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photo by Jowan
As Day 11 rolled on, with temps in the nineties and warm breezes in the air, our brave runners continued on their journey. Nine of the 11 made 60 or more miles. Asprihanal Aalto again led the way with 72.44 miles followed by Petr Spacil with 70.24 and Pranjal Milovnik with 68.05. Even first-timer Dharbhasana Lynn got into the act with 61.46 miles, his best day since Day 1. Messrs Vladimir Balatskyy, Pranjal Milovnik and Stutisheel Lebedyev (10 days +05:05:18;10days+09:05:16;and 10 days+12:20:53, respectively) all went past 700 miles on one of the hottest days of the year so far.Your blogger found it difficult just to walk the 1 mile to the race!   These runners are worth checking out if you are in the NY area.

I’m fortunate enough to be behind the scenes of one of the runners.  You get to see more than what they eat or what they wear.

With a 6:00am start each morning, I suppose at some point, it’s gonna be hard to get up at 5:00am to get ready.  In our house we have two separate alarms to “guarantee” a definite wake up.  I am in charge of one, and Dharbhasana, the other.  For some strange reason, this morning, we BOTH slept through our alarms, or turned them off in our sleep or just forgot to set them.  I’m not really sure what happened there, but we were both in another world when 5:00am rolled around.

I was happily snoring away when suddenly a screaming Dharbhasana, yanked me out of my deep sleep.”NANDANA! IT’S 6:13!!!”  Whoa, I shot straight up, bumped my head, totally confused, had no idea what the heck just happened or where I was for that matter and trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing.  Then I see Dharbhasana limping and unbalanced trying to get to the shower as fast as he could. What a sight!

I then realized I was supposed to be making his smoothies, so I climbed down from my bunk and got to the kitchen with one eye open trying to figure out what goes in the blender.  I didn’t have enough time to do anything though as Dharbhasana was out of that shower before I could even say green smoothie.  I had to help him get dressed and then he was out the door.  Took him 7 minutes from eye opening to bike riding his way to the race.

The funny part of it all is when Dharbhasana parked his bike upon his arrival; he just nonchalantly put his bike in place, his bag down on his chair and started shuffling into his first lap like there was nothing out of sorts.  Ananda-Lahari said Dharbhasana was now part of the club.

photo by Bryan Derballa
for The Wall Street Journal
After ten days, Asprihanal Aalto and Peter Spacil have passed 700 miles, with the former reaching it in 9 days+14:35:26, and the latter in 9 days+15:44:00. The day was punctuated by summer skies of sun and haze, followed by evening clouds and a fast moving rainstorm. In all eight made it past the 60 mile barrier with Messrs. Aalto and Spacil dead even for the day with 70.24 miles. The runners were buoyed by the Wall Street Journal article about the race, both in print and online. Many photos accompanied the thoughtful article.

Rain or extreme shine, these runners continue circumferencing this half mile city block in Jamaica, Queens, New York City.  I really do NOT know how to explain the way these superheros complete mile after mile on a solid concrete floor day in and day out.  And we are only on day 9.  Still there is more than 40 days to go.

This amazing event that this small handful of runners are doing, proves to us all that we are beyond the body.  Every single runner out there has experienced pain in some part of their body, but they push through it all with every footstep- conquering all that challenges them.  They will be faced with things like doubt, fatigue, pain and uncertainty, yet with their inner strength and inner faith; those “things” always seem to pass.

I admire those who challenge themselves.  I admire those who believe in self-transcendence.  I admire those who want to make the world a better place from their own inner progress.  This is exactly what these runners are doing.  They’re giving it a go.  They really are the superheros of today, tomorrow, and years to come.  To all the 3100 mile runners, I offer my deepest gratitude.  Thank you…

photo by Jowan
Asprihanal Aalto rebounded with a fine 74.63 mile effort as the thermometer reached 90º and the first day of summer nudged into full view. Petr Spacil also went past 70 miles(70.79) and seven brave runners exceeded 60+ miles.

photo by Nandana

On a sticky, hot, humid Father’s Day in New York, the band of 11 Gypsies known as the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race continued along their journey. Petr Spacil led all boats to the shore with 69.14 miles, pulling within 2 laps of the overall leader Asprihanal Aalto, who plodded along with 66.4 miles. Stutisheel Lebedyev moved into fifth place with 65.85 miles. The tough conditions will persist a few more days, but with less humidity. Still, six men made it past sixty miles. It was so sticky today that the handball tournament nearby was shortened a few hours. Wimps!

photo by Nandana

The dynamic eleven have fed the fires of aspiration to be in and to remain in this super long race. After a week, Asprihanal Aalto remains first with 499.95 miles. Petr Spacil has climbed to within seven laps of the lead. Vladimir Balatskyy is still solidly in third place, nearly 18 miles behind Mr. Aalto.
It is going to heat up for a few more days, so our heroic runners must remain focused and hydrated. Their fitness is getting better as we speak.

photo by Arpan

The ice cream truck that circles the running track of the 3100 miler has a couple of banana splits for sale among its tasty wares. But more on the minds of the runners were six day splits which are the pop-quiz for a 3100 mile racer. Asprihanal Aalto logged in first with 432.45 miles, followed by Petr Spacil amassing 426 miles and Vladimir Balatskyy with 415.99 miles. Pranjal Milovnik reached 411.6 miles, Pushkar Mullauer recorded 394.03 miles, and Stutisheel Lebedyev made 391.2944 miles. Rookies Surasa Mairer and Dharbhasana Lynn appeared ready for more with 358.36 miles and 360.5616 miles respectively.

One cool thing about New York are the fireflies.  Up to this point in my life I always thought fireflies were a creature of fantasy and only existed in fairy tales.  But when twilight arrives, these little balls of light appear magically before our eyes.  Now, this may or may not have anything to do with the 3100 mile race, but I figure those who light a path for the runners are worth a mention.

Today was incredibly windy which I suppose was refreshing for the runners.  At one point today the breeze was strong and warmish and instead of tumbleweed rolling across the sand as you might see in the desert, here there were plastic bags full of air rolling across the cement.  That’s city life.  You get kinda used to all the quirky stuff of a New York city though such as the jingle of the famous ice cream truck-strolling past at a pace slower than the runners twice daily.  Funny, but I catch myself whistling along to the tune.  It’s a subconscious thing now.  I think I’ll have that tune in my head till I breathe my last!

So, the runners shuffle through these city happenings while experiencing  ups and downs, high’s and lows, in’s and outs, but no matter what, they’re out there doin it.  Transcending themselves beyond all what I ever thought was possible…

Day four….

These runners are truly AMAZING!  How do they do it?  Well, they all have a goal and they all have inner determination.  These two things alone can get you through anything.  From shin splints to sunburn-you name it, these runners challenge it all.   And most of them don’t even have handlers!  Only 3 runners have handlers whom look after them very diligently.

Surasa has 3 helpers who rotate and sometimes cross over all at once which gives extreme amount of support to her.  They are true heroes.  Today they were all in the van tending to her feet and at that moment, I thought, wow-this is true humility and service.

Stutisheel has his wife, Atandra, who arrives at 6:00am and leaves whenever her husband leaves which is usually between 10:30 and 11:30pm.  What a long day.  She hardly leaves the aid station and devotedly awaits the arrival of her husband every seven minutes or so.

And of course there is Dharbhasana, whom is also being tended to by his wife Nandana and seven year old daughter, Shakti.  Because he is on a dairy free, gluten free, sugar free diet, it makes for more of an interesting and exciting task of getting the proper balance of nutrition into him.  But it seems to be working because he is doing fabulous.