Traditionally on the the last weekend of June, Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team held their longest and biggest ultra race in the Czech Republic - the Self-Transcendence 24/48 Hour Race. On a 1-Kilometer circuit of the Sletiště stadium in Kladno, 105 runners from 18 countries, including Finland, Cyprus, Israel and Australia, faced the weather, fatigue and the challenge of many seemingly endless hours.
All of them summed up, the runners covered more than 17 000 km from Friday to Sunday – a distance from Kladno to New Zealand !! :)
Daniel Trusca from Romania contributed the most, having run solid 370,121 km and setting a new Romanian national record in 48 hours.
However, perhaps the greatest delight came from the performance of Radka Churaňová, who – under the great coaching of the accomplished Czech ultra-runner Radek Brunner – broke not one, but two national records within 24 hours. After 12 hours and superb 140.367 km, she ticked off the first one, improving the recent performance of Tereza Zuzankova from May Stromovka by more than 4.5 km. But she didn’t slow down at that, and keeping an excellent pace and strategy in the second half of the race, she pushed the Czech women’s record for 24 hours to 251.498 km.
But these were not the only records that were pushed in Kladno; many runners transcended their own PBs, others managed to secure a nomination for this year's 24 Hour World Championship in Albi, France – such as Pavel Marek who notched 235 km, with great support from his friends. Special kudos go to Edda Bauer from Germany, who also reached 235 km in 48 hours and set a new world record in her age category of 70+!
Congratulations to all these runners – but not only to them, because there are many more winners in this race. In the words of Sri Chinmoy, founder of the organizing team which in 1977 became one of the pioneers of endurance running in the USA, Europe and Australia:
“He is the great winner who wins.
He is the greater winner who is the cheerful loser.
He is the greatest winner who gives equal value to victory and defeat.
He alone is the real loser who separates defeat from victory.”
That is why it is such a pleasure for us to organize this race and to be part of the stories that it has in store for each and every one of those who take part.
We are looking forward to seeing you next time!
Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team
