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New York Magazine interviewed 5 of the runners from the 3100 Mile Race, Diganta Pobitzer, Suprabha Beckjord. Bottom: Grahak Cunningham, Asprihanal Aalto, and Stutisheel Lebedyev.

Brief excerpt from Interview with Aspihanal Aalto (the current race leader)

…

How do you get past the pain and boredom? With my MP3 player, talking with friends, going to the heart, and quieting the mind. Or …. I like to listen to music. It’s good to have books or music for the mind. My MP3 player broke down three weeks ago — I’d like to listen to books, like the Da Vinci Code, or the Harry Potter books. You can read the Harry Potter books three times.
When does it get hard? When the mind-problems come.
Does it get easy again? When you get happy.

…

Read Full interviews with 5 runners at New York Magazine.

More 3100 Self Transcendence Mile Race in Media

– Just getting the bugs ironed out in the new race photo gallery. Gratitude to Arpan for his efforts. Going out every day and doing all the photo editing is a true challenge. 🙂

– The race results need more work. The next / previous links are dodgy at best. (sigh). Thank Sahishnu for me for posting the results every night. . . . 🙂

– Gratitude to Bipin for doing the necessary jobs that come from being one of the race directors.

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Four-time winner of the 3100 mIle Race Asprihanal Aalto has carved out a 57 mile lead on the field with his sixth day in a row over 70 miles(71.89). Christopher Mullauer and Pranab Vladovic moved into a tie for second with 530.14 miles as the mercury hit 80º with higher humidity and stiff winds at times. Eight runners exceeded 60 miles. The summery conditions brought out hundreds of people to the areas near the race as the runners even fought for space to pass on the sidewalks while children and young adults enjoyed the water sprinklers at the adjacent playgrounds.

After seven days of running, Asprihanal Aalto has widened his lead to 41+ miles with his fifth consecutive day over 70 miles. The young Finn reached 72.99 miles and still went home with a little time to spare.Twelve of fourteen runners went past sixty miles today as temperatures and humidity started to climb a little in the first full day of summer. First-timer Christopher Mullauer climbed into third place with a fine 68.05 miles

Pavol Saraz

Christopher Mullauer

Two hero-warriors challenging their limits in the ultimate ultra. Utpal features these two newbies here and here.

Today, 13 of the 14 runners reached at least 60 miles- perhaps a new standard of fitness and strength- with Asprihanal Aalto again leading the way with 70.79 miles. The first six runners all were within a 10km or so of reaching 400 miles- a decent split in most six day races. Mr. Aalto ran 442.8 miles (712.74 km) total, with Smarana Puntigam reaching 407 miles. Even four-time finisher Abichal ran 65.85 miles today, just beating a raging thunderstorm from pounding the course just before midnight.

The 3100 Mile Race has been featured in various newspapers and Media outlets in recent years. These are a selection of some articles.

“…The fifteen participants—all but two of them disciples of the Bengali Guru Sri Chinmoy, who has resided in the neighborhood for forty years—hailed from ten countries on three continents. They ran in all weather, seven days a week, from 6:00 a.m. to midnight, or until their bodies compelled them to rest. If they logged fewer than fifty miles on a given day, they risked disqualification. By their own reckoning, the runners climbed eight meters per lap, mounting and descending a spectral Everest every week and a half. They toiled in this fashion for six to eight weeks, however long it took them to complete 5,649 circuits—3,100 miles—around a single city block…”

Run Like Fire Once More: Chasing Perfection at the World’s Longest Footrace By: Sam Shaw at Harpers Magazine

..When you reach the 1,000-mile marker in the world’s longest footrace–a 3,100-mile summer odyssey in New York–try to remain calm.

“If you start thinking, ‘Oh, my, God, I’ve got another 2,000 miles to go,’ you’re in trouble,” said Trishul Cherns, a 48-year-old massage therapist from Queens, the site of the annual race. “You don’t want to get caught in that mental trap…”

In This Footrace, the last 3,000 Miles are the Hardest (link Broken) – by Alan Bastable, Columbia News Service, Nov 1, 2005

• Inside the world’s longest race – – CBS This Morning: August 1, 2014,
• New York Today: Endless Summer Race – New York Times:  July 31, 2014
• Runners seek spiritual experience – Fox 5 News: Aug 01, 2014

Video from CBS News

• How to Run the 3100 mile race in 12 easy steps – NBC New York Thursday, Jun 24, 2010
• 3100 Mile Race at PRI, June 26, 2014
• The Self-Transcendence 3,100-Mile Race: A Five-Person Poll – New York mag, June 20, 2008
• People in Queens Are Running Around a Single Block for 3,100 Miles – New York Observer 07/06/11
• Endurance Block Party – 3,100 mile race at Runners World

“Followers of Sri Chinmoy honor him and seek spiritual transcendence in various ways. A dozen followers are doing it this month by running around a city block in Jamaica, Queens, for seven weeks straight, 18 hours a day, from 6 a.m. to midnight…”

Running 3100 Miles and Following their leader every step of the way by Corey Kilgannon, New York Times – July 1, 2004

“…The goal is 3,100 miles within 51 days. That’s 5,649 times around this .5488 mile concrete course, or more than 60 miles daily between the race hours of 6:07 a.m. and midnight. In the world’s longest sanctioned race, and possibly the most incomprehensible road race ever devised, these five runners – a sixth dropped out – from four nations have circumnavigated the Thomas A. Edison Vocational/Technical School in Jamaica, Queens, an average of about 115 times daily since June 13…”

This 3100 Mile Race is for the Long Run by By Amy Shipley, Washington Post, Friday, July 31, 1998

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