Day 41

By Tejvan Pettinger author bio »
10 October

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.

Vasu Duzhiy was yesterday's top mileage with 69.1 miles. Vasu has had a very consistent race, but that was his highest daily mileage since the very first week. Vasu passed the 2,600 mile mark in 40d:06:47:47. The race leader, Andrea Marcato, passed the magic 2,700 mile mark, finishing on 2727.8. There were also four runners to pass the 2,500 mile mark Alex, Adrian, Milan and Lucong Geng. 

Race Director, Sahishnu hands out the daily mail to the runners. Photo Utpal

At the top of the leader board, there are considerable gaps between the first 3 runners.

After Day 41, Andrea leads Vasu by around 86 Miles, and Vasu himself leads Mahasatya by a comfortable 58 miles. Behind them,only 20 miles separate the next four runners: Alex, Adrian, Milan, and Lu-Cong. In a race this long, that is really not a lot, and one mishap by any of the four, resulting in a reduced mileage day, could change the positions in a day. Today, all of them reached 2,500 miles.

Over many years, race founder Sri Chinmoy offered encouragement and inspiration to thousands of runners in many ways. Often, he would answer simple questions put to him by runners.

Question: For a very long task, such as an ultramarathon that goes on for many days, do I need to have patience, or should I just try to have dynamism?

Sri Chinmoy: Every morning, when you are starting to run, you have to feel that this is the only day that you are running.  Then, when tomorrow comes, again think that this is the only day. Otherwise, you may lose patience when you have to run more than a month. To try to always maintain dynamism is out of the question. If you try to have dynamism, you will fall down so many times! The best thing for you to do is to fool the mind by saying, "Oh, this race is only for one day.”  Then you will take rest. When tomorrow comes, again you will think, "This race is only for one day." Always divide it.

 Every day when you start, if you can convince yourself that it is only for one day, then you will think,  "Oh, I can easily do it. Only last year, I ran 3,100 miles. Today, I cannot run 60 miles. Easily, I can do it!”  Since quite often the mind is fooling us, we have to use our wisdom to fool the mind.

“You want to know,
Who is your real friend?
Ask your heart,
Your heart will tell you
Who can inspire you,
Who can help you run the fastest.”

Sri Chinmoy

Video with Andrea

Photo Blog by Utpal

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The 30th Annual Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

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