Nirbhasa is originally from Ireland but currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
The Sri Chinmoy Marathon, which takes place every August in Rockland State Park in upstate New York, celebrated its 15th birthday this year. We recently put together a short video using footage from the 2016 and 2017 races - we hope you like it!
Sri Chinmoy attended the marathon every year until his passing in 2007, and would often travel around the course offering his inspiration and encouragement to the runners. He made the following remarks following the inaugural marathon in 2002:
The marathon was so beautiful, so peaceful! Mother Nature was so kind to us. There could not be a better, more ideal situation than this one. It was so nice, absolutely! The weather was super-super-excellent. The servers were super-super-excellent. The organisation was super-super-excellent. Everything was super-super-excellent. I was there for six or seven hours, and I was enjoying the panorama of nature’s beauty immensely. There we saw water. Water means life-energy. And there we saw sky-vastness. Everything gave me absolutely unimaginable joy. Again, this joy came mainly from your participation.
Nirbhasa is originally from Ireland but currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Most ultra-runners have to balance training for many hours a day with the demands of their regular life, and Jayasalini Abramovskikh is no exception, working at least 9 hours a day at her job as an economist. Jayasalini has run our 6 and 10 day race many times, and in 2014 became the first Russian woman to complete the 3100 Mile Race. She talks how she keep her really long runs for weekends and public holidays, how she varies her training, and (interestingly) how she prefers to undertrain rather than overtrain.
In her interview, she also talked about how she got into ultrarunning in the first place:
Archive: a history of our very first public ultramarathon
By Nirbhasa Mageeauthor bio »
7 December
About the author:
Nirbhasa is originally from Ireland but currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Pioneers of ultrarunning at the 1982 race: Stu Mittleman, Sue Medaglia, Ted Corbitt, and Cahit Yeter
The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team started its service to the public by putting on races ranging from 2 mile to the marathon. Only after a few years, did it start entering into the world of ultramarathons. Sahishnu Szczesiul, our associate race director and inveterate statistician, has lovingly compiled a history of our 24 hour race, which ran from 1980 to 1993. This was the very first ultramarathon we put on for the public.
In this 53-page story, Sahishnu details the 50 mile, 100k and 100mile women's world records broken by Marcy Schwam in the very first race, the records set by the immortal Yiannis Kouros in 1984 and 1985 (the latter in the middle of storm force conditions), and Ann Trason's shattering of the 24 hour world record in 1989.
Sri Chinmoy's advice on staying happy during ultra races
By Nirbhasa Mageeauthor bio »
6 December
About the author:
Nirbhasa is originally from Ireland but currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Sri Chinmoy spoke many times about how people could get the most inner joy from doing ultra distance events. The excerpts here come from a talk given at the closing of the 2005 3100 Mile Race, as well as answers to questions asked by Suprabha Beckjord, a 13-time finisher of the 3100 Mile Race.
Special places
Dear runners, when you go around the course, try to discover two or three special places where you feel that you are getting joy. Even on a 400-metre track when you do long distance, there will be a few special places. You do not know why, but when you reach those places you get automatically a new burst of energy. Try to remember where you get energy or joy. At that spot, Mother Nature is helping you.
Keep the mind cheerful
Always try to keep your mind happy and cheerful, cheerful! Cherish all your sweet memories….every day, the way seekers recite from the Upanishads and the Vedas and slokas from the scriptures, you can also do the same by recalling your divine experiences. And if you are a singer, then inwardly sing and outwardly sing. In as many ways as possible, keep yourself happy, happy, happy, happy! Just see in how many ways you can make yourself happy.
This happiness is of utmost importance. When you are unhappy, no matter how sincere you are, no matter how hard you try to improve your time, you cannot do it. But when you are happy, your timing automatically improves. Happiness is strength, a new supply of energy.
Fool the mind
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.
Enthusiasm and eagerness
Now the question is, what qualities do you need to bring forward from your inner life while you are running? The first one is enthusiasm. Who embodies enthusiasm? A little child. Who can be more enthusiastic than a child? He enters into a garden and runs here and there, here and there, appreciating everything that he sees. Then, in addition to enthusiasm, you need eagerness. Again, who has more eagerness than a little child? If he plays with a toy, he is so eager, his whole world is the toy.
If you can feel that you are a five-year-old or six-year-old child, tiredness will not come into your mind. A child does not know what tiredness is. He knows only enthusiasm and eagerness. Never think of sixty miles or 3,100 miles. Never take the distance in that way — never! Only run for the joy of it.
Enter into the heart
Now, while running 3,100 miles, you have to deal with fatigue — when you are tired, exhausted, dead. As long as you are in the mind, you will always have fatigue, tiredness, weariness and everything. But the moment you enter into the heart, there is no fatigue. What you will find is constant energy.
If you are in the heart, there is a constant supply of energy and sweetness. We all have to develop sweetness. Sweetness is not masculine or feminine. People say that only girls can have sweetness and not men, but sweetness is not something masculine or feminine. Sweetness is a reality which is constantly supplying us with newness and freshness.
Early in the morning when you get up, if you have a sweet feeling inside you, then everything is beautiful. If inside you there is sweetness, the whole world is beautiful.
Running inside your heart garden
While you are running this long distance, you are seeing hundreds of cars passing by and so many people are making noise. But you should feel that you are not running around that big block; you are only running inside your own heart-garden where there are beautiful flowers, plants and trees. If you can not only see but feel that each time you are going around you are only running inside your beautiful heart-garden, then you can bring sweetness into each and every step that you take.
The surface that you run on is solid concrete. I cannot even walk on it. When you are running around, after an hour or two hours or a few days, this solid thing that you feel you are striking against starts striking your mind. You start thinking, "This is so bad. Every day I have to do sixty miles," this and that. But who counts the mileage? It is the mind. The mind is saying, "Oh my God, today I have to do sixty miles, and I have not yet done twenty miles!" Then you are finished! The mind, your worst enemy, is coming to torture you.
But the heart is not counting the mileage. The heart is only running, running, running. Then at the end of that session, the heart says, "Now let me see how many miles I have done." By that time, perhaps you have done forty miles already. The heart does not calculate. The mind calculates from one to two, two to three, three to four and so on. The mind tries to go to the destination by cutting, cutting, cutting. But the heart tries to see and feel the starting point and the end at the same time. For the heart the destination is not somewhere else. Only for the mind is the destination somewhere else. The heart will simply say, "Please take me to my destination."
Do not run with the mind. Even if today you fool the mind, tomorrow the mind will come back with redoubled trickeries to make your life miserable. You should say to the mind, "You stay with your trickeries. I want to play with my heart-toy, not with you. You consider your toys as beautiful, but I don't agree. In those days I was a fool; I enjoyed you. But now I am wise. I want to enjoy my heart-toy. The heart-toy always brings me happiness and newness, newness and happiness."
These excerpts are taken from Sri Chinmoy's books My Golden Children and Run and Smile, Smile and Run
Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team donate race proceeds to Flushing Meadows Park
By Rupantar LaRussoauthor bio »
2 December
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 the past 5 years the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team has donated the proceeds from their November 5K/10K Race to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, where the race was located. With the kind support of the park administration, we have been organising races in the Park since the mid 1970's, including many of our multi-day races.
It is our hope that this race will inspire the larger race organizers around the New York area to do a similar race for their local Park systems, if they are not doing so already. In Flushing Meadows, we also organise a 5k/half marathon/relay race in May, our October 'Heart-Garden' 2-mile race, and a 1-mile/4-miler in December, as well as our 6 and 10 Day race which has been taking place in Flushing Meadows for many years. We have also recently started doing races in two other parks around New York - a 5k/10k in nearby Alley Pond Park in September as well as a March 5k/7-mile race in Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
Nirbhasa is originally from Ireland but currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Tejvan Pettinger has been racing for the Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team for many years, winning many time trials and hill climb races around Britain. After many years of trying, Tejvan won the UK National Hill-Climb championship in 2013. In the video, he relates how he trained really hard to reclaim the title in 2014. He ended up finishing fourth, but the important thing was the experience of detachment and being 'in the moment' that he felt during the race itself.
Ashrita sets a balloon-bursting record live on Czech TV
By Nirbhasa Mageeauthor bio »
22 November
About the author:
Nirbhasa is originally from Ireland but currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Ashrita Furman has been breaking Guinness World records for nearly 40 years; he currently holds over 200 Guinness Records, more than any other person. He recently appeared on the Czech TV station DVTV, wearing the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team T-shirt he invariably wears during his record attempts, to set another record - bursting the most balloons within a minute, using only his teeth.
His goal was to surpass his own previous record of 35 balloons, but he ended up bursting 51 balloons, and was only stopped by the fact that there were no more balloons on the table to burst!
After the record, he explained why he spends his life attempting these records: “I've been studying meditation with a teacher, his name is Sri Chinmoy. I’ve been studying my whole life with him, and his philosophy is that we all have unlimited strength and capacity within ourselves, and when we practise meditation we have a way to use that unlimited capacity. People can do it in very positive ways…in my case, I try to break Guinness records!”
Nirbhasa is originally from Ireland but currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
A cellist by profession, Shamita Achenbach-König has been a pioneer ultra-runner for the last 25 years, competing for the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in distances from the marathon right up to the 3100 Mile Race.
This summer, she took some time out to return to the Austrian town of Bergenz, where she was born, and run the entire circumference of Lake Constance (called the Bodensee in German), a 167-kilometer journey that took her 23 hours and 35 minutes. Her father was inspired to tell the local media about it and as a result, a very nice article appeared in Vorarlberger Nachrichten, the local newspaper and one of the leading regional papers in Austria.
In the article, Shamita talks about how, through running, she is able to connect to a deeper state of being. "When we run, we connect with a higher world, with a divine consciousness that is the same as meditation. For me, running is meditation, or a long prayer in which thoughts become still…one gains access to levels of consciousness that bring light, joy, peace, and happiness."
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.
Nataliya Samunnati Lehonkova, a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team who competed for her native Ukraine in last year's Olympics in Rio, won the woman's elite field in the Dublin SSE Airtricity Marathon. On a rainy windy day, she finished in a personal best time of 2:28:57.
Picture below: Samunnati with friends from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in Dublin after the awards ceremony. Samunnati has won the Dublin Marathon before, as well as winning the Edinburgh, Tolouse and Los Angeles Marathon
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.
Pradeep Hoogakker, a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team and a 2011 Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3,100-Mile Racefinisher, was interviewed on KBS Kyoto Radio, Japan on October 22.
The 10 minute program has been aired for 15 years, and is the first of its kind in Japan specifically dedicated to lay runners.
The runner-radio host Ms. Junko Wakabayashi (aka Waka), a well-known figure in the running world, dedicated the whole program for this interview.
Transcript of interview (English translation):
Waka:I interviewed Mr. Pradeep Hoogakker from the Netherlands, who completed this race in 53 days and 9 hours in 2011. About the race:
Started by Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in New York in 1997, continuing for 20 years.
3100 miles = 4989km (approximately 5000km)
Race Track: 5649 laps of a 880m-long loop
Cut-off: 52 days (To complete, the runner has to run at the pace of 95.9km per day.)
Note: In the year Mr. Pradeep did the race, the cut-off was extended to 54 days due to the extreme heat.
39 runners completed in the 20 years
The race track was open every day from 7am to 12 midnight.
7000 to 10000kcal must be consumed each day, equivalent of one week’s food intake for a person with normal activities.
The kitchen crew cooks customized food for each runner.
The runners use up 10 to 12 pairs of shoes.
Average temperature: 30C, Humidity: 80-95%
Waka: What brought you to the race?
Pradeep: One day, while I was meditating after having a good run, the idea of running the 3100 mile race spontaneously came to my heart and I felt an inner thrill. I had been to the race a few times as a helper before. I got advice from the runners then, and trained myself for 6 years. I trained to run long distances, starting from 10km a day, 40km once a week, and up to 100km once a month. I also practised how to eat while running, as well as trying different running outfits and shoes.
Waka: And the actual race came. Didn’t you get bored running 5649 laps?
Pradeep: Everybody asks that question! Actually, many ultra races have loops instead of a straight route. It actually makes a lot of sense since you can have your own table where you can put your belongings such as shoes and supplements. Also, you feel everybody is running together—from the fastest to the slowest ones in the race. We can inspire each other, and we feel oneness, which is really good.
Waka: Still, it’s sooo long. How did you keep your motivation?
Pradeep: We told different jokes to each other!
Waka: What was most difficult?
Pradeep: The first 10 days were really difficult. My feet were not used to running on concrete; at night, my whole body ached and could not sleep. My mind started thinking, “How can I run tomorrow being like this?,” which made me sleepless. But as weeks went by, I learned that I could run even if I had not been able to sleep the night before. Something within myself recovered with renewed energy.
Waka: What was most moving?
Pradeep: There were many things. I felt oneness, and one morning, as I watched the sun rise, I felt as if the sun was rising inside my own heart. And I felt: This is life…!
Waka: You experienced Life…yet, your feet must have been…?
Pradeep: All blisters! Can I say something gross?
Waka: No thank you! Did you discover something new about yourself?
Pradeep: I realized I had a tendency to feel sorry for myself. So I had to conquer that. I could not complete the race unless I could truly feel I could do it. The process of overcoming my weaknesses became a valuable experience.
Waka: Has your life perspective changed after the race?
Pradeep: Yes. The wonderful experiences during the race stay inside myself even after the race finished. I feel that happiness means progress; going forward. In ordinary life, many times we think we are going forward but are actually going round and round in the same place. But in this race, though we were running round and round, I felt I was going forward. Those are what I learned through the race. My weaknesses unavoidably came forward so I had no choice but to conquer them, which led to joy and happiness.
Waka: What is your goal now?
Pradeep: There are many. Everybody needs a new goal. My first aim is to improve my marathon time, from 3 hours 4 minutes to under 3 hours. I also want to write a book about my 3100 race experiences. Most importantly, I feel Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy “Self-Transcendence” is wonderful. No matter what field you are in, the important thing is to transcend yourself.
Waka: You have said so much today that resonate with our souls: ‘Continuous self-transcendence,’ ‘Importance of feeling inner thrill in your heart’, and ‘Happiness means progress’.
Dear listeners, are you doing something that thrills your heart? Are you trying to transcend yourself now? Yes, you can start today! I was so moved to meet Mr. Pradeep. Thank you so much!
Nirbhasa is originally from Ireland but currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Our members consider sports, and running in particular, to be an integral part of their inner life, along with more traditional spiritual disciplines such as meditation. Vasudha, who helps to organise our Marathon Team events in San Diego, speaks eloquently about how the role that running plays in her own life, and how running and meditation complement each other.
From her interview: "Running is my church - its just absolutely where I can go and feel a sense of connecting to something higher. My spiritual life helps my running and my running helps my spiritual life - for myself, I can't separate the two. It's so much a part of who I am."
Sri Chinmoy spoke often on the inner benefits of running - including an answer which Vasudha refers to in the video:
While you run, each breath that you take is connected with a higher reality. While you are jogging, if you are in a good consciousness, your breath is being blessed by a higher inner breath. Of course, while you are jogging if you are chatting with one of your friends about mundane things, then this will not apply. But if you are in a good consciousness while you are running, each breath will connect you with a higher, deeper, inner reality. (source)
View from the boat: a helper's experience of Abhejali's North Channel swim
By Anonymous
14 September
Abhejali Bernardova became the first person from the Czech Republic to swim the North Channel on August 15th 2017 in 10 hours, 23min, 48 seconds. Crew member Dhavala Stott was kind enough to write a few words telling us what it was like to be on the boat...
It's 5am and I'm on a converted lifeboat leaving Donaghadee harbour on the eastern Northern Irish coast. There's a little wind, and a faint red glow of sunrise peeps between the clouds as we look across the twenty-one mile stretch of water towards Scotland. This is the day that my good friend from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, Abhejali Bernardova, will attempt to be the first swimmer from her native Czech Republic to successfully swim the North Channel.
It's a body of water that is particularly challenging to swim for several reasons. There are swarms of lion's mane jellyfish, sometimes such that swimmers have been stung over 100 times on a North Channel attempt. Abhejali had been badly stung by box jellyfish on her Molokai strait crossing in April this year - for several months she carried a faint scarring from these stings. Because of this, she was initially quite wary about the threat the jellyfish might pose here. There's also the cold water which averages between 11-14 degrees and poses a serious threat of hypothermia. And there is the variable and unpredictable weather in these parts - think of all the cliches you've ever heard about typical Scottish/Irish summer weather and that's what we were looking to avoid. The ideal day would have very little wind and a good amount of sunshine so the swimmer doesn't get too cold. We were also looking for favourable tides. Many channel swimmers have found themselves at the mercy of the strong unpredictable currents which pull them off course as they approach Scotland.
As Abhejali took her first determined strokes, leaving Ireland at 5.29am, it seemed like a small victory that she had the opportunity to make the crossing at all that day. Abhejali had a six day swim window but the forecast throughout the whole week wasn't promising. Tuesday looked like the only day with potentially swimmable conditions. When the boat pilot for the swim, Quinton Nelson had called us at 6.30 the previous evening he said there was only a 50-50 chance the swim could go ahead the next day. He said the latest forecast had worsened, showing high winds (force 6-7) towards Scotland later in the day which would make it almost impossible to reach the Scottish coast. He asked Abhejali if she was happy to meet at 5am at the boat for a final decision, and made it clear that if the forecast didn't improve we wouldn't be going anywhere the next morning. Abhejali said she definitely wanted to be ready if there was any chance to go. She was completely surrendered to the situation and trusted Quinton that he would make the right call to give her the best possible chance of a successful swim and to keep her safe. It wasn't until the day after the swim that Quinton told us how very close he was to phoning back and cancelling on Monday night. Given how things turned out we were all grateful that he had the patience and experience to wait and see what the morning brought.
We were a support crew of 3 - myself, Jana (Abhejali's younger sister) and Jayalata, also from the Czech Republic who has herself been part of a successful English Channel relay team and been crew on many of Abhejali's previous swims. We had all been part of Abhejali's crew for her English Channel swim in 2011 and were happy to be reunited, a little further north, for this one.
Coming from Edinburgh, I was especially excited about this swim as it felt like Abhejali was swimming 'home'! On Monday evening Abhejali had sent out a message to many friends around the world asking them to pray for the weather forecast to improve. When the morning came we were expecting a discussion about conditions and I think Abhejali was even ready to be faced with a decision whether to go ahead in less than favourable conditions, or take a chance and wait to see if she would get a better opportunity. When we arrived at the marina Quinton looked at Abhejali and asked "Are you good?" She said yes and he turned and walked towards his boat. It was only when the boat started moving that Abhejali realised that brief exchange of words was the agreement for the swim to go ahead!
Abhejali arrived in Donaghadee very well prepared. Knowing that staying in the cold water long enough could be the greatest obstacle of this swim, she came to Scotland twice to train and take advantage of our beautifully cool summer temperatures compared to the heatwave in her native Czech Republic! She first visited Edinburgh in early June and swam in the beaches along the East Lothian coast. At this time the water was around 11-12 degrees and she initially struggled to stay in longer than an hour and a half. I then spent a week with her in Ullapool in July where we were hosted by longtime members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team Suruchi and Tirthika Gero. Over the course of 6 days she put in a total of 21 hours in the water, including a 6 hour swim in temperatures below 13 degrees. Some days it was probably closer to 11. Through those swims I could see how cold she was, with her hands visibly shaking at times when she came in to feed. Still, she kept returning to the water, knowing that each hour of training would be valuable for her body's ability to handle the hours she would face in the North Channel. Another bonus, if you could see it that way, of these training swims was that Abhejali encountered Lion's mane jellyfish (they love the cold Scottish water!). She was stung a few times by them, and found the stings not as painful as those she got in Hawaii. This meant that even though she was stung about a dozen times on the actual swim (we could see the jellyfish from the boat) it was something she had trained with and knew she could swim through.
Abhejali made a strong confident start and covered 6.5 miles in the first 2.5 hours and was halfway in just over 4 hours. Both the pilot and the official observer said that although the weather wasn't ideal and there would be some wind it was better than we could have hoped for from the forecast and that she had been given a real opportunity for a successful swim. Within the first few hours we saw dolphins, a seal and a rainbow from the boat, all of which we took as good omens. Quinton asked that Abhejali swim the first hour without stopping in order to avoid strong currents close to the Irish coast. She then stopped every half hour to feed. We had a routine of waving a red towel five minutes before feeding. She drank mainly fresh ginger tea with maltrodextrin and 'ate' mainly liquidised porridge. Later in the day she started agreeing to the soup we had been offering her for several hours and she also munched on bananas and pieces of crystallised ginger. Jayalata added a variety of 'extras' to these drinks - magnesium, warming pills, anti-histamine for the jellyfish stings. We fed her these concoctions in bottles attached to a rope which we put in a basket with a long handle. To avoid getting too cold or being carried off course by the currents we tried to keep feeds as short as possible, ideally within 30 seconds and certainly no more than a minute.
All the preparation seemed to be paying off as Abhejali told us after about five hours that she wasn't feeling cold. She was also avoiding sea-sickness, which had plagued her on several of her other swims. We were also happily avoiding sea-sickness on the boat. As recommended by Jayalata I stuck to eating white bread jam sandwiches and the odd piece of chocolate (the chocolate wasn't particularly recommended but I seemed to get away with it!) Somewhere near the middle part of the swim the wind picked up and the sea was noticeably more choppy than at the start. Abhejali commented on one feed that is was like a battlefield to swim through the waves. We counted stroke rate every half hour and Abhejali noted afterwards that it was higher than her usual stroke rate of 48-52 and that she was basically swimming as hard as possible to stay warm. Starting at 57, she dropped to 52-53 between hours 5 and 8, then increased to 55 for the last few hours.
We were sending messages about Abhejali's progress to many friends around the world who were then sending back messages of support. We would write some of the messages on a whiteboard for her to read and she would often smile when she read them. These messages and prayers of encouragement and camaraderie, received both during and after her swims are something Abhejali really treasures. When there was around 5 miles still to go the pilot said she could be on course for a finish of under eleven hours. Jayalata conveyed the message at the next feed stop that if she kept going at the same pace she would finish 'in ten hours'. Abhejali looked extremely confused by this supposedly encouraging piece of information. It was only as she swam off we realised she had misunderstood and thought we were telling her she would need to swim another ten hours to finish !! In hindsight, she took it pretty well! Jayalata wrote her a note on the whiteboard to reassure her that wasn't the case and that she was on for an exceptionally fast time.
We were blessed with blue skies a lot of the way, with the sun giving some much needed warmth as Abhejali did start to feel cold later in the swim. As a crew, one of our tasks was to look out for signs of hypothermia. I was heartened to see that even though she said she was feeling cold, she was still completely coherent, maintaining stroke rate and showing no visible shaking like she had on her training week in Scotland. On the boat we were all wearing around five warm layers most of the way, so warmth is all relative! When we were about 3 miles from the Scottish coast the infamous currents started to come into play. We were fortunate that in Quinton, we had an experienced pilot who knows the North Channel and its tides very well. He had been aiming for Killantringan lighthouse which gives the shortest swim possible. He said we should encourage Abhejali that if she had anything left to give a big push to get through the currents and avoid being taken south, which would mean a longer swim. We could now see dark rain clouds forming to the north while it was still quite bright blue sky to the south. What did I say about typical Scottish weather? When the rain inevitably came it passed over quite quickly and Abhejali ploughed on regardless, undeterred from her goal of touching the Scottish shore. We told her that she was in danger of being taken south and having to swim an extra half-mile; this meant either 1.2 or 1.7 miles to go. She seemed to much prefer the idea of 1.2 miles, as she found the energy to really make a last push.
As she swam for land, only a few hundred metres south from the ideal landing spot, I reflected on how deceptively straightforward she made it look to do something that less than fifty people have ever achieved. She had told me previously that she never thought she would be brave enough to take this swim on due to the cold water. She has been practising meditation for over twenty years, and feels that the inner qualities meditation develops are key to her successful swims. As she ticked off the other Oceans Seven swims it became inevitable that one day she would come to face this one. Her meditation teacher, Sri Chinmoy, teaches a philosophy of self-transcendence, of going beyond any pre-conceived barriers or limits we put on ourselves. By the day of the actual swim, it seemed to me that through the experience gained from her other Channel swims and her meticulous planning and preparation, she arrived both physically and inwardly ready for the obstacles that would be faced in the North Channel.
Media coverage: First Kiwi woman to finish world's longest footrace
By Rupantar LaRussoauthor bio »
10 September
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.
On August 8, Harita Davies became the first New Zealand woman to finish the 3100 Mile Race, breaking the overall NZ record in the process. Her fellow New Zealanders seem to be pretty inspired by it, as evidenced by the amount of media coverage she has received! Here are links to some of the interviews:
TVNZ's News One programme, as well as appearances on the Breakfast Show
In one of the interviews, when asked about different problems during the race, Harita replied:
"I've had shin spints and ankle problems, probably every part of by body has had problems, but the amazing thing is that the human body has this incredible capacity to go on and to heal itself…Sri Chinmoy really promoted these races as a way to tap into the unlimited potential that we all have within ourselves and to go far beyond the problems of the mind, because the mind will always say that its impossible."
Tatiana Kvasova - English Channel Solo in 20 hrs 13 min
By Vasanti Niemz
2 September
Tatiana Kvasova, Moscow
Tanya's English Channel swim track 2017
Long distance training in the Black Sea
in Channel like conditions
Valuable training in Lake Zurich 2016
Very close to France - with the best conditions of the year!
Channel victory! And the Russian flag upside down...
With Kevin Murphy, King of the Channel, who was her official observer
On Aug. 29th, 2017, Tatiana Kvasova (32) from Moscow became our first Russian Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team swimmer (male or female) to conquer the English Channel - marking the 47th solo crossing by a member of our international team, and the 4th Russian woman overall.
Background
Born in 1985 in Siberia in Novokuznetsk, Tanya learned to swim from the age of 6 and from then on loved to spend hours and hours swimming in quarry lakes and a huge fresh water reservoir in her region. Her sister used to call her "crazy dolphin".
After meeting Sri Chinmoy in 2004 on his visit to Russia she became his meditation student. Studying at the Pedagogical University in the Ural region in Tchelyabinsk to become a teacher for English and French, she read about swimming the English Channel for the first time on the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team website. Immediately it gave her a feeling of joy and a sense of freedom – the idea of swimming as long as you wanted to! She talked about the idea with her friends, and they advised her to start training right away if she really wanted to do it. So she started to train - a little bit. However, it all seemed as unreal as going to another planet.
Then, after graduation, Tanya moved to Moscow. During the following years, as an active member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, she did more running: quite a few marathons (10 or so), a 50 km ultramarathon, a 24 hour race, a 13 hour run. Running just became part of her daily routine and spiritual practice, but she was also inspired by Sri Chinmoy`s motto of "self-transcendence" in general.
As she started to organise SCMT races and other events in Moscow and was working more with athletes, the dream of swimming the English Channel came back again. In October 2013 she started her swim training again, this time more seriously, and in June 2014 she decided to book a boat for the English Channel at the earliest possible date - which was the end of August 2017.
For August 2016 she planned a great training swim, the 26 km Rapperswil-Zurich Sri Chinmoy Marathon swim in Switzerland - but as it turned out she was far slower than expected. In spite of having trained with a coach and gone to Croatia and other places for training, she underestimated her speed in the open water and did not make the halfway cutoff. Instead of 6 hours, it took her about 7:30 hours to reach the 14 km cutoff point in Meilen. Her teammates advised her to postpone her English Channel swim for another year to 2018 – but Tanya was determined.
She took a 4 week rest and then upped the intensity of her training, her mileage and speedwork, and became even more serious about her discipline under the guidance of her new coach Maxim Korshunov. Training in Moscow on a tight budget, eating properly and continuing to organise sports and Peace Run events etc. was quite a challenge for her. In early May 2017, when she had planned a long cold open water swim in the Black Sea during a meeting in Eupatoria on the Crimea, the water was still too cold for a 20 or 30 km swim, so she came back again at the end of May, booking a boat for a couple of days to get some proper training in Channel temperatures and conditions. Her longest swim in the Black Sea was 11.5 hours in quite challenging conditions.
In retrospect, she feels: "This (intense) training already made me another person, I have learned to understand myself better, my mind, my body. By working hard in the training and going forward step by step overcoming difficulties you really become a different person, more determined, more confident, and at the same time you become more patient and learn to understand others better."
Dover and the Swim
Booked for the neap tide (neap = between 5.3-6.1m tidal difference, weaker currents than on spring tides) between Aug. 28 to Sept. 4, she decided to go to Dover a few weeks early to acclimate and do some more serious training in Channel waters. A 10 hour swim in the harbour that went very well increased her confidence that she would be able to do it.
Then, on Aug. 27, the day before the neap tide would start, the call from pilot Eddie Spelling came: be ready for a 3 p.m. start the next day. The weather forecast was extremely good for a couple of days, so good that Chloe McCardel from Australia had already started on her unprecedented quadruple (4-leg) solo-attempt of the English Channel. Everything including two helpers (Manogati and Olga from Belarus) was ready – and on Aug 28 at 4 p.m. Dover time, the big adventure finally started.
We got the news while on our annual international celebrations retreat in New York, and so hundreds of wellwishers from N.Y., UK and Russia, including her family in Siberia, supported Tanya`s swim inwardly, praying for her and sending good vibes – with a few of us outwardly following the tracker on the internet deep into the night and again early in the morning (she started 11 a.m. N.Y. Time).
Tanya knew she was in for a 20 hour swim or more, and she told so to her pilot when he asked about her estimated time. She reached the separation zone dividing the Channel into the two NE and SW shipping lanes only after about 7 hours, in the middle of the night (the halfway point geographically but not necessarily timewise). Around 4 hours later, almost in the middle of the French shipping lane, the tides changed as expected and currents pushed her back northeast, away from the Cap, away from the receding French coastline, but she just ploughed on, undeterred, through the colder hours of the night into the morning dawn. Pilot Eddie posted: "Coming up on our 15th hour she's still smiling". She had looked at a lot of swim tracks of over 20 hour swims in her preparation, and so she was also mentally and psychologically prepared to seemingly go backwards and to do a few "extra laps". However, conditions stayed very favourable and only 4 hours after the first big tidal change the currents started to slacken again, and with the next change of tides, about 16 hours into the swim, she entered French inshore waters where the currents are less strong, moving closer and closer to Cap Griz Nez. However, it would still take her four more hours! The last challenge was to pass the Cap once again, tantalizingly close but out of reach, yet slowly and steadily making headway towards the coast. When we called again from New York at 6:30 a.m. our time (11:30 a.m. Dover time, 12:30 French time), Eddie told us "only 30 more minutes to go" – what a relief! And finally, after 20 hours 13 minutes of determined effort, Tatiana reached her goal, stepped on dry land and manifested her long cherished and hard worked for dream: she had become a true English Channel swimmer (solo, no wetsuit), the 4th Russian woman and the first Russian swimmer in our team - in the 40th anniversary year of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team.
Tanya was blessed with amazing conditions right from the start: Eddie posted: 19.9°C water temp (Tanya thinks it was more like 18.5°C - 19.9°C maybe just on the surface, but still), 22°C air temp, waters calm, wind 2 knots NE. Her observer was King Kevin Murphy himself, with 34 EC crossings, the most for a male swimmer. And with Eddie Spelling, she had one of the best pilots who had already helped fellow SCMT member Vijaya Claxton reach her treasured goal in 2007, and took our relay safely to France in 2009 and myself on my Channel-triathlon in 2010.
Tanya`s personal report about the swim is still to follow, and also Kevin Murphy, who never forgets to mention that he was honoured and lifted overhead by Sri Chinmoy in London, promised to write a few words about Tanya`s great swim.
Be courageous,
Be determined,
Be self-giving.
The Goal will be all yours.
- Sri Chinmoy
A first-hand account of running the world's longest race
By Nirbhasa Mageeauthor bio »
1 September
About the author:
Nirbhasa is originally from Ireland but currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is an enthusiastic multi-day runner, having completed four times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the longest race in the world.
Running in rhythm with the heart, Jayasalini Olga Abramovskikh's account of her epic finish of the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, is now available in a new English translation.
In 2014, Jayasalini became the first Russian woman to complete the race when she crossed the line in 51 days, 12 hours and 31 minutes - less than 6 hours before the cut-off. Before she attempted this race, Jayasalini was also a regular participant in the Sri Chinmoy 6 and 10 day races held every April in Flushing Meadows, Queens, invariably finishing in the top three runners.
In the book - subtitled 'A book on the love of running, and the dream to cross the finish line of the longest race in the world' - Jayasalini talks about what inspired her to contemplate such a long race, her training and preparation, and her experiences during and after the race. Originally published in Russian, the English translation came out this month.