5k - Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team

3.1 MILES (FIVE KILOMETRES)

1.   5 April 1980
   Masters 5km Race
   Prospect Park, Brooklyn
   Time:   22:16
   Pace:   7:11

2.   17 May 1980
   Great North Fork Footrace
   Greenport, NY
   Time:   22:12
   Pace:   7:09
   Place:   3rd (Masters)

3.   15 February 1981
   Sri Chinmoy Race
   Phoenix, Arizona
   Time: 22:29
   Pace:   7:15

4.   21 February 1982
   Long Island Road Runners Club Race
   Eisenhower Park, NY
   Time:   25:44
   Pace:   8:18
   Place:   70th/110 starters
       5th in age category 50-54 years

5.   6 August 1982
   Flushing Meadow Park, 7pm
   Time:   22:51
   Pace:   7:22

6.   12 August 1982
   Long Beach, NY
   Time:   23:32
   Pace:   7:35
   (Note: Sri Chinmoy ran two one-mile races beforehand, at 4:30pm and 7:00pm)

7.    12 December 1982
   Sri Chinmoy Race
   Ottawa, Canada
   Time:   25:44
   Pace:   8:18

8.   December 1983
   Sri Chinmoy Race
   Caracas, Venezuela
   Time:   40:27
   Pace:   13:01

9.   December 1983
   Sri Chinmoy 10km Race
   Caracas, Venezuela
   Time for 5km:   38:50
   Pace:       12:29

Cross-posted from

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.

Petra Kasperova from the Czech Republic, the winner of our Sri Chinmoy Six Day Race which took place this year in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in New York, was recently featured in a new inspirational book called Superhuman, by Rowan Hooper. The book looks at people who have achieved notable features of self-transcendence, and tries to answer what motivates them to reach for these goals. Petra finished this year's race with a total of 370 miles, at only her second attempt at running a multi-day event.

During the 6 day race, the runners can be out on the course for many hours at a time, and have to deal with numerous physical issues. Petra credits meditation with giving her the inner strength to overcome these obstacles.

I am certain I would never do so well in running if it wasn't for meditation and spiritual techniques that I have learned and applied during training and racing. The techniques can change from race to race and even during a race. I like to repeat mantras, qualities and prayers - that seems to help keeping my mind calm and focused. I try not to think at all, just to be focused. Repeating qualities like gratitude seem to keep my mind clear and make me more aware of what is going on inside of me and also outside of me.

Running is an integral part of Petra's life - she works in the specialist running shop Run and Become in London, where she advises runners on all manner of running issues. She often trains by running to work and back.

"I find that running has made me stronger, not just physically but on many different levels. It is always when we go outside our comfort zones, outside what we think is possible, when we transcend ourselves in any field of life (not just running), that's the time where we need to dig deep, and when we do, we get glimpses of who we truly are and who we really want to be – for a happy self and a happy world."

The winners of the 2018 Sri Chinmoy 6 and 10 Day Races: (l-r) Asprihanal Aalto, John Geesler, Ilvaka Nemcova and Petra

Petra's Victory in the Six-Day Race 2018 at Run and Become
Six-Day Race at Sri Chinmoy Races
Superhuman by Rowan Hooper at Amazon

Photos: Utpal Marshall. Perfection Journey

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About the author:

Nirbhasa is from Ireland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.

The philosophy behind Sri Chinmoy’s races is one of self-transcendence - getting joy by transcending one’s own capacities. However, he felt that competitive races did have their own value, provided it was done in the proper spirit. Here are some of his writings on the best frame of mind to approach competition:

Sri Chinmoy finishes a 47-mile race in 1979, at the age of 48

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. Our best capacity comes forward only when there are other people around us. They inspire us to bring forward our utmost capacity, and we inspire them to bring forward their utmost capacity. This is why we have competitive sports.

The value of competition is that you will try to transcend your capacity. If you lose to somebody after trying your best, it is absolutely immaterial. But if you don’t make progress even here on the physical plane, then you won’t try to make progress on the spiritual plane. At that time you will say, “I get up at 7:00 or 8:00 and then once in a blue moon I meditate. Who is going to see?” If you are sincere about making progress on the spiritual plane, then you can start your sincerity with the physical plane. Then the progress you make will spread to the mind and to the heart. I wish to say that there is nothing wrong with a competitive spirit, provided it is competitive in a good sense. You are competing with yourself.

While competing with others,
We see that our competition
Is actually with ourselves.

I always say that the goal is not static; the goal is an ever-transcending reality. Satisfaction is our goal, but we see that the goal itself is climbing high, higher, highest and running far, farther, farthest and diving deep, deeper, deepest.

A child's goal is to learn the alphabet. Then his goal becomes kindergarten, primary school, high school and college. And when he completes his university course, if he is sincere, he comes to realise that there is much more, infinitely more, for him to learn. Once a university student was boasting of his achievements. He said to Mother Earth, "I have completed my course. So look at me, look at what I have achieved." But Mother Earth said, "My son, you have just learnt the first letter of the alphabet. Now sit down and learn the rest."

The goal is constantly going high, higher, highest. Whatever we achieve can be today's goal, but it can never be tomorrow's goal. Tomorrow's goal is something infinitely higher, infinitely more illumining and infinitely more fulfilling. Perfection, which is satisfaction, is nothing short of constant self-transcendence. So here I wish to say that we do compete, but we compete with ourselves, with our own achievements, not with others.

References

The above writings were taken from Sri Chinmoy’s books The inner meaning of sport, A Twentieth Century Seeker, The body: humanity's fortress and Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees

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