The 36th Anniversary of Sri Chinmoy's first marathon run was celebrated worldwide by various chapters of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team. Sri Chinmoy ran 22 official marathons. His first marathon was run on March 2, 1979 at the Bidwell Classic Marathon, Chico, California in a time of 4:31:34.
Despite multiple ice and snow storms, local members of the New York based Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team lined up on a freezing March 7th to celebrate Team founder Sri Chinmoy's first marathon run. However, although the original intent was to run a marathon, due to severe icing, the Team members lined up at the start and honored the occasion instead by singing Sri Chinmoy's song dedicated to the marathon.