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.
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.
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