Harita Davies finished the 3100 mile race today, passing the final mark in 51 days +16:43:11. Harita averaged 59.954 miles/ 96.488 km per day. She is still the New Zealand National Record Holder overall. She is also the sixth fastest of the women who finished the 3100 Mile Race. Her steadiness and dedication led to another finish.

Jason Lester- 49, from Phoenix, Arizona had to deal with some illnesses and the difficulty of supreme long distance running. Jason reached 2,700 miles in 51 days +12:41:31. He learned a lot about protecting and saving his feet and lower legs for weeks and weeks of hard surfaces.

Adrian Papuc, 55, from Bucharest, Romania, reached 4000 km in 51 days+05:13:02. Later he reached 2,500 miles in 51 days+15:41:31. Both marks were the farthest distances he ever reached. Milan Javornicky, 49, from Celakovice Czech Republic passed 3000 miles in 51:08:06:58

The Curtain Comes Down on the 3100 Mile Race

Shortly after 10 p.m. on Friday, a small crowd starts gathering around the tented area of the 3,100-mile race. They are gathering to welcome the final finisher of the race, Harita Davies. Then, at midnight, the final runners will reach the end of their own personal 52-day adventures. The distance they have covered in the 52 days, will be recorded on the final result sheet. It will be a personal milestone for many.

For Milan Javornicky, despite falling just short of the 3100 goal, it will still be the furthest he has ever run in his life. This morning, he passed the 3,000-mile barrier, an improvement on the 2,700 + miles he ran in the Salzburg race in 2020.

Jason Lester, although having covered more distance on his solo continental adventures, is happy he has run his furthest distance yet in a race situation, quite a different experience than some of his previous adventures.

Adrian Papuc reached 2,500 miles this evening, By far the furthest distance he has achieved, His cheerfulness in dealing with a few issues as the race progressed made him a friend for life with all the other runners and with the local community of Sri Chinmoy, volunteers who come to help daily.

Nina has also made a lot of friends despite her injury issues. Susan, Stutisheel and Ananda-Lahari know what it is like to finish this race. In Stutisheel and Ananda-Laharis’s case, on multiple occasions. Although they did not reach 3,100 miles, they will still be happy they have embraced the challenge and found the capacity inside themselves to overcome their own inner and outer challenges.

Shortly after 10.30 p.m. Harita, a model of consistency these last 52 days, finishes her 4th 3,100 race. In 51 Days +16:43:11. For the majority of days, she has run close to the daily minimum required to finish inside the 52-day cut-off. Today is no different, and with perfect timing, has reached the goal with just over an hour to spare. At the finish ceremony, she said "I have run this race four times now and I still can’t fathom or understand how I do it.”

After the usual finishers celebrations, It is time to cheer on the final runners on their last few laps as the clock reaches midnight. After celebrations for everyone, with more cake and songs, runners return to their apartments, helpers tidy up the tented area for the day as they have done for the last 52 days. Tomorrow, a crew of volunteers will return to undertake a “takedown “ of the site. The curtain will then come down on the 2023 3100-mile race.

[Report by Sahishnu and Tarit]

Finishing Times So Far

1. Andrea Marcato, 41 Dohlo, Italy (Zurich)                               43 days+13:33:23
2. Wei-Ming Lo, 58, New Taipei City, Taipei (ROC)                    45 days +08:41:27
3. Tsai Wen-Ya, 54, Taichung City, Taiwan (ROC)                      45 days +12:28:44 WWR - 1st Woman
4. Vasu Duzhiy, 57, St. Petersburg, Russia                                49 days+15:36:01
5. Mahasatya Janczak, 48, Lublin Poland                                  50 days+10:30:41
6. Harita Davies, 48, New Zealand & USA                                  51 days +16:43:11

• Milan Javornicky - 3031.5
• Jason Lester - 2700.0
• Stutisheel Lebedev - 2624.1
• Kaneenika Janakova - 2576.4
• Adrian Papuc 2507.9
• Ananda-Lahari Zuscin - 2421.2
• Susan Marshall 2276.9
• Nina Huang-Lan Yang 2072.9

News Links

• Run Ultra article on the Race

• 3100 Mile Race (Mongolia News) | 3100 Mile Race Mongolia News

Related

• Photos - Sri Chinmoy Ultra
• Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team videos 
• Stutisheel Youtube channel 

• 3100 Mile Race Featured on NPR, "All Things Considered"
• Multi-Day Runners are Alarmingly Sane - Outside Magazine
• Run Ultra article on the Race

Mongolia

• 3100 Mile Race (Mongolia News) 
• 3100 Mile Race Mongolia News

Taiwan

• Tsai Wen Ya - New Record
• YDN

About five hours into Day 49 today, Vasu Duzhiy reached the 3000 mile mark, as he was approaching the last two days of his journey. His 3000 mile time was 48 days+05:06:46. He is ready to finish his eleventh 3100 Mile Race, and today he was visited by the three heroes from last week- Number One Andrea Marcato: Second place Wei-Ming Lo: and third place (first lady) Tsai Wen-Ya. With 55 miles left to go, Vasu is set to finish Wed evening.

About five hours later, Harita Davies went past 2900 miles in 48days+10:51:15. She is planning and hoping to realize her fourth finish of the 3100 Mile Race on Friday. Just before midnight, fifth place overall, the gentleman Mr Mahasatya Janczak was just 3 laps short of reaching 3000 miles for the first time in his running world. He will be finishing the 3100 Mile Race on Thursday in the middle of the day, as his plans and running style are in near perfect style.

Adrian Papuc

So far, we have three finishers in the Sri Chinmoy 3100-mile race. Covering 3,100 miles is an incredibly tough challenge in which many things can go wrong. For these three, the race has been pretty plain sailing. No major blister, heath or injury worries to deal with. They all seemed to be in control of their destinies, dealing with and solving any issues as they arose. For others, often for very valid reasons, issues that arise may not be so easy to solve, especially when they happen so early in a race. When trouble strikes early in the 3100, you are faced with some tough decisions. Adrian Papuc started the race full of enthusiasm and high hopes. The 55-year-old Romanian, currently living in Zurich, had a good performance in the Sri Chinmoy 6-day race in the Spring. That gave him the confidence to feel that he was ready for the rigours of the 3,100.

All went well the first week and into the second, but then issues started arising. Severe blisters developed under his metatarsal joints, an area of the foot that can take most of his body weight. Despite the medics best attention, movement slowed considerably. Coming to terms with that so early in a long multi-day race is a daunting task that would test anyone. Adrian has remained ever cheerful throughout and is already talking about returning to renew his acquaintance with the race, if not next year, in two years. He shared his thoughts in our Video

[Report by Sahishnu and Tarit]

Finishing Times So Far

1. Andrea Marcato, 41 Dohlo, Italy (Zurich)                               43 days+13:33:23
2. Wei-Ming Lo, 58, New Taipei City, Taipei (ROC)                    45 days +08:41:27
3. Tsai Wen-Ya, 54, Taichung City, Taiwan (ROC)                      45 days +12:28:44 WWR - 1st Woman

Related

• Photos - Sri Chinmoy Ultra
• Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team videos 
• Stutisheel Youtube channel 

In a typical fashion, once the first three top runners reach their goals, the rest of the runners don’t have the same energy and intensity. The remaining group do not have a clear chance to be like the three remaining seekers who have a clear chance to reach the goal. The ten-time finisher Vasu Duzhiy needs 182 miles to reach the 3100 on Wednesday, First timer Mahasatya Janczak is just over 41 miles behind Vasu, and the three-time-finisher Harita Davies is 64 miles behind the Polish runner Mahasatya. All three must maintain their daily week to finish on time. The non-finishers are heroes in their own way. To continue until midnight on Friday, knowing you will not make your goal, is perhaps a full sign of inner strength and boundless fortitude.

Kaneenika Janakova

Until Yesterday Kaneenika Janakova held the women's race record for the Sri Chinmoy 3,100 mile race. Her run in 2017 was only the third time the 50-day barrier had been broken by a woman. Suprabha Beckford was the first woman to go sub 50 in 1998 in the second of her 13 victories in the race. Surasa Mairer and Kaneenika Janakova joined her in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Tsai Wen-Ya has now become the 4th woman to join this group, with her extraordinary performance taking the record down by three days.

SUB 50-day Female performances at the Sri Chinmoy 3,100-mile Race

1. Tsai Wen-Ya 45 Days 12 Hours 28 Minutes 44 Seconds 2023
2. Kaneenika Janajkova 48 Days 14 Hours 24 Minutes 10 Seconds 2017
3. Surasa Mairer. 49 Days 07 Hours 52 Minutes 01 Seconds 2015
4. Suprabha Beckford 49 Days 14 Hours 30 Minutes 54 seconds 1998

Kaneenika is competing in the race this year but has struggled with a few issues. She has finished the race three times and taken part on two other occasions, Knowing the history of the race, she remains determined to see out the 52 days. It has been humbling to watch her. Her 2017 run, when she lowered the then-existing record, was indeed a milestone for her. She knows she has nothing to prove to herself, other than that she can find the capacity to last the 52 days.

[Report by Sahishnu and Tarit]

Finishing Times So Far

1. Andrea Marcato, 41 Dohlo, Italy (Zurich)                               43 days+13:33:23
2. Wei-Ming Lo, 58, New Taipei City, Taipei (ROC)                    45 days +08:41:27
3. Tsai Wen-Ya, 54, Taichung City, Taiwan (ROC)                      45 days +12:28:44 WWR - 1st Woman

Related

• Photos - Sri Chinmoy Ultra 
• Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team videos
• Stutisheel Youtube channel 

Lo Wei-Ming has finished the 3100 Mile race in 2nd place. Completing - 3100 miles on Saturday - Day 46. Wen-Ya Tsai is set to finish at 6.30pm (EST) - (more to come.)

Wei-Ming reached 3000 miles this morning, passing the mark in 44 days+01:42:41. Wen-Ya followed about two and a half hours later, reaching 3000 miles for the first time in her life in 44 days+04:01:54. On Saturday, Wei-Ming needs to run slightly more than 36 miles, which the math tells us he might finish around 2:30 pm if the scheduled rain storms are not too severe. Wen-Ya will need until around 6:00 pm to finish her remarkable journey. Adrian reached 3,500 km in 44 days + 05:08:25.

~

After the excitement of Andrea’s finish last night, all seemed calm this morning. The course was bathed in bright sunshine, but there was a noticeable autumnal chill in the air. After picking up a bug, Jason Lester has spent two days off the course, resting up. It was good to see him return to the course today feeling much better but still not 100%. His previous multi-day adventures embraced running across entire continents. He has run across the USA, Europe and Australia, together with running the complete length of the Great Wall of China. On those adventures, time was never an issue as he logged mile after mile. The 3100-mile race offered Jason a new and different challenge in a race situation. His aim has always been to be here for 52 days, whatever happened, to experience the unique nature of the race, and find out a bit more about himself. He has really embraced the challenge of the 3100. In a race of this nature over several weeks, with the body under constant strain, sickness is always a possibility. Today, he power walked a few laps to see how he is feeling and says if improvement continues, he may come and run tomorrow. We are all hoping so. The race has missed him the last two days.

Related

• Photos - Sri Chinmoy Ultra
• Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team videos 
• Stutisheel Youtube channel 

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)

Related

• Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team videos 
• Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photos
• Stutisheel Youtube channel 

Andrea Marcato will be three days away from finishing the 3100 Mile Race - for him the fourth time as the first finisher. He will most likely finish in the early part of the afternoon on Thursday - Day 44 of the 52-day race. Today, Day 41, Andrea reached the 2,900-mile mark - in 40 days +12:24:18. The historical landmark of Day 41 is that in 2015, in the summer version of the event, the 16-time finisher, and eventual nine-time winner - Ashprihanal Aalto from Finland, became the only man to ever finish the 3100 Mile Race on the 41st day. His time of 40 days+09:06:21 is the finest effort in this event ever seen. He averaged 76.776 miles / 123.559 km per day.

Back to today's reality, Vasu Duzhiy reached 4000km in 40 days+00:29:25. Later in the day Vasu passed 2,500 miles in 40 days+04:14:27. Vasu is solidly perched in fourth place in this year’s race. Wei-Ming Lo reached 2700 miles in 40 days+01:46:40. He is pushing himself closer from third place, to within 12 miles of second place. Adrian Papuc reached 2,000 miles for the first time in 40 days+10:01:48, the farthest he had ever run.

Mahasatya Janczak reached 4,000 km for the first time in his running career, passing 40 days+15:31:47. Mahasatya is firmly in fifth place and is probably ready to reach his goal if his health and physical strength are maintained for the duration.

Harita Davies is running her 4th 3100-mile race

One word. RESILIENCE. When you look up its meaning, one definition of resilience is.

“The ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events”.

All the 3100 runners have this quality in abundance. They are facing an abundance of adversity, yet they seem to bounce back. Harita is no exception. She has a smile on her face most of the time. The smile is replaced, by a “resilient, “steely“ look of determination at others. Her overall attitude can be summed up by a comment she made to the lap counting crew the other day when the heavens decided to open and pour down on the runners.

“You don’t know what you are missing “she shouted to the race crew, safely undercover in the counting tent. 

Harita is a three-time finisher of the 3100-mile race, having previously run in 2017, 2019, and 2021 2021. She has finished on all three occasions with the best time of 50 Days, 13 Hours, 23 Minutes, 14 Seconds You could say she is well aware that she is operating close to “The Line” this year. “The line” is that mythical average daily total needed to run 3,100 miles in the 52-day cut-off. The daily average needed is 59.6 miles, and at the end of today, day 41, “The line” is drawn at 2,443.66 Miles. Most nights, like other runners, she has to run as close to midnight as possible to ensure she maintains her daily mileage to stay above “The Line, “often having to push the last two hours to reach her daily goal. Starting just before 11 p.m. each night, runners start asking, “How long to go now?"

They could go home to their beds whenever they wanted to, and some runners, having had a good day and achieved their daily goal, indeed do. Most though, want to see the day through till the course closes at Midnight. In that last hour, their brains are usually working overtime. They try to work out how many laps can be achieved in that final sixty minutes. Some just need to maintain what they are doing, while others will noticeably up their pace a little to eke out an extra lap or two.

Harita and others often go right down to the wire. Tonight, like most nights with an hour to go, she imperceptibly ups her pace slightly and is lapping around a minute faster. She decides at 11.40 that despite the fatigue from being on her feet since 6 a.m., she can manage two more laps, but will probably have to speed up to make it count, for if all laps are to count, they must be completed by midnight.

With a few minutes to go to midnight, we are staring into the darkness down the street as figures appear. Harita finally appears. It looks like she will just be inside the midnight deadline. She crosses the line at 11.57 to clock 59.6 miles for the day. Perfect timing, and a reminder of the resilience in all of us. At 6 am tomorrow morning, we go again.

(Reports by Sahishnu and Tarit)

Related

• Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team videos 
• Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photos 
• Stutisheel Youtube channel  

Some strong rain pounded the Queens area Saturday morning, but the runners still continued to carry on during the 39th day. Andrea Marcato the Italian champion moved within 315.9 miles away from winning the 3100 Mile Race for a fourth time. Second place overall, and first lady in the Race ran within 69.1 miles. Tsai Wen-Ya continued her race with another 69.1 mile effort, She is about two days and a quarter behind Andrea Marcato.  The third place overall runner is still putting down a tremendous list with 11 straight days of running over 70 miles each day. Wei-Ming Lo did another total of 79.5 miles today.  Some of his laps were 5:00 minutes for a lap, or even a few of the laps were in the four minute and 40 second range.  He has now moved within 14 miles of Tsai Wen-Ya. Just a few weeks ago Wei-Ming Lo had been nearly 75 miles behind the awesome Taiwanese first timer in the 3100 Mile Race.

Lo Wei-Ming seems to be getting stronger as his race enters the final third, For the last eleven days, from day 29 through to day 39, he has run the highest daily mileage of all the runners. He has hit over 70 miles a day through that streak. After a couple of days hovering in the low to mid-70s, he threw in a couple of 77-mile days before yesterday, hitting 79.5 miles, the highest total for anyone since the first few days of the race. In the history of the race, several runners have run negative splits, which translated, means running the second half faster than the first. The idea of running negative splits in a half or full marathon is something many runners aspire to, and often try to execute by careful pacing in the early stages. The idea that it is possible in a race of this magnitude to run negative splits, seems to defy conventional thinking. Surely, the cumulative strain of the daily mileage must induce long-term fatigue, resulting in a gradual slowing down as the race progresses.

Many things about this event defy convention though, as seemingly impossible boundaries are pushed back daily by all the runners. Some runners naturally grow into the race, and with careful pacing, nutrition and rest, can indeed get stronger as the race progresses. Endurance coaches talk of adaptation in a marathon training phase, where the body adapts to a higher workload as the training progresses. Physically, it seems logical that the human body, over a few weeks, can indeed adapt to the rigours of the 3100-mile race. Wei Ming is an exceptionally experienced multi-day runner, but over and above that, he has a very childlike demeanour. It is a quality that is very useful in a long multi-day event. While some of the runners appear to retreat inside themselves at times, concentrating on dealing with the apparent rigours of the race, he seems to be like a little kid going out to play each day, with endless spontaneous energy, just being in the moment and finding joy and inspiration in all around him. While many find the concept of running around a city block for a few weeks daunting, Wei-Ming is embracing it, and finding the energy from somewhere inside himself to keep pushing his boundaries in the process.

(Reports by Sahishnu and Tarit)

Adrian Papuc Reaches 1900 Miles

Related

• Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team videos
• Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photos 
• Stutisheel Youtube channel 

Tsai Wen-Ya reached another spectacular milestone today. She went past the previous fastest time for women on 4000km. Her time was 36 days+14:41:27. She surpassed the previous best by Kaneenika Janakova of 39 days+:04:08:48 in the summer of 2017. This was the farthest that Wen-Ya had ever run before — another extraordinary performance for the great runner from Taiwan.

Speaking of extraordinary, last night Lo Wei-Ming ran 145 laps (79.5 miles) to continue his streak of nine straight over-70 miles efforts. Yesterday it was the most he had run in the 3100 Mile Race in the latter part of the event. He has closed the gap from being below Tsai Wen-Ya by 70 miles, to now being 31 miles behind. There are still 15 days left in the race, but regardless of whether Wei-Ming wants to catch the remarkable lady ahead of him, or just show what he can do on any given moment - this still adds to the thrill of the Taiwanese runners as they both see what they can do.

Tsai Wen-Ya is a small, quiet, diminutive figure, but inside has an iron will that has propelled her to 5 multi-day world records already. With an excellent relaxed form and short economical strides, she almost glides over the ground, with very light steps. There is no sign of overstriding. Her feet seemingly landing perfectly under her body at each step. From 6 am each morning until around 11 pm each night when she goes home, she is on the move. Every runner has different strategies with breaks of anything from 15 minutes to an hour factored into their days. Power naps offer their well-known restorative energies. Of all the runners apart from Andrea, Wen-Ya stops the least, perhaps 3-4 times each day to change shoes or clothing, occasionally eating while sitting for no more than 5 minutes before heading out again. She does not sleep or even take the shortest of power naps. Being able to deal with sleep deprivation is indeed a boon for any multi-day runner, enabling them to max out each day's mileage.. !

Her daughter, Szuhan and son-in-law Benoit are her full time dedicated crew for the entire race. The trio seem to have a remarkable bond. They are always there waiting, with every drink and snack, executing what is obviously a well-planned and rehearsed operation. Remarkably, on Day 37, she is moving very much as she did on Day 1!

Today Tsai Wen-Ya has set her 5th world record on Day 36 of the Sri Chinmoy 3,100 mile race for 4,000km. As is customary in the race as landmarks are reached, she pauses momentarily by the scoreboard and with folded hands offers her pranam of thanks for getting this far. The time, subject to ratification, will be a Taiwanese, Asian area and world-best performance. The experienced multi-day runner has already set records at 2,500 km and 3,000km as well as 1,500 and 2,000 Miles in this race. Wen-Ya is currently averaging around 67 miles a day, and if she can maintain this pace will, in all likelihood, surpass the current women’s record for the race distance along with the distances of 2,500 miles 3,000 miles and 5,000 km. Tomorrow on day 38 the 2,500 mile landmark will be reached.

Interview

Related

• Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team videos 
• Sri Chinmoy Ultra Photos  
• Stutisheel Youtube channel