About the author:

Medur is our go-to person for many of the essential tasks involved in putting on our races: race setup, our lap counting system and our website. An enthusiastic runner himself, he has participated in many editions of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run in Canada and the US.

Stuart Campbell and Hector Mendez Cleaning Up Across Europe

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 09 July 2004: - - Skool's out for summer and the O'Neill Rat team are loving it! With Stuart Campbell sweeping the board at the Quiksilver Grommets tournament taking the under 15's title in Newquay, England and Spaniard Hector Menendez claiming the crown of â€˜O'Neill King of the Pier' in Blankenberge, Belgium at the weekend. It's one heck of a start to vacation time.

Teaching their fellow competitors humbling lessons in radical, and progressive competition surfing, Stuart and Hector were both surfing with determination and confidence above their years; dominating the respective contests to stand head and shoulders above the rest. Both chalked up meaty scores en route to the finals before issuing the final, devastating blows in the finals to claim the titles.

Surfing at one of Britain's most renowned beaches, Fistral Beach, Newquay, 13 year old Stuart Campbell was fully charged with confidence, and yet again treated his fellow competitors to a jaw dropping display of his exceptional skill and ability.

Surfing brilliantly in the preliminary heats Stuart saved his energy for the final where he scored 17.5 in the last ten minutes, with a stonking, near prefect 9 and 8.5. "I am stoked with my performance today, you can ´t always say you caught the best waves and truly did your best but today I think I can!" said Stuart as he came from the waters' edge.

"I know I have really improved since I have been having coaching with the O ´Neill team in Spain - some of the guys I was out there with today even mentioned it and said they could do with some coaching too"

Stuart will now travel to Capbreton in the SW of France for the European finals of the Quiksilver Grommets so keep an eye on O'Neill's super groms. We home the Euro scene is ready for our prodigies!

www.oneilleurope.com

Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team articles - more articles

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.

Davidson, James. "Government Runner." Saturday Night magazine [Toronto,Canada]. March 11, 1988. Passions. (exceprts from the article)

"A senior Ottawa civil servant, Michel Careau breaks loose by running-and running and running. Last year he came second in New York's 1,152-mile ultramarathon.

If it were, say midnight, things would be calm at the corner of Metcalfe and Sparks, but it's 7 a.m. on a Friday and civil servants crowd Ottawa's downtown sidewalks. The day is a splendid one, as pale light the color of new corn provides a backdrop to the Parliament Buildings. No one seems to notice, though, as the armies of the morning march to the Hill with eyes cast downward. From the driver's seat of his Volkswagen Westfalia camper, Michel Careau, passes whimsical judgment. 'These people,' he says ' they all look important with newspapers and lunches in their briefcases.' Then lowering his voice in a tone of mock seriousness, he adds, 'Today they are going to take care of the nation.' Careau is one of 'these people' himself - his job title is director of International and Inter-governmental Affairs, Health and Welfare Canada. That's senior civil servant for short...

Photo: Michel Careau (r) receives a visit at the 1987 Sri Chinmoy 1,300 Mile Race in New York from Rene Marleau, Delegate General of Quebec in New York (l) and Gaston Harvey, Quebec's Consular for Public Affairs (ctr).

'It's like I have some kind of dual personality,' Careau explains. 'Part of me is a civil servant and part of me is a distance runner...'

Careau doesn't consider himself physically gifted and his compact, five-foot-seven inch, 142-pound frame is unusual in a sport dominated by willowy, loose-limbed athletes. Careau's special ability is mental discipline, which springs from his schooling, first by nuns and then by Jesuit fathers. Life as a child meant waking at 6 a.m. for Mass at 6:30 and studies beginning at 7:15. When running, that ingrained discipline allows him to keep the body moving long after it first groans for rest. Just three months after he began the sport, Careau finished a marathon. From there, the distances increased to ultramarathons of 552 kilometres over five days in 1985, then 665 kilometers in five days in 1986, and then the 1,854 kilometres over eighteen days last year. Careau admits that not all his friends and co-workers understand. Some consider him pleasantly eccentric, others think he's daffy.

In fact, there aren’t many who can truly understand. Only about two hundred Canadians participate in ultramarathoning. An Ultramarathon is any race beyond the marathon standard of forty-two kilometers…

Careau thinks the most difficult part (of the 1987 Sri Chinmoy 1,300 Mile Road Race in New York) came when the race was over and he had to stop. ‘I was so happy, but I also felt a bit sad,’ he says. ‘It’s a strange feeling when the life you’ve been living for so long – eighteen days – comes to an end. It wasn’t easy for me when I got home. I was still on the wave of my big run. It took some time to mentally come back to real life. Well, I wouldn’t call it real life, but my civil service life.’

Careau plans to make running a full-time venture in about five years...But today, he must be a civil servant once again. After breakfast, he trades a blue jogging suit for a blue business suit, hops in the camper, and drives back across the bridge to Ottawa, At 10 a.m. Careau pulls into a grey cement office complex called Tunney’s Pasture. Out of the corner of his eye he spots a man jogging along the sidewalk. ‘Look at that chap,’ he says, once again affecting a stern government employee’s voice. ‘He should be working.’"

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Sri Chinmoy gave the following address to the runners at the start of the 1300 mile race in Flushing Meadow Park on June 5 1987:

"Brave runners, my heart is all gratitude to you. The English dictionary houses the word "impossibility", but your life-history-book does not include the word "impossibility". You live not only in the world of possibility, but also in the world of inevitability. This race is new, unique and unprecedented. Only your heroic hearts can accept the challenge and become victorious in every possible way, inwardly and outwardly.

When we think of 700, 1,000 or 1,300 miles, we are reminded of Eternity. We all are running along Eternity's road, which is at once birthless and deathless. You are the pioneer hero-runners who will be running along Eternity's road. Today humanity is loving your hearts and treasuring your lives with utmost joy and utmost pride.

Once more, to each runner, on behalf of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, I wish to offer my most humble and most soulful gratitude and gratitude. Each runner is marking the beginning of a new dawn that transcends at every moment its beauty, its light and its divinity. This divinity is embodying world joy and world peace. You are the true and perfect embodiments of world peace. For that, to each of you my heart bows with boundless love and gratitude."

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