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.
Wei-Ming Lo again led the way on day 42 at the 3100-mile race with another 70 mile + day, recording 71.8 miles. His Taiwanese compatriot Tsai Wen-Ya logged 68.6 miles to remain in second place nine miles ahead in the race. Race leader Andrea Marcato logged a solid 65.3 miles edging closer to a Thursday afternoon finish.
Throughout the day several landmarks were passed, Mahasatya Jannzak went through 2,500 miles in 42 Days 01 Hour 24 Minutes 6 Seconds. Mid-morning and Wen-Ya set record number seven passing through 4,500km (2796 Miles) in 41 Days 04 Hours 44 Minutes 37 Seconds. This beat the previous mark set by Kaneenika Janakova in 2017 of 44 Days 01 Hour 38 Minutes 17 seconds by almost 3 days. Later in the afternoon, Harita Davies reached 4,000km (2485 Miles) in 41 Days 12 Hours 00 Minutes and 30 Seconds and as the cool of the evening drew in at 10 pm she hit 2,500 miles in 41 Days 16 Hours 17 Minutes 52 Seconds.
To round the evening off Stutisheel Lebedyev reached 2,100 Miles in 41:15:24:55. and Vasu Duzhiy cruised through 2,600 miles in 41:16: 01:30
Vasu Duzhiy
To say Vasu likes this race is a slight understatement. He first ran the race in 2012 and apart from the interruption of the covid pandemic has run and completed the race every year since. 10 times in all, recording 3 victories along the way. His best time of 44 Days 06 Hours 10 minutes 42 Seconds in 2015 ranks him as the 11th fastest time and the 6th fastest athlete on the all-time 3100 rankings.
He looks on course for his 11th completion. When he achieves that he will have totalled 34,100 miles (54,870 Km) around the race block, having covered over 62,000 laps of the course in the process. Something keeps drawing him back, For Vasu, the race has always been as much of an inner journey as well as an outer journey. He always seems at peace with himself, grateful to have the capacity to continue coming back year after year. Despite the obvious outer and inner challenges this race throws at everyone each day, he remains calm throughout never showing any signs of discomfort.
The 57-year-old foreman, who works at a logging company near St Petersburg, has a dedicated crew of Sasha and Nikolai who alternate shifts throughout the day. Sasha tends to do the late evening shift, and as the race support team clears and tidy the race site after midnight each evening, Sasha can be seen massaging Vasu’s legs and feet in the caravan that acts as his support space throughout the race. He seems to be putting the saying “recovery starts when you cross the finish line” into action. In this race, though there is a daily finish line until the goal is reached, so Sasha is hoping that easing tired muscles will help make Vasu’s long journey easier at the start of the next day.
Andrea to finish on Thursday pm
(Report by Tarit)
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