Some of the runners have helpers for most of the day. These helpers, also called 'handlers', have a big responsibility to cater to the many needs of the runners as they try to maintain their strength and energy Throughout these long 18 hour days of perpetual motion. In this short interview Vasavi, Surasa's handler, explains some of the tasks involved.
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Day 6 With the race now through six days, there is a standard of comparison in the world of running, particularly ultrarunning. Six days is the normal 'super long' multiday in running jargon. Most people who are associated with multiday events give the six day its plaudits because of history and longevity. We must give credit to the event known as the 'Six Day'. However, our dozen runners in this epic journey of 3100 miles will multiply that six days by a factor of 7 or 8 or even nine. Add to that that they are performing at a rate that is considered good to very good for the 144 hours event. Ergo, Ashprihanal Aalto ran 475.8 miles for six days as a prelude to 1000 miles, 2000 miles, 3000 km,4000 km and more- up to 3100 miles. Therefore, todays' results are impressive to say the least.
Ashprihanal Aalto-476.80 miles; Galya V. Balatskyy-451.66 miles; Atmavir Petr Spacil-451.66 miles;Yuri Trostenyuk-431.35 miles; Vasu Duzhiy-409.95 miles; Nirbhasa Magee-391.84 miles;Grahak Cunningham-391.29 miles;Ananda-Lahari Zuscin-374.83 miles; Surasa Mairer-374.83 miles;Stutisheel Lebedyev-371.53 miles;Kaneenika Janakova-370.44 miles;Baladev Pavol Saraz-346.29 miles.
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Day 5 The weather has been conducive to running. Temperatures have stayed in the low 70's for the last 48 hours. Eight of the dozen runners sauntered past 60 miles, led by the top three of Ashprihanal Aalto(75.7 miles), Galya Balatskyy (71.34) and Atmavir Petr Spacil(71.8). Mr Aalto impresses the most as he is averaging 80 miles a day for the first five days. Grahak Cunningham has started to perform as expected whilst moving from eleventh place to a lap behind eighth. And he surely receives the most e-mails from friends, family and admirers than anyone else. More later.
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Besides the regular workers and helpers that come to assist the runners in their epic quest the race also gets many visitors, both local and from afar. Interestingly veterans of the race itself love to come and help and watch as they can relate to the adventures and struggles of all the participants firsthand.
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Besides the regular workers and helpers that come to assist the runners in their epic quest the race also gets many visitors, both local and from afar. Interestingly veterans of the race itself love to come and help and watch as they can relate to the adventures and struggles of all the participants firsthand.
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Day 4 The field of 12 is moving along nicely as the breaking-in period continues. Today, eleven of 12 topped the 60 mile mark with messrs. Galya Balatskyy and Atmavir Petr Spacil slipping past 70 miles for the fourth straight day. Overall leader Ashprihanal Aalto took a few more breaks to try to regain sleep that was not coming to him the first two nights. He still leads by 13 miles. Surasa Mairer has made a little gap in the women's duel by six miles, but the race is still way early. Baladev Pavol Saraz had a good bounce-back from shin splints with a 61 mile effort. The top eleven are all averaging over sixty miles, with the top five flashing over 70 miles per day. Mr Aalto even sported a blister this evening, the rare result for him,it seems of averaging over 80 miles a day for the 96 hour period. The weather has been quite conducive to running, with the highs barely touching the low 70'sF( 19-21C). Heavy rains are predicted to hit on Father's Day this weekend. Remember to call Dad or buy him dinner at least!
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Grahak Cunningham currently ranks third fastest time in the world for the 3100 mile race. In 2012 Grahak won this race in 43 days, 10 hours and 36 minutes, almost three days ahead of the second place finisher. This fact does not make it any easier to start, continue and finish this most difficult of all multiday races. In the first days of the race all of the runners seem to struggle with adapting to their newly found lifestyle. Grahak briefly discusses his experience of the first three days of this year's 52 day (or less) epic adventure of perpetual motion.
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After the first two days of relatively high mileage as the runners break in to a new very active lifestyle, the legs start to feel a bit fatigued. There is still lots of enthusiasm and energy from morning until midnight for many of the runners and helpers. But everyone has to adjust to this unique way to spend most of their summer hours on the 'road'. As the energy waxes and wanes so does the rain. Unmbrellas and shoes are drying out during the sunny hours and the clouds keep returning to cool things down.
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A short and sweet interview with Nirbhasa, our runner from Ireland, as he runs on the third day of this epic journey.
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Day 3 A humid, overcast day turned to rainy, followed by a brief t-storm. The elements could not slow down our dynamic dozen runners. Eleven of 12 made it past 60 miles, while the first four flew past the 70 mile barrier. Ashprihanal Aalto tallied 79.57 miles, revealing an average of 85.8 miles per day for the 3 days. Atmavir Petr Spacil reached 77.38 miles and is rounding into form after moving into fourth place. Vasu Duzhiy reached 74 miles and retained third overall, while Galya V. Balatskyy held second place for another day with 73.5 miles. The top five are all averaging over 75 miles per day. The ladies kept their order but Austria Surasa Mairer cracked 200 miles for three days and holds an 8- lap lead on Slovakian women's champ Kaneenika Janakova. One wonders whether the lads in front can sustain such a pace, but the runners seem to be holding up well in this bulid-up phase of the race. Of course there are thousands of laps to be run before we can speculate on anyone's best interests. As the athletes discover their own capacity and build their 'road fitness' we can only marvel how well they are doing and seemingly enjoying this endless event.
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Day 2 The top five again brought their A-game- over 70 miles, including our leader Ashprihanal Aalto who totalled a sparkling 83.4 miles to up his cache to 177.2. Galya Balatskyy held firm in second with 76.2 miles; Vasu Duzhiy retained third place with 74.6 miles today. Yuri Trostenyuk pulled one lap ahead of Atmavir Petr Spacil for fourth place as both men reached 72 miles. Surasa Mairer leads Kaneenika Janakova by two laps as both young ladies were over 60 miles for the day. Ananda-Lahari Zuscin climbed out of the basement with a solid 66.9 miles. He had arrived late saturday evening from Slovakia and was jet-lagged for sure on the previous day.Morning showers gave way to hazy skies all day and evening, yet the mercury never went past 70ºF. Most of the field still look good, but remember, it is a small sample size, and the breaking -in period is only two days old. The energy at the top will certainly help.
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After a long hot and humid day with some scattered rain, the runners run late into the night trying to get as many miles in before midnight when the race closes down for 6 hours. With sore legs after a long first day the runners are slowly adjusting to their new, ever-moving lifestyle with the help of friends and supportive spectators.
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Day 1 started with a bang as the 12 runners headed in a clockwise formation around the .5488 of a mile loop. The 19th running of the world's longest footrace, the Self-Transcendence 3100, began as expected with the speediest moving quickly to the front. The sunny, windless Sunday around the neighborhood yielded five men past 80 miles, and nine of the dozen runners over 70 miles. Seven-time winner Ashprihanal Aalto from Helsinki,Finland set an event record with 172 laps-(94.3936 miles), the most anyone ever ran in this race in one day. Ukraine's Galya Balatskyy held on for second with 86.16 miles, and Vasu Duzhiy of Russia garnered 85.06 miles. On the distaff side Kaneenika Janakova logged 71.89 miles, just three laps better than Surasa Mairer of Vienna,Austria, who totalled 70.24 miles. Rain moved into the area the last three hours of the day, with heavy showers still raging as the stalwarts who remained until midnight got their money's worth of running. All twelve athletes ended above 60 miles, dreaming of more miles and more opportunities to explore their journey's facets. More later...
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After many months of training and preparation these twelve brave runners toe the starting line and start their epic journey with tremendous enthusiasm and support. These few photos can give you a glimpse of what the scene was like at the start of the 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race.
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Eleven hours to go before the start of the 19th Annual Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. All 12 runners have showed up (one runner is on his way from the airport as this is written). Ten of the 12 are veterans. The vehicles are packed with runners clothes, shoes and equipment, and will be parked at the racesite at 5:00 am. Over 555,000 miles have been logged on this concrete sidewalk course the last 18 years. It is exciting that the athletes continue to point towards a new dawn, another long race in their lives. We hope you enjoy their quest. Until then...
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The world's longest certified footrace is about to begin for the 19th straight year. Here are some of the things the runners are doing to prepare. Shopping for large fruits to last the whole race, running barefoot on the beach, eating pizza and carbo. loading, shopping for clothes or getting together with their helpers. All of this is important to get organized for a new lifestyle which will last almost two months.
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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.Nirbhasa Magee comes originally from Ireland, but has been living for the past couple of years in Iceland. Here are a couple of interviews he had before the race start:
- 100km a day for 52 days - interview with Morgunblaðið, one of Iceland's 2 main daily papers (that's Nirbhasa's picture on the left below the mast)
- Irish man to attempt world's longest road race - interview with Irish Times
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About the author:
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. 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.
Grahak will be one of the 12 runners starting Sunday June 14 in the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. Here are some interviews he has done in the past few days: - 'Single-Mindedness of the Very Long Distance Runner' in The Australian (subscription only, but you can reach it by typing 'The Australian Grahak Cunningham' into Google)
- Very nice radio interview on ABC Perth - click to listen
- Television interview on Channel 9
Grahak's mother seems undeterred by all the media attention her son is getting. When told the time that Grahak's appearance on channel 9 was due to air, her response was 'I'll be out then'. When asked out where, she said 'Out the back, gardening.' :)
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About the author:
Nirbhasa is from Ireland. 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 2015 race is about to start next Sunday - here are a few fond memories of past races, courtesy of our own Utpal Marshall.
2011:
2009:
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The 30th Annual Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race
Results 2015
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