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.

Harrop Wins Lifetime Fitness Equalizer

By T.J. Murphy

Minneapolis, MN --With an 11 minute and 9 second head start over the men's field, Australian Olympic medal hopeful Loretta Harrop, spurred by a tremendous effort on the 40k bike in tandem with 2003 Equalizer champion Barb Lindquist, crossed the finish line in first place and earned a $250,000 paycheck on her birthday. Lindquist, who led most of the bike as the two Olympics-bound athletes put minutes on the rest of the women's field, faded in the run. Championing the men's attempt to dethrone women from again winning the title was powerhouse Aussie Craig Walton. Walton dominated the men through most of the race, but could only haul himself into 4th place in this non-drafting Olympic distance event. Rena Hill passed Lindquist for second, and American Hunter Kemper came up just seconds short of running down Walton for fourth.

The Equalizer allows pro women to start ahead of pro men by a predetermined amount of time, resulting in a dramatic"battle of the sexes" race to the finish for the event's record prize purse of $500,000. The first through fifth place finishers will receive $250,000, $50,000, $35,000, $25,000, and $20,000, respectively.

Life Time Fitness Triathlon officials carefully determine a new Equalizer each year. For the 2003 event, the Equalizer was 9 minutes and 41 seconds. In 2002, it was 9 minutes and 39 seconds. This year, the event has been expanded from an International to an Olympic distance (1.5K swim, 40K bike and 10K run), resulting in a longer Equalizer time.

The announcement of the 11:09 handicap took place before 36 professional triathletes from 12 countries at the 2004 Life Time Fitness Triathlon Professional Triathlete Meeting in Minneapolis.

Initial Results:

OVERALL EQUALIZER RESULTS

1 13F Loretta Harrop AUS 1:57:58

2 2F Rina Hill AUS 2:00:05 2:07

3 1F Barb Lindquist USA 2:00:19 2:21

4 4M Craig Walton AUS 2:00:42 2:44

5 6M Hunter Kemper USA 2:00:48 2:50

6 2M Greg Bennett AUS 2:01:17 3:19

7 11F Leanda Cave GBR 2:01:18 3:20

8 16F Joanna Zeiger USA 2:01:23 3:25

9 3M Bevan Docherty AUS 2:01:37 3:39

10 3F Liz Blatchford AUS 2:01:41 3:43

11 4F Susan Williams USA 2:01:49 3:51

12 7M Eneko Llanos ESP 2:01:49 3:51

13 22M Kris Gemmell NZL 2:01:57 3:59

14 11M Craig Alexander AUS 2:02:18 4:20

15 7F Michellie Jones AUS 2:02:18 4:20

16 5M Hamish Carter NZL 2:02:20 4:22

17 18M Miles Stewart AUS 2:02:32 4:34

18 13M Vladimir Polikarpenko ITA 2:02:37 4:39

19 17F Julie Dibens GBR 2:02:40 4:42

20 14M Matt Reed USA 2:03:01 5:03

21 16M Greg Remaly USA 2:03:09 5:11

22 24M Stephen Hackett 2:03:28 5:30

23 19M Simon Thompson AUS 2:03:39 5:41

24 12M Reto Hug CHE 2:05:36 7:38

25 19F Samantha McGlone CAN 2:05:51 7:53

26 15F Julie Swail USA 2:06:06 8:08

27 20F Jessi Stensland USA 2:07:15 9:17

28 21M Arturo Garza Mex 2:07:32 9:34

29 23M David Thompson USA 2:08:08 10:10

30 10F Evelyn Williamson NZL 2:09:47 11:49

31 25M Luc Van Lierde BEL 2:10:53 12:55

32 26M Gianfranco Mione ITA 2:15:26 17:28

Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team articles - more articles

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.

On 12 October, our annual two-mile 'Sri Chinmoy Heart-Garden Run' took place at the site of the Sri Chinmoy Heart-Garden in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York. The aim of the race is to celebrate Sri Chinmoy's belief that sport can be a vehicle for personal transformation and can make a small contribution to a better world. Also, the run is in memory of Sri Chinmoy, who loved the park very much.

The race is very much run in a spirit of appreciating the joy of running. After the two-mile race, there was a short peace walk with the Peace Torch - a torch carried by Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run to over 160 countries around the world. This short walk and ceremony gave everybody the opportunity to share in the Peace Run's message of oneness.

During this year's event, participants from all other the world were joined by several special guests and friends who shared their thoughts and wishes for creating a better world. We were joined by Ida Keeling, a 104 year old sprinter and former Bronx Borough President. Ida recently broke the world record for women aged 100-104 for the 100m sprint, completing the distance in 1 minute and 17.33 seconds (WR link). Still vibrant with life-energy, Ida is an inspiring example of Sri Chinmoy's philosophy of self-transcendence and never quitting because of age. After the race, she shared her secrets of old age, which involve eating well, staying positive and doing daily exercise. Ida was accompanied by her daughter Shelley Keeling, who is an accomplished masters athlete and who is the one who introduced her mother to sprinting. Shelley recently 2 Gold medals and 1 Bronze at the recent European masters games at the age of 68.

Also speaking at the event were Nadirah and Askia Muhammad from the Jamaica area of Queens, New York. Dr. Askia Muhammad is an imam who ministers to the Muslim community in Jamaica and is President of the Ummah Group, an organization dedicated to interfaith dialogue and spiritual development. He shared a very powerful opening prayer during the event. The Muhammads are parents of current 400m hurdles Olympic and world champion Dalilah Muhammad - asked about the success of his daughter, Dr. Askia modestly replied his greatest success was not to interfere with her God-given gifts - but only to gently encourage and support her daughter's decisions. Dalilah won the gold medal at the recent 2019 World Championships in Tokyo, setting the current world record with a time of 52.16 seconds.

We also were delighted to welcome our long-time friend Coach Jim Hurt, Head Track and Field Coach of nearby St. John’s University. Coach Hurt has spent 36 years with the St John's track and field and crosscountry teams (the Red Storm); 29 of those years were as head coach, and he has had a tremendous amount of success in those years. Our final guest was Ms. Najibe Burger, who has served the Queens community in so many capacities - she is currently on the boards of the Queens Council of the Arts and the Queens Family Court, as well as being the President of Latin American Cultural Center of Queens.

Flushing Meadows Park has a very special connection with the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, having played host to our running events since the late 1970s and our multi-day ultra-races since the 1980s. On October 11, 2006, exactly one year before Sri Chinmoy's physical passing, this iconic section of Flushing Meadows Park was dedicated by the New York Parks department as the Sri Chinmoy Heart-Garden to celebrate the legacy and vision for world peace that Sri Chinmoy had encouraged.

Sri Chinmoy felt that sport and running gave us the outer dynamism and the inner aspiration to transcend our previous achievements. He also saw sport as an opportunity to promote happiness and goodwill amongst competitors.

"In competitive sports, our primary aim should be not to surpass others but constantly to surpass ourselves. In the outer life, when we run with our friends, we are seeing who is actually the best. And we cannot properly evaluate our own capacity unless we have some standard of comparison. But we compete not for the sake of defeating others, but in order to bring forward our own capacity."

- Sri Chinmoy

Photos from the race
Heart-Garden Race homepage
Sri Chinmoy's quote is taken from his book The body, humanity’s fortress

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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.

A pioneer in combining spirituality and sports, Sri Chinmoy felt that breaking the sub 2 hour barrier would have be a very significant victory for mankind, and many times over the years he would express his hope and his conviction that it would happen. Here is a selection of some of the things Sri Chinmoy said over the years:

"Name and fame in marathon running was first won for America by Frank Shorter. Frank Shorter really shook America out of its lethargy or complacent feeling. It was he who made the start. Now, people are running faster and faster. It will take at most five years, perhaps even less, for someone to run a marathon under two hours. How I wish that one of my disciples would do it! It is wishful thinking, but sometimes dreams come true. My disciples have an advantage because they have spirituality behind their running. If I were twenty years old, I would try it." 25 October 1982

"Often people say they will never run a marathon again. During or after the race they say that this is their last marathon. Then after four days they start thinking about their next marathon.

In ten or twenty years, people will regard the marathon the way we regard a ten-mile race today. People will consider forty miles or seventy miles or a hundred miles as long distance. Long distances will be as popular as the marathon is today. People will pay more attention to fifty-milers and hundred-milers.

Now people are doing so well in the marathon. In four or five years the best runners will run the marathon in under two hours. In twenty or thirty years people will run at a five-minute pace for fifty or a hundred miles. The children of people who are running the marathon now will run at the present marathon pace for thirty or forty miles, and then even farther. They will have such stamina. Sports are like that. Roger Bannister’s four-minute-mile record lasted for years. Then the hundred-metre record stayed for years. Jesse Owens’ long-jump record stayed for twenty years before it was broken by Bob Beamon. But ultimately all records are broken." 24 January 1983

"In the New York Marathon, the first mile is horrible for everybody. Then, from the second mile, the lead runners go really fast. This year Steve Jones ran 2:08:23, but Salazar’s record is still 13 seconds better. Somebody has to come from Africa and break the record. Under two hours — I envision it. Somebody will run under two hours." 6 November 1988

"My prophecy! Once I said that some day some runners would run the marathon in under two hours. A divine force spoke through me. Alas, something always reminds me inwardly. Again, while facing the Berlin Wall, I prophesied that in twenty-five years the Wall would be demolished and there would be one Berlin. In just two years, President Gorbachev fulfilled my desire! With regard to the marathon, God knows when it will happen; but still I maintain the same desire and the same promise that one day somebody will come, perhaps from Africa, to do it. It is not an impossible task.

One mile in under four minutes was a dream, and Roger Bannister manifested the dream. Now, how many people have run a mile in under four minutes? Someone has run in 3:44. When Roger Bannister ran in just under four minutes, the whole world adored him. Now someone has run two miles in under eight minutes. It is unimaginable! Like that we can do many things." 5 November 1997

Question: During the twenty-first century, will anybody break the two-hour marathon barrier?

Sri Chinmoy: How I wish the twenty-first century to prove my prophecy that someone will run a marathon in under two hours! For that I need a disciple who has implicit faith in me. I find it very difficult to believe that our human capacity is limited. Right now the world record for the marathon is 2:06. Just six minutes to reduce over twenty-six miles! Unfortunately, human beings always think, “My capacity, my capacity.” If the same world-class runners could say, “My capacity is coming from God. God is running in and through me,” and really mean it, then you would see surprising results. There are at least twenty world-class marathon runners. If they could have that kind of faith, you would hear in one month that the world record has been smashed.

...God has given each of us certain capacities. I may not be a runner, but somebody else may be a runner. I may be a singer, but somebody else may not be a singer. If anyone wants to increase his capacity in his own field, then he must have God-reliance, not self-reliance. Only then will his capacity become unlimited. Now our capacity is limited because we feel we are doing everything — we are taking this exercise and that exercise. We give ninety-nine per cent of the credit to what our mind is telling us and our life is prompting us to do. But if we can give one hundred per cent of the credit to God for whatever we are doing that is good and positive in our life, then our capacities will become unlimited. 25 February 1999 - Complete quote...

Sri Chinmoy holds the Peace Torch with Paul Tergat, 2005

"Paul Tergat, the world’s fastest marathoner, covered the distance in two hours, four minutes. His record is four minutes over two hours, so my prediction is still hanging in mid-air! I am praying that one day he or somebody else will run under two hours. Whoever runs under two hours will be given by me a very special honour, plus I shall meet with his plane fare and all his expenses, whether he comes from Kenya or anyplace else. I shall honour him most lovingly, cheerfully and proudly. Who knows, who knows? There will be someone in the near future. I do not want to say in the distant future — no! In the near future, someone will be able to fulfil my prediction." 14 October 2005

Sources

These quotes were excerpted from Sri Chinmoy's books Run and Become, Become and Run, parts 12 and 13; Sri Chinmoy answers, part 24; The Feet of the Supreme's Compassion and My Golden Children. These books are available to read in full at srichinmoylibrary.com; hardback editions of the Run and Become, Become and Run and Sri Chinmoy answers series can be purchased on Amazon.

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