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.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)
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