Serious Sweat: the 3100-Mile Race in Airberlin In-Flight Magazine

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.

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"If you take your jogging seiously, you should try the world's longest race. Participants in the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence Race, named after an Indian meditation teacher, run from 6am until midnight for 52 days. The route takes them repeatedly around the same block in Queens, New York, and averages two marathons plus 10km per day. After a total of 3100 miles (5000km), runners are sure to have transcended the limits of consciousness." From the May issue.

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The 27th Annual Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

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In the Media - more articles

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.

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About the author:

The 3100 Mile Race featured on several European news channels. This is a transcript from a TV clip from Euronews Italiano.

When you look at the start you might not think so, but this is the longest running race in the world: nearly 3,000 miles to be run entirely on a half-mile loop circling Thomas A. Edison High School on 84th Avenue in Jamaica, a picturesque neighbourhood in the New York borough of Queens.

It is called the Sri Chinmoy Self Transcendence 3,100 mile race, named after its creator the Indian poet and mystic Sri Chinmoy, who conceived it precisely as an exercise for physical and spiritual self-transcendence.

A feat not for everyone, so much so that there were just 11 athletes running it this year, from 10 different countries: among them, 40-year-old Italian Andrea Marcato, first to cross the finish line achieving his third victory in the competition

"I feel in tune with a higher power," he said. "I believe in the power of prayer and meditation. I have faith, you know, belief, hope, and these things push you forward. It's not just about being strong and trained well and so on. These things help you only up to a certain point. But then to go that way, to run that long distance, and to do it well you need a strong belief."

Marcato crossed the finish line in 43 days: convinced vegetarian, to avoid digestive problems while still maintaining a good caloric regimen he followed an alkaline diet of avocados, oranges, brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat and steamed vegetables, drinking coconut water and filtered water and ending up losing a whopping 13 kilos.

Due to bad weather, he was unable to improve his time from last year, still remaining third in the world rankings of this truly unique competition.

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