About the author:
Rupantar has been the race director of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team since 1985, having been asked by Sri Chinmoy to serve in that capacity. As well as working on the big races the US Marathon Team organise each year - the 3100 Mile Race and the Six and 10 Day Race - he also spends a considerable amount of time archiving the Marathon Team's 40 year history on this website.
For his record breaking performance in the 19th Annual Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race in 2015, Pekka Ashprihanal Aalto was voted by his peers as the Best Finnish Male Ultra-runner for 2015. The award is presented by ultrajuoksu.fi which is Finlands main ultrarunning website. Following is a translated exerpt from the article:
How do you train for a race?
I was distributing newspapers in the mornings. I was running with the carriage and distributing newspapers in an area, where they did not have elevators in the buildings. Already by that you got a good basic training. In addition, I did some extra running few times a week.
When coming closer to the race, I was running less often, but extending the distance of the runs. Normal distance is 40 km. During the days between, I did some walking.
How do you feel after the race, during next weeks?
After my first race, somebody told me that I am only watching the walls. But I was feeling very satisfied. It feels that there is no need to do anything. But nowadays, I try to do something after the race.
(For the complete ultrajuoksu.fi article translated into English...)
Other articles in Finnish from ultrajuoksu.fi on the 2015 Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race include:
- June 13, 2015 article (prior to the race start) containing complete history of all 3,100 mile race finishers under 50 days.
- July 24, 2015 article on the day Ashprihanal finished the race. The articles contains a list of every race Ashprihanal has run since 1999, along with a collage of photos of Ashprihanal, one from every day of his 3,100 mile run.
- August 7 article with daily mileage of Ashprihanal's record breaking run as well as a list of final mileage total for all competitors.
