At the end of September, we drove north through the Thousand
Island area of New York and then on to Ottawa for the 2015 Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 24-hour race.
Sri Chinmoy was an Indian spiritual master who taught meditation
in the United States. He also advocated
athleticism to achieve spiritual growth and enlightenment, including distance
running. This 24-hour event has been in
existence for 35 years and is put on by members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon
Team.
Try to be a
runner, and try all the time to surpass and go beyond all that is bothering you
and standing in your way. Be a real runner so that ignorance, limitation and
imperfection will all drop far behind you in the race.
Sri Chinmoy, The outer running and the inner running,
Agni Press, 1974
For
a number of years the 24-hour race has been held indoors at a 400 meter track
covered by an inflatable dome. I was
intrigued by the idea of seeing how far I could run in a controlled environment
– no beating sun, no wind and daylight all the time. I planned an ambitious race, seeing if I
could beat my prior 12 hour best of 72 miles; 100 mile split of 16:52 and 24 hour
best of 134 miles.
 |
| In the dome. |
In keeping with a very simple approach to the race,
there was no chip timing. Instead, I was
assigned to a personal lap counter. Over
the course of the race, the individual would change. They were all, however, very diligent in
recording my laps and always smiling and encouraging.
The
course had signs posted along the oval with spiritual quotes from Sri Chinmoy. Every six hours, we changed directions and
got to see new quotes. In the middle of
the night, a group of team members performed meditative music with
sitar-sounding instruments. I thought
this might lull me to sleep but it did not!
Very fascinating.
I
was probably too ambitious in my pacing and after 8 hours was feeling pretty
beat. At that point, I knew it was going
to be a long race…. I walked quite a bit
the second half of the race and ended with about 120 miles, which was good for
first place woman and second overall.
Not exactly the distance I wanted but as Sri Chinmoy said:
A great champion is he who wins all the races.
A great champion is he who participates in all the races.
A great champion is he who does not care for the results of
the races — whether he is first or last or in between. He races just to get joy
and give joy to the observers.
A great champion is he who transcends his own previous
records.
A great champion is he who maintains his standard.
A great champion is he who remains happy even when he
cannot maintain his standard.
Sri Chinmoy, The outer running and the inner running,
Agni Press, 1974
