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."

Related

• 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

The Sri Chinmoy Multisport Classic, held in Jindabyne, is a unique multi-sport event held in the beautiful surroundings of Australia's Snowy Mountains. The annual event has been held for several years and combines water and land-based sports over 12 different legs.

The event attracts a diverse range of athletes who can compete either individually or part of a relay. This video, produced by Sarankhuu Jargal, shows highlights from the different sections including running, swimming, mountain biking and paddling. Steve Hanley a former winner also gives his brief thoughts on why he enjoys the race.

The course is varied, with 3 mountain bike legs ranging from easy to highly technical; 3 running courses from flat to very not-flat; 3 swims of between 1.2 and 2.5 kms; and 3 paddles of 5.5 to 9.5 kms. The swims and paddles criss-cross most of Lake Jindabyne, while the mountain bikers and runners thoroughly explore the rugged Eastern Escarpment, rolling farmland of the Western Shore, and bushland of the adjoining Kosciuszko National Park.

The event is organised by the Canberra/Australia Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team.

Related

• The Sri Chinmoy Multisport Classic
• Race reports from participants

Nataliya Samunnati Lehonkova, a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team who competed for her native Ukraine in last year's Olympics in Rio, won the woman's elite field in the Dublin SSE Airtricity Marathon. On a rainy windy day, she finished in a personal best time of 2:28:57.

Picture below: Samunnati with friends from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in Dublin after the awards ceremony. Samunnati has won the Dublin Marathon before, as well as winning the Edinburgh, Tolouse and Los Angeles Marathon

Nataliya Samunnati Lehonkova at Awards Ceremony

Related

• News item on Ukrainian TV (in Ukrainian)

Photo top: Nataliya Lehonkova in 2015 Dublin Marathon. Photo William Murphy CC SA

48 days and 14 hours after starting the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, Kaneenika Janakova,47, of Bratislava, Slovakia set a new women’s world record for the distance. Her final time was 48 days+14:24:10, averaging over 63 miles for nearly two months of daily racing.

Kaneenika broke the previous women’s record set by Surasa Mairer by over 17 hours. Her performance was also sufficient to finish 2nd overall.

After a difficult opening few days, Kaneenika was a model of consistency averaging well over the required minimum daily distance of 60 miles. She remarked how over the course of the race she felt stronger - despite the accumulation of miles and physical fatigue.

“At the beginning of the race I actually didn’t feel so strong, the first week and maybe even 10 days.  But then all of a sudden it felt as though I was gaining the strength.  It just all started happening.   It was all coming from inside.” - Kaneenika

Vasu Duzihy overall winner

The overall winner of the race was Vasu Duzhiy 51, of St Petersburg, Russia, who won the 21st Annual Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race for the second time in 46 days+17:38:22. It was Vasu’s sixth consecutive finish and his second consecutive first place. His performance was all the more remarkable for a serious back accident eight months ago, which left him unable to train and barely able to stand. Speaking after the race, Vasu expressed his joy of competing in the contest.

“I love this race.  I don’t know why I love it.  I just love it and do it.  I am happy here and I am able to do self transcendence. I hope that I can inspire some people to be better citizens of the world.  They inspire me and I inspire them.” - Vasu

Over 100 spectators came to see the finish of the runners who had braved extremes of temperature, sickness, and the unremitting nature of the concrete block which had been their home and sporting pilgrimage for the past several weeks.

3rd place for Nirbhasa Magee

On Saturday night, Nirbhasa Magee, a native of Dublin, Ireland finished second man, third overall in a personal best time of 48 days+16:47:01. It was Nirbhasa’s second attempt at the distance, managing to improve his finish time by two days plus 19 hours faster than his previous effort in 2015. For Magee, the spirit of self-transcendence is the essence of the race, remarking:

“It is nice to transcend yourself…  I am not leaving anything on the table.  It is not like I am taking it easy.  What you see from me every day is my absolute best that I can put out." - Nirbhasa

The race continues for a few days with Harita Davies (NZ) and Yolanda Holder (US) within striking distance of finishing the race within the allotted time of 52 days.

Follow the race at:

• 3100 Mile race at Sri Chinmoy Races
• Perfection Journey by Utpal
• Photos of race by Jowan

This year sees the 21st edition of the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. 10 runners took to the start line on June 18th to embark on the epic quest to complete 3,100 miles over the course of 52 days. Each runner will need to tap into deep reserves of - stamina, fitness, and inner strength - to meet the 60 mile a day average needed to complete the race. The race was founded by Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual teacher keen to promote physical self-transcendence as a way to the inner and outer enlightenment.

The race attracts international media attention for the unique personal challenge it presents. The race promoted by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team has an international flavour with runners drawn from Europe, US and New Zealand. In addition to the ten runners a team of volunteers look after the runners through cooking, medical team and lap counters.

    “Go beyond, farther beyond!
    Do not limit yourself
    By comparing yourself with others
    Or even with your own self.”

– Sri Chinmoy

Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, Part 99, Agni Press, 1984

Photos

Jowan and Utpal.

• Daily updates at 3100 Mile Race

Daily blog by Utpal at Perfection Journey

The runners this year include:

Vasu Duzhiy Age 51, St. Petersburg, Russia (5 finishes, 1 win)
Smarana Puntigam 46, Vienna Austria. Seven straight finishes.
Nidhruvi Zimmermann, 51, Vienna, Austria
Nirbhasa Magee, 37, Dublin Ireland
Andrey Andreev, 51, St Petersburg Russia
Sergey Kuzmin, 44, Nizhniy Novgorod Russia
Kaneenika Janakova, Age 47, Bratislava, Slovakia
Ananda-Lahari Zuskin, Age 42, Kosice, Slovakia
Yolanda Holder, 59, Corona,CA USA
Harita Davies, 42, Christchurch New Zealand

Full bios of runners

Despite injury and cold, Tejvan Pettinger entered the National hill climb championship held on Bank Road, Matlock this Sunday. The former national champion (2013) finished in 41st place in a time of 2.40 - 22 seconds behind the winner Adam Kenway. Speaking after the event, Tejvan explained his decision to ride despite being off form.

"With persistent injury, lack of training and then chesty cough, it was tempting to miss the event and stay at home, but the National Championship always has a good atmosphere and I wanted to be able to take part - even if I knew I wouldn't do particularly well. All things considered, I was happy with time of 2.40. It was a hard effort. But, the main thing this year was just taking part and being part of the event. Also, I've done every event since 2005, and I didn't want to miss this year. The hill climb championship is a very high standard this year."

Previous national championships - T.Pettinger

• 2005 - 11th (The Rake)
• 2006 - 7th (Peak Hill)
• 2007 - 7th (Cheddar Gorge)
• 2008 - 12th (Bank Road)
• 2009 - 14th (Pea Royd Lane)
• 2010 - 4th (Dover's Hill)
• 2011 - 5th (Long Hill)
• 2012 - 12th (The Rake)
• 2013 - 1st (The Stang)
• 2014 - 4th Pea Royd Lane
• 2015 - 6th Jackson Bridge
• 2016 - 41st (Bank Road)

Related

• Results at Cycling Time Trials
• Matlock hills - blog post by Tejvan

Yuri Trostenyuk, a plumber from Vinnitsa Ukraine, won the 2016 edition of the 3100 Mile Race after a closely fought contest with current record holder Asprihanal Aalto (Finland).

In an epic race, Yuri finished in a time of 46 days +01:10:25 - averaging 67 miles / 108.346 km per day. It was the closest ever finish to the 3100 Mile Race, with Yuri holding off a late surge from last years winner Ashprihanal. In 2015, Mr Aalto set the current all-time record for 3100 miles in a blistering speed of 40 days +09 hours. However, perhaps suffering from the effects of last years effort, Asprihanal struggled in the early parts of this years race, but the flying Finn finished in a flurry, covering an average of 78.61 miles over the final four days to push Yuri all the way to the finish. It marked a fitting end to the race, where runners battled through injuries, a heatwave, and the gruelling nature of the course.

On the last full day, Yuri ran 79 miles and Ashprihanal 86 miles - as Yuri crossed the finish line, only eight miles separated the two runners.

Yuri has now finished the 3100 Mile Race four times. He is also a four-time winner of the 10 Day Race.

Asprihanal's completion today took 46 days + 02:54:22, which is an average of 67.218 miles per day (108.177 km). Asprihanal holds the record for - course record, the most victories, and most completions while averaging 70 plus miles per day.

Other runners Atmavir Petr Spacil and Vasu Duzhiy are also close behind and set to finish very soon. In the womens race Kaneenika Janakova and Surasa Mairer are also edging closer to the magic 3100 mile mark.

The New York Times recently published an article touting a runner "as one of the country’s top female ultramarathoners". Kudos to the runner highlighted. However, the Times writer, while defining ultrarunning as any distance beyond the marathon (which I have no qualms with), failed to examine distances beyond the many races that were highlighted in the article. Ultrarunning beyond the 50 mile and 100 mile trail races has a long and storied history dating back to at least the pedestrian races in the 19th century. See Harper's Magazine article by Sam Shaw "Run Like Fire Once More" for a bigger history of multi day racing.

If multiday races were included, then surely Dipali Cunningham would be up there as one of the all-time greats. Here is a brief resume from a career spanning from 1991 to 2015:

• 36 multiday races
• 30 first place finishes
• 12 times overall wins (i.e beating all the men in the race!)
• 3 world records (6 day race) :
  1998 504 miles
  2001 510 miles
  2009 (best) over 50 years old 513 miles
  2014 American US age group record 55-59 475 miles
• 3rd place in world for 700 miles (women)
• 4th place in world 1,000 miles (women)
• 33 Australian National records (24 hours to 1,000 miles)

"Meet the spiritual leader, peace ambassador, runner and
weightlifter who encouraged an entire generation to seek
fulfilment through long-distance running"

Sri Chinmoy - at Men's Running Magazine pdf

Related

• Mens Running magazine
• Going for a run around the block - why the 3100 mile race is a race like no other - at Mens Running Magazine

On Sunday November 15th the Impossibility Challenger record festival took place in Berlin, Germany.

The event was founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1982, Impossibility Challenger invites people from all over the world to challenge themselves by setting records in various disciplines, from strength to speed to humour. 14 record breakers from 9 different countries came to Berlin to perform a total of 23 records. Among them were the fastest mile running while wearing swim-fins, the most jokes told in one hour, going up and down a set of stairs carrying 20 eggs on spoons and lifting a 130 kg weight with the teeth.

 
Karteek Clark from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in Scotland told 587 jokes by heart in one hour.

 
Rainer Schröder from Germany lifted two people with a total weight of 130 kg with his teeth.

 
Radek Rosa from the Czech Republic pulled a bus full of people weighing 13,257 kg a distance of 20 meters.


Samalya Schäfer from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in Berlin completed 1 mile in 5 minutes and 33 seconds wearing swim-fins.

Related

• Results from 2015

After 33 years at Palmer Street, the successful running shop Run and Become has moved to a new location in the heart of Victoria, London. To celebrate the move to Ecclestone Street, many customers, suppliers and long-time supporters were invited to an evening function to mark the occasion. In addition, Ashrita Furman, the world’s most prolific Guinness World Record holder record, came over from New York to attempt a new Guinness World Record.

Run and Become was founded in 1982, by Ongkar and Vinodini Smith - after their spiritual Teacher Sri Chinmoy suggested they open an enterprise for sporting goods. 1982 was one year after the first London marathon and, in those years, running was very much a minority sport - with no specialist running shop retailers. Over the past 33 years, Run and Become has played an important role in the London and British running community - serving runners with independent service and advice.

Run and Become, also have branches in Edinburgh and Cardiff.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the current manager, Shankara Smith spoke about the aims of Run and Become, and how it is inspired by the philosophy of Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy himself was a keen runner, completing many marathons and ultra-marathons during his running career. Sri Chinmoy also taught how meditation and the philosophy of self-transcendence could play a beneficial role in helping the outer running. Throughout the store, there are several photos of Sri Chinmoy, including photos of meeting great running heroes, such as Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis.

The new store

The new store is set on Ecclestone Street, just off Buckingham Palace road - and a few minutes from Victoria train station. A team of talented architects from Czech Sri Chinmoy Centres have helped create a beautiful, light and spacious environment to display the running shoes and clothes.

Within the store, there is also a mini running track - ideal for testing out spikes and running shoes. All shop assistants have been carefully trained to help customers find the best running shoes for their needs. In the downstairs floor, the store will also hold related workshops and personal physiotherapy services for runners seeking to prevent and deal with injuries.

Guinness World Record Attempt

Ashrita Furman sought to break the Guinness World Record for blowing over the most number of eggs in a cup, in a minute. Ashrita was on great form, blowing over 61 eggs within a minute. (the record is yet to be confirmed by Guinness)

After Ashrita’s successful record attempt, those spectating had a go for themselves - learning that it was much more difficult than it looked. Some, including the author of this article, took a good few minutes before successfully flipping over one egg.

Run and Become photos

Welcome

Run and Become

Your Running Goal?

Run and Become
Become and run.

Run to succeed
in the outer world.

Become to proceed
in the inner world.

- Sri Chinmoy

Dipika and Shakara Smith.

The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team marked the beginning of 2011 in fine fashion with a 17 kilometer race around the circumference of beautiful Pangkor Island in Malaysia.

23 intrepid runners lined up for the start of the race, which  made its way clockwise along the shoreline, quickly entering lush jungle territory. The first challenge came only a few minutes into the race in the form of a rather monstrous hill that even the motorcycles and taxis servicing the island have trouble getting over.  For many of the runners, the next half an hour or so was spent recovering from that hill!

The race continued downhill into populated territory, past the famous Kaliamman Temple where SCMT founder Sri Chinmoy had given a concert in 2005 and where just the previous evening a plaque had been erected in memory of that visit, before going into Pankgor town itself.

At this stage, the race was being led by our Dutch marathon champion Abhinabha Tangerman (fresh from a 2:27 PB in the Amsterdam Marathon), with Italian Giovanni Amantea surprisingly close on his tails following a strong performance on the hills - however some directional issues on Giovanni's part led to a gap opening up between the two runners. The runners were greeted by business as usual in Pangkor town - shopekeepers setting up stalls and motorcycles scuttling to and fro (New Years day isn't quite the holiday in Malaysia it is in other places). The run then made its way up the western half of the island, back into jungle territory and a few more hills, cheered on by the various monkeys who had turned out to watch the race.

Ultimately, the race was won by Abhinabha in a time of 66 minutes, with Giovanni finishing second in a time of 72 minutes. Pradeep Hoogaker made it two Dutchmen in the top 3 with a time of 74 minutes, with Udayachal Senkyr from the Czech Republic performing strongly to finish a couple of minutes behind, and our women's champion Jayasalini Abramovskikh from Moscow coming on only 30 seconds later to finish in a time of 76 minutes. The most satisfying aspect of the race was how strong the entire field was - race director Rupantar LaRusso had allowed a cutoff time of 3 hours, but everyone finished well within 2 hours. Such was the joy that we got from that race that the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team is now planning to make a New Year's challenge race every year, wherever we happen to find ourselves at the time. Here's to more fun-filled New Year races in the future!!

International fitness champion and global harmony leader, 74-year-old Sri Chinmoy, has curled a mammoth 256 pound dumbbell with each wrist—by far the heaviest dumbbell ever curled—and he did it 10 times with each hand! Using only the very small wrist muscles, Sri Chinmoy has curled a weight 76 pounds over his own bodyweight.

With his weightlifting Sri Chinmoy hopes to inspire people of all ages with a philosophy of “never give up!” Top strength athletes and fitness experts are astounded at the senior citizen’s herculean achievement. Five-time Mr. Universe and ‘Best Built Man of the Century’ Bill Pearl exclaimed:

“In my more than 60 years in the fitness and bodybuilding field, I have never heard of anyone in the world able to curl this huge amount of weight! This is a miracle!”


In just 3 weeks’ time, Sri Chinmoy has added more than 50 pounds to his own world record. Renowned as an author, musician and artist, Sri Chinmoy explains his meteoric lifting progress and world record success very simply:

“God out of His infinite Bounty has given me the capacity to do this 256 pound wrist curl with each hand. I am placing my happiness-heart- achievement at the Feet of God.”

* * *

Other Comments on Sri Chinmoy’s Wrist Curls
(From his 203 lb wrist curls)

Wayne DeMilia, Head Judge, Mr. Olympia Contest
Chairman, International Federation of Body Builders

“Out of all the weightlifters and champion bodybuilders I have seen, and I have seen many, Sri Chinmoy is the only one I have ever seen wrist curl a 200 lb. dumbbell.”

Jim Smith, long-time Registrar, British Amateur Weight Lifters Association

“I am certain that nobody else in the world can do a wrist curl with a 200 pound dumbbell—no matter how old they are or how much they weigh! The strongest men in the world are seeing that a 70-year-old man is curling with one arm much more than twice the weight that the world’s best bodybuilders and weightlifters can curl with two arms.”