 the disciples from the Toledo area organized a Joy Day weekend to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Guru’s fastest marathon. We ran eight miles along the marathon course and had inspiring functions, and now they are planning to make it an annual event. The Heartwatcher’s Marathon is still being held, with a few changes and a new name, now called the “Glass City Marathon,” and they claim it to have one of the 25 fastest courses in the country. They had 1268 finishers last year.

 In 2009 when the Russian disciples celebrated the 30th anniversary of Guru’s fastest marathon, they asked me if I was at this marathon with Guru and if I could write something about it. Every year I edit this story; this version is from March 25, 2020. The photos in this article were taken by Bhashwar at this marathon.

 

 

 

Harita Davies, two-time 3100 Mile finisher, shares this inspiring story:

Recently I was out for a walk. It was a drizzly, overcast day at the end of March. I usually pass by the 3100 course at the end of my walk or run, and today was no exception. From a distance I spotted two runners standing beside a car. It’s not hard to spot runners since they looked totally different from anyone else out there! I knew they were not Sri Chinmoy's students, so I guessed they had come to run on the sacred course, and I was right! This is not the first time I have come across runners who travel especially to circumnavigate the block. Who knows how many come that we never see!

I recognized both of them, as they have come out to support the 3100 Race last summer. We were mutually thrilled to connect! Their names are Kevin and Michelle, and they both live in Brooklyn. I asked what brought them out. They were both quiet, then Kevin told me they were running in honor of his young daughter, Megan, who sadly passed away just a few days earlier.

A Facebook group called Megan’s Mile or Megan Smile, had been created inviting people to run a mile in memory of his daughter. Kevin chose to run at the 3100 course because it is special to him. He found out about the 3100 after seeing the movie in 2018. He was interested and stayed in touch with Sanjay, who invited him to the pre-race banquet at Annam Brahma. He really connected with the photos of Sri Chinmoy on the walls.

On the morning of the run Kevin went to the driveway of Aspiration Ground and saw Vajra, who showed him a photo of Sri Chinmoy as a blessing before the start of his run - that means a lot to him.

Kevin and Michelle ended up running for nearly 12 hours and they covered 36 miles. They went to Annam Brahma three times before during and after the race, and they were the first to delight in how well they ate!

Several of us went out to visit them throughout the day and run a little with them. They were both eager to talk and share. Kevin had never run more than a marathon and confided that he dreams to run the 3100 one day. Michelle runs ultras regularly- she had been training for a 50 km race, which had been canceled.

At one point I took them a few supplies and they were having a heated discussion. Kevin had said they would end at 30 miles but after reaching that goal wanted to run 5 more. Michelle was cold and tired and wanted to know exactly why he wanted to run five more… I decided to leave at that point, only to see Michelle get out of the car to run 5 more- now that’s a real friend!

Kevin and Michelle were grateful for our support. I was so moved and inspired by what they did. I have no doubt that Sri Chinmoy would have been smiling down on them and blessing this understated act of true heroism.

Although bittersweet, to witness such a deeply heartfelt gesture at a time like this was a great honor. Fittingly, it served as a reminder that the darkest moments can be catalysts for an outpouring of divine qualities- hope, love, empathy, and our common yearning to connect, be happy, and appreciate every moment of this precious life we are so blessed to live.

"It is hope
That still keeps
The world alive."
Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 41, Agni Press, 2004

 

 

 

Our members consider sports, and running in particular, to be an integral part of their inner life, along with more traditional spiritual disciplines such as meditation. Vasudha, who helps to organise our Marathon Team events in San Diego, speaks eloquently about how the role that running plays in her own life, and how running and meditation complement each other.

From her interview: "Running is my church - its just absolutely where I can go and feel a sense of connecting to something higher. My spiritual life helps my running and my running helps my spiritual life - for myself, I can't separate the two. It's so much a part of who I am."

Sri Chinmoy spoke often on the inner benefits of running - including an answer which Vasudha refers to in the video:

While you run, each breath that you take is connected with a higher reality. While you are jogging, if you are in a good consciousness, your breath is being blessed by a higher inner breath. Of course, while you are jogging if you are chatting with one of your friends about mundane things, then this will not apply. But if you are in a good consciousness while you are running, each breath will connect you with a higher, deeper, inner reality. (source)

July 30, 2014 - Karteek Clarke, member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon and Swimming Team swam the slowest and toughest of his 11 Channel crossings on 30 July (19 hours and 1 minute). He is indeed a champion of champions. Looking at the map of his route, you’d think he really didn’t have a clue where France was, or else was getting awful advice from his crew. This drunken arc is all the work of the tides: his swim was made all the more challenging for falling on a Spring tide, the strongest and most wilful of ocean currents.

Imagine swimming in a pool on the roof of a building. While you are swimming, King Kong picks up the building, puts it onto a gigantic swing, and starts rocking the swing through an enormous arc in the sky. You think you’re swimming in a straight line which you sort of are but your position on a GPS goes all over the place. For the whole 19 hours, Karteek was swimming straight towards France, yet the tide ensured his predominant motion was always sideways. There were times when – even though Karteek was always swimming forwards and towards France due to the tide and the curvature of the coastline, he was actually moving further away from the shore.

Don’t even start to imagine what this can do to your mind and your will! Now imagine that the ‘pool’ you are swimming in is actually a huge washing machine or butter churner (oh yes, and it’s also very, very cold in there). No two strokes you take are the same—one moment you breathe to your left and a mammoth wave smacks your face; the next you stroke to the right and flail in thin air at the edge of a heaving precipice. Especially at night, your universe above, below and all around – is a constant unstable relentless surging disarray. Only the shore is certain: it can be seen, always apparently just ahead (at night you see the lights) — but where and when it will be reached is not worth guessing at.

To me, the most impressive and amazing thing about Karteek’s performance, is that he never once – not once – asked where he was or how far or how long he had to go. That seemed almost irrelevant. Yet how the mind – in the midst of constant sickness, disorientation and discomfort – must have been screaming to know “How far??” For hour after hour after hour, he could see the shore ahead. As the sun set, France was looming – and all through the night, the lights were just there before us – though day had dawned before the pilot finally declared the water too shallow for the boat to proceed and bid Karteek to swim ashore alone. 

 

This video was shot by one of our photographers during the 2013 race. The music is by Parichayaka Hammerl; the first track is his own composition and the subsequent tracks are his arrangements of Sri Chinmoy's melodies

 

The Fifth Annual Self-Transcendence Swim-Run at Lake Welch Beach

The Perfect Race for Swim Training and Multi-Sport Training 

Sunday, September 8th 2013

Race Start is at 10:00 am

The Self-Transcendence Swim-Run at Lake Welch Beach offers the perfect opportunity for swimming training in a multi-sport race setting.

   

Taking place in Lake Welch Beach, Harriman State Park, NY, the freshwater swim is devoid of tides, waves and ocean currents. An Ideal race training option for swimmers of various fitness levels!

   

Join us on Sunday, September 8th 2013! We hope to see you there! 

Race Start is at 10:00 am

For additional details on registration, directions and other information, please visit our website at:

This book contains firsthand experience of healthy and holistic nutrition at the world longest annual Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race. It is aimed at everyone who seeks to lead an active and healthy life and to fully unfold one’s potential. First edition of the book was printed out in Ukraine in 2010.

Author is the first runner from the Post-Soviet Countries who finished the world longest certified "Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race", organized by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in New-York. Best time of the 7 finishes is 48 days 12 hours 42 minutes and 46 seconds (103 km/day - 2009). For more than 22 years he has been practicing meditation under the guidance of Sri Chinmoy. Living and working in Ukraine, he combines his spiritual life with his family, his writing, his sports and he also leads the Esoteric Project Management training course.

To order on Amazon...

Every April an invitational marathon is held only for members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team who have run faster than Sri Chinmoy's fastest marathon time of 3:55:07 and, within the past 5 years.

Sri Chinmoy loved the challenge of the marathon distance and in fact completed 22 marathons in a period from March 1979 through February 1983. In deference to his fastest marathon time of 3:55:07 (ran on March 25, 1979 in the Heart-Watchers Marathon in Toledo, OH), every April an invitational marathon is held only for members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team who have ran faster than 3:55:07 and within the past 5 years. This will be the 6th Annual Self Transcendence Invitational Marathon, held at Flushing Meadow Corona Park and will start at 9 a.m.

 

 

Enjoy Cristian's slideshow of this year's race...

 

A moment of silence before the start of the race. Photo: Cristian

• The 2013 Self-Transcendence Invitational Marathon

 

In 1976, a group of Sri Chinmoy's students participated in a 50 state relay to celebrate the ideals on which America was founded. Here are some extracts from the brochure for that initiative, along with some media coverage the event garnered:

"A Bicentennial Offering:

• Non-stop, Round-the-clock, Relay Run Through All 50 States
• 27 Runners
• 8,800 Miles
• 46 Days
• Carrying a Flaming Torch to Symbolize the Rekindling of Spiritual Values and Human Ideals Upon Which (our) Country Was Founded

 

"We are a group of young men who share a deep love and concern for America. We see the American Bicentennial as the symbol of a new dawn and a timely inspiration for all Americans to rededicate themselves to the deeper spiritual values and human ideals upon which our country was founded. Further, we see our nation as having tremendous opportunity and responsibility in the coming years to inspire goodness, truth and self-sacrifice in the hearts of all mankind.

"Thus, it is to draw attention to these spiritual ideals imparted to us by our founding fathers two-hundred years ago that we have undertaken this run.

"In January, members of Liberty Torch ran a 360 mile, non-stop relay from New York through Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. They carried a flaming torch and passed many of the historical and Revolutionary landmarks along the way. The closing ceremony was held at the Washington Monument where the runners were officially received by Casey Conrad, the President's Advisor on Physical Fitness. Mr. Conrad read a letter from President Ford commending the Liberty Torch runners for the part they were playing in laying the cornerstone of America's third century."

Burghardt, Dee. "They Carried A Torch For Their Country's Greatness." The New Haven Register. Monday, 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, other tried to give money away.

Valerio, Joseph. "Carrying a Torch for America's Values." New York Post. August 17, 1976.

...After 51 days, after logging 8800 miles through all 50 states with the torch constantly moving through the countryside, the Liberty Torch Run had ended in a blaze of glory.

'This is a year in which it seems as though everybody is running...for something,' Mayor Beame told a hundred flag-wavers and white-collar workers. 'They did it as a way of celebrating our country's 200 years of expanding freedom. They wanted to show how America's spiritual values have been rekindled.'

No Politician ever spoke truer words...in any election year. This was the perfect footnote to America's bicentennial Celebration...

"Liberty Torch Troupe Back After a Long Run." The New York Times. Tuesday, August 27, 1976.

'Look at them coming down the street, aren't they wonderful?' said a deeply tanned Mayor Beame, who proclaimed yesterday 'Liberty Torch Day.'

The Sedan Times-Star (Kansas). Wednesday, 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.

The following words are from a song Sri Chinmoy wrote to honor America:

 

 

"London Wins 5 Divisions in 1st International Race" (Press Release). August 2, 1981. Retrieved 2013-01-28. Archive copy at the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team office, Queens, New York.

"London's M. Caldwell (age 28) came in ahead of 2,000 runners from 50 cities around the world to win the first annual Sri Chinmoy International 2-Mile-Run, held Monday, July 27. Caldwell finished in 9:00.

Four other London entries also won age division trophies in this first-of-its-kind race, making that city the over-all winner. The remaining division winners came from Toronto and San Francisco (two each); Victoria, Stockholm Edinburgh and Augsburg (one winner each) and Australia (two winners).

The International 2-Mile-Run is the first race ever to be held on the same day in multiple cities located around the world. Each individual race was sponsored by a branch of the international Sri Chinmoy running clubs. The run itself was held in honor of the sports philosopher and United Nations meditation leader Sri Chinmoy, whose 50th birthday is August 27.

Local winners were awarded regional prizes and international winners will receive their awards at ceremonies in their own home areas. Among the participating runners were Kathy Binns, the British cross-country champion (age 23) who completed the London race in 10:15; and the "Running Nun", Marion Irvine, who completed the San Francisco race in 12:30, winning the women's 50-59 division trophy.

 

 

 

 

Christchurch runner and Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team race director Vajin Armstrong achived the 1st of his 3 consecutive victories in New Zealand's premier mountain race on 04 Dec 2010.

Running the rugged 60 km mountain course for the first time Vajin recorded a fine 05:03:27.

The Kepler Challenge is described as "the jewel in New Zealand's mountain running calendar" and is organised by a voluntary committee with the support, on race day, of approximately 200 Te Anau residents - giving the event a truly community feeling.

The 60km event plus the sister race, the Luxmore Grunt (27km), are held on the Kepler Track in the Fiordland National Park - part of the South Westland World Heritage Area.

Limited to 400 competitors in the Kepler Challenge and 150 in the Luxmore Grunt, both events fill up very quickly after entries open on the first Saturday in July each year.

The events attract a wide range of competitors in both nationality and age groups. For the majority of participants the nature of the event is, as the name suggests, a personal challenge.

In 2010 Vajin finished 1 minute and 29 seconds ahead of 2009 second place finisher Norman Dunroy, who was first to reach the top of the grueling 15.7km ascent, and 4.42 ahead of Martin Lukes (three time winner & five times runner-up).

The current race record of 04:37:41 was set in 2005 by Kiwi world mountain running champion & 2004 Olympic marathoner Phil Costley.

Vajin returned victorious in 2011 [05:01:54] and again in 2012 - finally fulfilling his 'sub-5' dreams [04:55:24] after a hard fought battle with Aussie Tony Fattorini.

View Full Results

Why would anyone want to run 700 miles (1,126 km) in 13 days? Aucklander Subarata Cunningham explains why, and how, she did it...

Whiting, Nathan. "From the Big Apple: The Ultimate Challenge. Ulrarunning. September 1991.

The marathon has been called ‘the ultimate challenge.’ Most of us laugh at a Saturday workout distance being so honored. If pressed, we might each name our own ultimate goal or achievement: a Rocky Mountain trail race, six days on a track, the local romp through the swamp and over he ridge, or perhaps across the United States. A few of us may have even tougher ideas hidden back in our minds, which have yet to be tried. While there are many hard goals, I would like to suggest a different idea of ‘the ultimate challenge.’

Perhaps you have heard of the Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei in Japan. John Stevens has written a book by that title, published by Shambhala Press in Boston. They began with a ninth-century monk named Soo who had a vision to visit all 300 shrines on Mt. Hiei every day. To do this he had to run the 25- mile course. In the 1380s a practice of 1,000 days over seven years was established. The hardest 100-day session was to run the route twice each night over mountain trails, praying at each shrine, after which the monks would perform their daily duties. In 1583 the first monk completed this regimen. It is easier now. About 50 monks have finished in the last 150 years.

What interests me is that it was 200 years before there was a finisher. This challenge seems a little more ultimate, a goal we can’t reach or our children or their children…yet someday in another age it will be done. No T-shirt for 200 years, no trophy. A great thing about ultrarunning is the patience. We resist the American tendency for quick and obvious gratification. We look for the task somewhere close to the limits of our endurance. ‘What can be done?’ We combine the conservative idea of sticking to our goals. With a radical, almost rebellious urge to do the unthinkable, to defy the rules, at a time most Americans are splitting these ideas apart.

‘Set reasonable goals which are still challenging,’ we were told in high school. Maybe it’s time t question this cliché. Let the ultimate challenge be unreasonable, some frustrating task that takes over our imaginations, yet we can’t do it. It lures us on. It has meaning. It’s hovering near the impossible gives it meaning. To work it out, it will have to be passed to other generations.

Can any of us give seven years? We aren’t monks. We aren’t pros. The religious dedication to visit many shrines, to separate ourselves and explore our internal possibilities to such a degree is not in our culture. The Judeo-Christian tradition requires no such sacrifice. We don’t have the Asian concept of reincarnation, of our soul needing all the experience it can get to escape the cycle of rebirth. Why would we want to take our sport beyond weekend races or a summer-long journey run?

The point is we do do more. Some of us have run every day for years. Some of us train more than 25 miles a day and pause at our favorite views. Some of us spend entire weekends on mountain trails we may or may not have seen before. Then we work our jobs and share the love of our families. Whatever urge drives us, whether it comes from this culture or not, is very powerful and we take it seriously.

If there is one point I have tried to make in these articles it is: we are up to something important. As a group we have made amazing discoveries. What we have not done well is record our discoveries, what we know, what we don’t know, what we feel, what we still want to feel. One reason is we’re too busy running. Another reason is we believe no one cares. Another reason is we run with people who have a pretty good idea already. The most important reason is it’s simply too hard to express it all, to hard to organize feelings, times, distances, and reasons into words. Ultrarunning have been popular before only to die out, be forgotten, to be started again from ignorance by a new generation. I don’t believe this is a good way to keep our knowledge alive, visible, present.

When one looks at places where ultrarunning has lived for long periods around the world – the running Indian villages of Mexico, the marathon messengers of East Africa, the monks of Mt. Hiei – it is a tradition, an institution. By institution I don’t mean a race organization or some American Assn. for Ultrarunners. These are flimsy things. Boston, our oldest marathon is threatened by money and competition. Our oldest, the JFK is losing runners and support. Our popular trail races depend on handful of people, as does this magazine. Even the Olympics are threatened by politics. The legend of Mt. Hiei began with one runner. He set an example. For 400 years people remembered the meaning he left. Then a discipline was created and 200 years later someone completed it. The legend has lived and been useful for over 1,000 years.

It only took three of four years for the first runner to complete the Sri Chinmoy 1,300-mile race. Will anyone remember who is was 20 years from now? We need to create the kinds of legends people can follow and expand upon. If we have run in a place for ten years, at times logging high mileage, let it be seen. If we have love for places on our courses, reasons for our disciplines, let them be known. To me this is he ultimate challenge for each of us: to pass on the beauty and difficulty of what we do, to keep our accomplishments alive, if not by words then by our deeds, and to let the ever expanding possibilities of what we might wish to try to remain open to future generations.

 

Nathan Whiting, who ran in the historic 24 Hour Race in 1989 (and completed 107 miles), puts Ann Trason’s victory in context with the prevailing views of the running community during the 1980s.

Whiting, Nathan. “From the Big Apple: Women Who Win." September 1989. Reprinted with permission from the author.

"In January of 1981 Sue Ellen Trapp won a 100 kilometer race in Miami with a time of 8:05:26, beating the first man by over 50 minutes and setting a new American women’s record. Her record was soon broken, but the event was memorable. Those of us who heard took notice. Women were relatively new to distance running, but were asserting themselves. Feminists in New York, who I passed on this information to, were excited and proud. A myth of male dominance was being threatened. We had known that elite women had times capable of winning some local races...From time to time women have continued to win races, but two recent, local events have definitely proven women can reach men’s level.

This year’s TAC 24 Hour National Championship, sponsored by Sri Chinmoy, certainly couldn’t be said to have a weak field. Four men who had gone over 140 miles were present, plus two other sub 14 hour 100 milers. Add three of four more 130+ mile 24 hour runners and you have a formidable crowd. Yet, on a day of uneven weather featuring many kinds of rain, Ann Trason won by four miles. It wasn’t many hours before none were able to challenge her fluid, unyielding motion. Her statement was only beginning. We assume male athletes beat females. Women are told they are weaker. Don’t compete. America’s salary structure and other institutions depend on this belief. Imagine a woman hitting 50 home runs in the major leagues or gaining 100 to yards to lead an NFL team to a big win. This is the order of Ann Trason’s achievement.

What is a hero? A fast, well trained center fielder makes a diving catch in a World Series. He is paid $2 million to do this. Boys remember the catch into old age. A TV camera shows his face close up in slow motion register pain as he strikes the ground, then a brief grimace before he rises jubilantly with the ball. A telephoto lens captures a wide receiver reaching a ball the moment he is hit. We are impressed. At 13 hours, 55 minutes Ann set the women’s world record for 100 miles, an exhausting effort of great efficiency and concentration. We would have understood her entering intensive care for some rest. She kept going. She still had a national championship to win. For the remaining 10 hours she averaged 4.3 miles an hour to reach 143 miles. If you don’t think that’s a lot you have never run a 24 hour race. With 9 hours to go she gasped in a whisper, as if by a wind blown though her, ‘it’s hard’. The echo seemed to cover all of New York City ‘please stop’. She defeated it. Imagine the outfielder sliding across the turf for 10 hours. What camera angle, what trick of slow-motion or sensitive fast-motion could possibly reveal her glory of pain and courage torn apart and reassembled too tightly around exhausted, nauseous gut? None has been invented. We had thunderstorms for three hours that forced half the field including Ray Krolewicz, muscular veteran of over 70 100 mile runs, to shelter. She continued like a light ghost. The world could not feel her weight, but each of her steps pushed the world’s entire mass. I do not wish to repeat how much ultra running needs better publicity but Ann Trason’s run must not be kept a secret.

What were Scott DeMaree and Tom Possert, the top two men doing? Making a hopeless charge? Feeling bitter and humiliated? Of course not. They are very civilized men in a very civilized sport. They ran and walked lyrically together the last few hours, now and then looking over their shoulders to avoid being overtaken by Sue Ellen Trapp. Now 43, modest, smiling into the endless unknown of a hard night, her thin, long legs matched their thin, long legs to finish a strong, close 4th.

Photo: "It was a hard race, well fought...Scott DeMaree (2nd from left), the new Men's USA/TAC 24 Hour Champion, and 2nd place men's winner Tom Possert (r) finally get to sit! Photo: Adarini.

The other race I won’t forget is Christine Avin’s victory in the Joe Kleinerman 12 hour Run, over a year ago in July. At least four of the men had run over 80 miles in 12 hours, but steamy, 96 degrees heat made that distance unlikely for anyone. Chris Avin, while one of the best local ultra women, was not the elite, world class runner Ann Trason is. She was not even the woman’s favorite; that honor going to the faster Christine Gibbons. What was impressive was that she was closely challenged by a strong male and able to beat him. As the morning temperature rose Chris took care of herself, painting on water with sponges, drinking, and keeping a light, even pace. She quietly took the lead. (12 hour races tend to be quiet and dignified.) Only Frank DeLeo (America’s 5th fastest 100 miler in 1988) was able to keep close. By the last hour they were together, taking a rest before the struggle to the finish perhaps, but also testing each other, looking for the advantage. Chris did not decide that this is a man, he has more muscle, he has some right to win. She simply picked her lighter knees up a little higher and outsprinted him, winning by 40 yards, a mere 100 yards from 80 miles. Chris Gibbons finished 5th. I suppose in a city where a million women compete every day in the male dominated offices, her victory was merely another event in the struggle of modern life, or perhaps the men who rule on legends didn’t think it was important. At least it went unnoticed. It is also unforgettable. Frank DeLeo was criticized for letting a woman beat him. No other man was within 9 miles of him. I think he ran as hard as he could. It is a new year.

In these two races women comprised between an 8th and an 11th of the field, which is typical of the sport. I don’t know what would happen if women became interested in long distances in large numbers. I have noticed well trained women do better in hard weather, surviving cold with wise clothing (and a little body fat?), overcoming heat with patience (and less body mass?). I do know I am very humbled by these achievements. It is the best thing that can happen to me.”

Photo: Sue Ellen Trapp (l), Neil Weygandt (c), and Ann Trason (r). Photo: Adarini.

Milroy, Andy. "The History of the 1,000 Mile Race." 1989. Ultrarunning. Printed with permission from the publisher.

"It is in the nature of the ultra marathoner runner to seek new challenges. In recent years the ambition of many runners became to tackle a six-day race. Veterans of such races have now moved on to face perhaps the ultimate standard event: the 1,000 mile race. This event has a pedigree stretching back at least two hundred years, making the six day race look a more upstart in comparison.

The earliest 1,000 miler that I have discovered was put on in Birmingham, England, in the depths of the winter of 1758. The local pedestrian or professional walker, George Guest, wagered that he could cover 1,000 miles in 28 days. He finished his walk in February, 1758, with five hours to spare, covering six miles in the last hour.

Fifty years later, in the heyday of pedestrianism in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, such 1,000 mile matches were commonplace. Pedestrians like Stokes, Jones, Eaton, Crisp, and Wilson specialized in doing 1,000 miles in 20 days. However, it was the last two, Daniel Crisp and George Wilson, who were to improve on the average of 50 miles a day.

George Wilson, in 1815, was involved in one of the most controversial incidents in sport in the early nineteenth century. Whilst in the middle of one of his 20 day/1,000 mile wagers at Blackhearth, he was stopped by the police and charged with causing a public disturbance. He lost the bet and the subsequent court case. In debtor’s prison, Wilson, a pedestrian to the last, walked 50 miles in 12 hours in a small 11 yard by 8 yard area, making 9.026 turns.

This was not the end of Wilson’s 1,000 mile efforts. In November, 1816, he covered the distance in 17 days, 23 hours, 19 minutes, 10 seconds at Hull. The following year Daniel Crisp walked 1,134 miles in 21 days on the Uxbridge road, drawing an audience of some 10,000 people. And a year later on the same road, he completed 1,037 miles in 16 days, 23 hours, and 8 minutes, despite floods. The Thames River overflowed its banks onto the road during his walk, and five times he had to wade through a quarter of a mile of water.

Crisp’s mark stood for some sixty years until the American Edward Payton Weston came to Britain. Weston is well known as the pioneer of the six day race, but he undertook a variety of wagers in his various trips to Britain. As well as five day matches, 1,500 mile and 5,000 mile walks, he also agreed to walk 1,000 miles in 400 consecutive hours. This feat took place at the Northumberland Cricket Ground, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, in 1877, and was competed in 16 days, 15 hours, 41 minutes. Weston didn’t walk on the two intervening Sundays and altogether took 150 hours, 38 ½ minutes rest.

The nineteenth century was also renowned for another type of athletic contest, known as the Barclay Match. The reason for the title is that this type of endurance feat was popularized by Captain Robert Barclay. In October, 1808, he made a match with Mr. Wedderburn Webster for one thousand guineas to walk 1,000 miles in 1,000 consecutive hours. This may not seem a very arduous undertaking, but there was one condition that made it very difficult – Barclay had to walk one mile in each and every hour. Several famous pedestrians had attempted this exploit only to be defeated not only by the distance and the exertion, but also by the lack of sleep and rest which forced them to retire with swollen legs and loss of weight.

Captain Barclay started the walk on June 1, 1809, on Newmarket Heath. The first eleven or twelve days went without problems, but he began to get pains in his legs on the thirteenth day, slight at first but gradually worsening. These pains were augmented on the twenty-third day by toothache and by the twenty-sixth day he was very ill and stiff. He found great difficulty in walking, and complained much about the pain. By the thirty-second day he could rise after resting only with help, and he needed so much time to complete the walk he had little opportunity to rest. Two days later he could not move without crying out and ‘walked in a shuffling manner’. By the thirty-fifth day such was his fatigue and agony that it was thought it was probably impossible for him to continue. ‘The spasmodic affections in his legs were particularly distressing.’

By the forth-first day (1,000 hours equals 41 days and 16 hours) it was clear that he couldn’t continue much longer. Fortunately his ordeal was to end the following day. A huge crowd was at the finish to see him successfully complete the one-thousandth mile in the one-thousandth hour. The crowd was so large that it was necessary to rope off the ground, and several pugilists who had been supported by Barclay in their fights assisted to keep off roughs. His first mile had taken him 12 minutes, his last took 22. He lost over 35 pounds in weight, but won 16,000 pounds in wagers (which would be getting on for a quarter of a million in today’s currency). After the finish he had a bath, and then slept for 17 hours, after which he got up in perfect health, free from pain, and went for a long walk about Newmarket including four miles on the race course.

Barclay’s feat was copied by many pedestrians in the later years of the nineteenth century. Richard Manks walked one mile every half hour for one thousand miles. Peter van Ness did half a mile every half an hour for two thousand successive half hours, and William Gale did one and a half miles every hour for one thousand successive hours.

The record for the straight-forward 1,000 miles remained with
 

Edward Weston’s 16 days, 15 hours for the better part of a century, although several claims to have bettered it were made. Then in 1975 a unique race was set up in South Africa, a 1,000 mile race from Pretoria to Cape Town. Siegfried Bauer, a Czech who had become a naturalized New Zealander and who specialized in solo multiday journey runs, was invited. He faced John Ball, a runner with a similar athletic background. These two men battled it out all the way to the finish. By the end of the fifth day Ball led the New Zealander by about three and a half hours, but by the seventh day Bauer had taken the lead with a mere 340 miles to go. He kept the lead to the finish, despite a late race surge from the South African. Both men finished over three days inside Weston’s mark, with Bauer the new record holder in 12 days, 21 hours, 46 minutes, 30 seconds.

That was the last 1,000 mile race until November 1983, when the small Australian town of Colac entered the business of promoting international multi-day races. Colac is the hometown of Cliff Young, the remarkable 60 year old who, that year, had won the Sydney to Melbourne race in record time. Young had made an attempt on the 1,000 mile best the previous year in a solo run, but had to stop at 500 miles with a back injury.

The 1,000 mile race started from the Parliament steps in Melbourne. Then followed a 92.3 mile run to Colac and thereafter the race was around a 538.06 meter circuit in Memorial Square. The race was a battle between Siegfried Bauer and Tony Rafferty, who also had thousand mile credentials. Rafferty led for the first 600 miles, but was eventually forced to retire. Bauer, the only finisher, set a new world best of 12 days, plus 12:36:20.

In 1985 the Sri Chinmoy Organization put on an open 1,000 mile race on a one mile certified course in Queens, New York. Three men finished, Don Choi in 15 days plus 6:24, closely followed by Trishul Cherns and Emil Laharrague.

The Sri Chinmoy race is an annual one. When held in late April of this year it attracted an experienced field. Bauer lined up for his third 1,000 miler and was the obvious favorite. But he had some tough opposition, including Stu Mittleman who has better marks in ultra events from 100 miles to six days. Choi and Cherns renewed their rivalry, and were joined by British six day veterans Alan Fairbrother and Dan Coffey.

By the end of the first day Bauer had a four mile lead over Mittleman, 120 to 116, and he continued to pour on the pace for the next three days, setting a new road best for 48 hours of 215 miles. After 6 days the New Zealander had a narrow lead over the New Yorker, 513 miles to 503, with Cherns solidly in third. On the seventh day, after an extended battle, Mittleman pulled out a two mile lead, and the following day really put the pressure on. Bauer, hampered by an ankle injury, was unable to respond. From day five to day ten, Mittleman covered 532 miles, the best six day distance so far this year.

Mittleman went on the break Bauer’s mark by 16 hours with a time of 11 days plus 20:36:50. Despite obvious problems, Bauer battled on to finish in 12 days, 22 hours, motivated by the fear of the slowly closing Trishul Cherns, who cut two days off his best with a 13 day, 7 hour  time."

"Greek Runner Topples Three World Road Records" (Press Release). November 8, 1984. Retrieved 2012-09-17. Archive copy at the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Office, Queens, New York.

"Three world road records fell at the feet of Greek distance runner, Yiannis Kouros, in the Sri Chinmoy 24-Hour Race, November 7-8 in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, NY.

Kouros' 177 mile run shattered the standing mark of 170 miles, 231 yards; his 200K time of 15:11:48 eliminated the previous record of 16:40:00 and his 100 mile time of 11:46:36 bested Don Ritchie's longstanding record of 11:51:12. These marks, along with the 16 records he set during the 1984 NYRRC's 6-Day Race on Randall's Island, bring to nineteen his total world records.

Sri Chinmoy, sports philosopher and race director, said to Kouros, 'You are not only a Greek; you have become a universal figure. This is just the beginning. You will do many miracles on earth. Long distance running and your name will go together.'

 

Other records set during the race included second place Don Jewell's run of 145 miles, 1115.28 yards, besting the North American road record of 140 miles, 229 yards.

First woman, Kay Moore, of Colorado, ran 122 miles, 190.95 yards to better the woman's world age category (40-44) record of 118 miles 1380 yards.

Pausing to savor the victory of the new world record mark set 21 hours, 11 minutes and 45 seconds into the 24-hour race, Yiannis shyly accepted words of encouragement from team founder Sri Chinmoy and listened attentively as members of the host team sang a song written in his honor by Sri Chinmoy. Kouros then generously reciprocated by offering Greek sweets to the entire host team and celebrating bystanders.

 

The field of 56, the largest field ever assembled for a 24-hour road race, ran on a one-mile loop passing near the zoo grounds of Flushing Meadows Park. Entrants included New York's 68-year-old Willie Rios, who ran a personal best of 90 miles for the 24-hour event despite a back injury sustained while lifting weights. Willie upped his PR by 23 miles. 'Cardiac Runner' Joe Michaels, now well known to both ultra and middle-distance local runners, logged over 81 miles in the third leg of his 'Marathon Grand-Slam' - an attempt to run 3 marathons and 1 ultra marathon in less than one month's time. Sarama Minoli, 54, of the host Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, logged a commendable 80 miles 729 yards, after having completed the Team's 47-mile run in August. (Photo: Sri Chinmoy (l) and NY State Senator Gary Ackerman (r) at the race start). This was the 6th running of the Sri Chinmoy 24-Hour-Race, which is considered by many to be the premiere 24-hour race in the country."

Selections from the media...

• Coyle, Eddie. "World mark falls as Kouros wins Sri Chinmoy Run." Daily News (New York), November 9, 1984. "Braving the chill night air and the first touch of real fall weather, Yiannis Kouros of Greece added to his living-legend status when he shattered the world's record for 24 hours in winning the Sri Chinmoy 24-Hour Run yesterday at Flushing Meadow Park..."

• Wiener, Caryn Eve. "Bayside Man Runs His Races From - and for - the Heart." New York Newsday, November 12, 1984. "Joe Michaels did not finish first in the Sri Chinmoy 24-Hour run in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. But victory was his, nonetheless. He savored it Thursday morning, relaxing at home after running 81 miles, circling repeatedly the route from the park's zoo to the science building. True, the 43-year-old Bayside man did not cross the finish line ahead of the race's victor, the record-holding Yiannis Kouros of Greece, who ran 177 miles. But Michaels, who has suffered seven heart attacks and a double pulmonary embolism, won by simply being able to compete..."

• Nick Marshall: 1984 Ultradistance Summary, p71. "Martin Yecies, in 9th place with a PR 120.62 commented, 'Yiannis was a thing of beauty. His form was magnificent, with no wasted motion. The only person I really feel sorry for was Don Jewell. Imagine running 145 miles and being 32 miles behind the winner!' Actually, I imagine Jewell was not too unhappy with his day. While all the attention may have been focused on the headline attraction, Don cranked out a distance that was the best by any American during the year, and surpassed George Gardiner's 1982 U.S. road best by almost 4 miles. The competition spurred on others as well. Luis Rios' 135.40 was a typically solid run by him, but tying with him was Michael Fedak, and that was unexpected. In 7th place, Kay Moore was at it again, with an outstanding 122.10 miles this time. Robyn Hanscom PR'ed behind her at 112.25, as did Pippa Davis with 105 miles.'

Scanned Results...

 

Photos from the Race...

Sri Chinmoy (r) congratulates local running star and second place finisher, Don Jewell.	Ultra great Yiannis Kouros (l) thanks the counting crew upon completion of his record breaking 24 hour run.

 

Joe Michaels, 'The Cardiac Runner'.	Willie Rios, holder of numerous veteran world and national records.